US Ambassador to China Will Step Down Early Next Year

Gary Locke says he made the decision "to rejoin my family in Seattle"

Gary Locke, the U.S. ambassador to China, announced that he will step down from his diplomatic post in early 2014 for personal reasons.

"When I met with President Obama earlier this month, I informed him of my decision to step down as ambassador in early 2014 to rejoin my family in Seattle," Locke said in a statement released by the US embassy in Beijing.

Locke's wife Mona and their three children had already moved back to Seattle earlier this year. In a column earlier this month published in The Seattle Times, Mona Locke wrote about the reasons for the move.