Experts Offer Tempered Praise for Locke Nomination

Although U.S. President Obama's nomination of Gary Locke for ambassador to China has incited significant fanfare on both sides of the Pacific, expectations cannot be too high, some experts say.

Locke's ancestral ties to China, his experience with trade and his record of forging relationships with Chinese officials make him an appealing nominee, but no single ambassador is a game-changer, said Kenneth Lieberthal, who directs the John L. Thornton China Center of the Brookings Institution, a policy think-tank based in Washington D.C.