WASHINGTON - Gary Locke, tapped to be the next ambassador to China, said he would remain committed to enhancing trade ties between the two countries.

"Helping to promote market reforms in China and opening up markets for American companies have been one of my primary focuses as US commerce secretary these past few years," the United States secretary of commerce said at a Wednesday forum on how to improve the US investment climate for Chinese companies. "If I am granted the privilege of serving as our next ambassador to China, this will continue to be a strong focus of mine."

Locke said the US welcomes the increasing investment from China, adding that there are few restricted industries that foreign investors are not allowed access to.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis, which falls under the Department of Commerce, reports that investors from China have a total stock of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the United States of about $2.3 billion.

Chinese FDI to the US has doubled in each of the last two years and Chinese investors now have investments in at least 35 states across dozens of industries, according to the special report on Chinese FDI in the United States, released by the Asia Society and the Kissinger Institute on China and the US.

"And the big question we're really getting at today is pretty straightforward: Is more Chinese FDI in America a good thing?" Locke said. "The answer is yes. It's a good thing for American workers. And it's a good thing for American businesses."

In the US, he said, foreign-owned companies employ some 5 million American workers.

But in recent years, citing national security concerns, the Committee of Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has blocked a series of deals from Chinese investors in telecommunications, mining and manufacturing, which has raised dissatisfaction and even anger among Chinese officials and business leaders.

Locke is reportedly to have played a crucial part in thwarting the effort of Huawei, a leading Chinese telecommunications company, in winning a multibillion-dollar network infrastructure contract from Sprint Nextel last October.

In March, US President Barack Obama announced his nomination of Locke as the new ambassador to China when Jon Huntsman stepped down from his current job on April 30. Huntsman is expected to run for the 2012 presidential election.

The Obama administration hopes that Locke's Chinese ancestry, understanding of China and trade expertise will help American companies get more access to the Chinese market and boost US exports.

In recent months, Locke has expressed grave concerns at many public occasions about China's commercial environment. And proceeding to the third round of the China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue next week in the US capital, he again raised concerns about China's intellectual property protection and a series of discriminative policies against foreign companies and urged for a more transparent process of decision-making.

He said China's recently revised Foreign Investment Catalogue, a major guideline of China's market strategies, still prohibits foreign investors from many industries and the new review system of foreign investment may "vet foreign investments based on vague national security parameters".

But he believes bilateral talks may help resolve major trade disputes.

"Constructive change takes dialogue. We cannot forget that, especially in light of how far China has come and how quickly," he said.

China Daily