[2][3] Reelected in the 2000 gubernatorial election, Locke was chosen by national Democrats to give the party's response to president George W. Bush's 2003 State of the Union address.

[6] Gary Locke was born on January 21, 1950, in Seattle, Washington, and spent his early years living in the Yesler Terrace public housing project.

His paternal grandfather left China in the 1890s and moved to the United States, where he worked as a houseboy in Olympia, Washington, in exchange for English lessons.

[11][12] Through a combination of part-time jobs, financial aid, and scholarships, Locke attended Yale University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1972.

Locke has spoken of being inspired by Wing Luke, a Chinese American attorney and politician from Seattle who died in a plane crash in 1965.

[14][2] In 1982, Locke was elected from a South Seattle district to the Washington House of Representatives, where he served as the chair of the Appropriations Committee.

Eleven years later, in 1993, Locke was elected King County's Executive, defeating incumbent liberal Republican Tim Hill.

[15] Locke faced criticism from fellow Democrats for embracing the Republican Party's "no-new-taxes" approach to Washington's budget woes during and after the 2001 economic turmoil.

[16] In a surprise move, Locke announced in July 2003 that he would not seek a third term,[17] saying, "Despite my deep love of our state, I want to devote more time to my family.

[18] His official portrait, painted by Michele Rushworth, was unveiled in the state capitol by Governor Christine Gregoire on January 4, 2006.

Locke was mentioned as a potential contender for Secretary of Education or United States Trade Representative under a hypothetical Kerry administration.

[5][21] On December 4, 2008, the Associated Press reported that Locke was a potential candidate for Secretary of the Interior in then-President-elect Barack Obama's cabinet.

On February 25, 2009, Locke was announced as Obama's choice for Secretary of Commerce,[15] and his nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate by unanimous consent on March 24.

[28] A photo of Locke carrying his own knapsack and ordering his own coffee at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport went viral in China on the Sina Weibo social network, with many commentators approving of his humble, low-key style.

[30] Early in Locke's ambassadorship, Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng escaped from house arrest and sought refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing in April 2012.

In an analysis of his ambassadorship, Sun Zhe, a professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said, "It is not an easy job to be the American ambassador to China.

Shen Dingli, dean of the international studies department at Fudan University in Shanghai, largely concurred, commenting that Locke "showed us how a U.S. minister-level official behaves by taking economy-class flights" but "caused a twist" when he allowed Chen refuge in the U.S.

[39] In 2020, an ad for the reelection of president Donald Trump portrayed Locke with Joe Biden and falsely suggested he was an official of the Chinese Communist Party.

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