Will S.F. mayor become ambassador to China?
Maybe it was just coincidence, but the timing of U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke's announcement Wednesday that he would resign early next year has only fueled rumors that Mayor Ed Lee could be Locke's replacement.
Locke's decision, announced by the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, came as Lee was on an official visit to China, his second in as many months.
Rumors have been circulating at San Francisco City Hall since at least September that Lee, the city's first Chinese American mayor, is a candidate to become the next ambassador to China.
That would set off political dominoes here and be quite a coup for Lee, a career bureaucrat and political novice when he was reluctantly appointed interim mayor in January 2011. Lee had promised to serve as a placeholder, but then reversed himself and won a four-year term later that year. He has proved to be an affable, generally popular, low-key mayor, prone to occasional public speaking gaffes.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Will-S-F-mayor-become-ambassador-to-China-4997557.php