(Reuters) - China should rest easy that its investments in the dollar remain safe, the newly arrived U.S. ambassador in Beijing, Gary Locke, said on Sunday, adding that the world's two biggest economies could find common ground despite economic and political strains.

In his previous job as U.S. commerce secretary, Locke often chided China over its trade policies, but in his first media appearance since taking up his new job in Beijing he gave a more benign message of potential cooperation.
"The United States and China have a profoundly important and complex diplomatic and economic relationship, one with challenges, to be sure, but which also holds great promise for expanded cooperation and collaboration," Locke told reporters.