Locke may face tough grilling as China ambassador nominee

WASHINGTON — Gary Locke's confirmation hearing Thursday to become ambassador to China won't be quite the stroll he enjoyed after being nominated as commerce secretary in 2009. Back then, Locke's confirmation was a given, and he fielded questions barely more controversial than management of fishery stocks and the nation's conversion to digital television.

This time, the former Washington state governor may be in for more grilling.

Though Locke remains personally popular, his job switch to the nation's top overseas diplomatic post likely will provide a tempting forum for critics of China and of the Obama administration's policies.

Already, several members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and others have signaled intentions to raise concerns about China's trade surplus with the United States, human-rights and other issues.

Chief among them is Sen. James Risch, a Republican from Idaho.

"I'm interested to hear Secretary Locke's views on the U.S.-China relationship and the direction we are headed," Risch said Tuesday in a statement. "Given his current position as Commerce Secretary he is uniquely qualified to address issues about China's growing influence in the Pacific, the U.S.-China trade relationship and Chinese ownership of U.S. debt. I know my colleagues are curious to hear how he will balance these issues without compromising U.S. values and principles, especially human rights and the rule of law."

A spokesman for Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the East Asian and Pacific Affairs subcommittee, listed several issues he planned to bring up, including sovereignty for Tibet, China's relationship with Taiwan and suppression of religious freedom.

The hearing comes at a time when Americans are feeling increasingly anxious about China's rising economic and military might. Members of Congress have begun speaking more forcefully against China's crackdown on dissent, protectionist industrial policies and poor record of enforcing intellectual-property laws.

Given the political climate, Locke is likely to face tough questioning even by those who ultimately expect to vote for confirmation, said David Bachman, an expert on Chinese politics at the University of Washington.

"It's not so much about Locke as about point scoring and raising issues in U.S.-China relations," he said. "But he's on the spot, and has to defend the administration."

Perhaps pre-emptively, Locke himself has taken a harder stance in recent weeks, saying that U.S. companies have far less market access in China than Chinese companies have in the U.S.

American companies "are frequently shut out of entire industries, or they are forced to give up proprietary information as a condition of operating in China," he said.

Locke called such an imbalance of opportunity a major barrier to improving commercial ties. "And it is part of a broader trend of China recently narrowing its commercial environment after a long and fruitful period of opening."

Peter Hays Gries, director of the Institute for U.S.-China Issues at the University of Oklahoma, said the hearings "should be a platform for legitimate questions about China policy, but given how little many people know about China, they often reveal more about the politicians asking the questions than they do about China."

Economic fears about China are overblown considering America's GDP is more than twice the size of China's, and the U.S. per capita GDP is more than 10 times larger, he said.

Locke, as the first Chinese American to serve as ambassador to China, could be pulled in conflicting directions, said Bachman. In China, where he enjoys celebrity status, people may expect a more sympathetic envoy, but he'll have to "present the message that Washington, D.C., tells him to present. That message is going to be cooperative in some areas and critical in others."

U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Lake Stevens, co-chair of the bipartisan U.S.-China Working Group, said the choice of Locke as ambassador will benefit U.S. companies and relations between the two countries.

However, he added, "the Chinese need to know that while Secretary Locke has been focused on economic issues between the U.S. and China during his tenure at Commerce, as ambassador he will have a much broader portfolio — including human rights, military relations and strategic issues like North Korea, as well as trade."

Locke also may have to deal with a very different cast of characters in China as the country prepares for a change in its top leadership next year.

Chinese President Hu Jintao is expected to step down and be replaced by Xi Jinping, who is currently vice president. Such a period of change can heighten political insecurities among the Communist Party leadership.

To make progress, Nicholas Lardy, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C., said Locke may well have to rely on his job description — diplomacy. Lardy said that dialogue, not confrontation, ultimately is the United States' most potent tool.

"We don't have a lot of leverage," he said, "so we can't make a lot of demands."

Kristi Heim: 206-464-2718 or kheim@seattletimes.com. Kyung Song: 202-662-7455 or ksong@seattletimes.com