Cablegate: Political Campaign Season in Full Swing in South China

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R 220251Z SEP 09
FM AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU
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INFO RUEHGZ/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE 0266
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0731
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 0206
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RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUANGZHOU 000555

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/CM, INR/EAP, INR/B

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON PGOV PINR KJUS CH
SUBJECT: Political Campaign Season in Full Swing in South China

REF A: 08 Guangzhou 406; B: Guangzhou 237; C: Guangzhou 355; D:
Guangzhou 546

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED -- NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION

1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Though less overt than the average American
political campaign, maneuvering by senior leaders in south China has
become increasingly public in recent months as officials look to
shore up their power base and better position themselves for
advancement in 2012. Guangdong Party Secretary Wang Yang, whose
still-incomplete economic policies have been declared "successful"
by state media, has taken opportunities to speak on national issues
and is now more open to meeting with foreign officials. Wang's
position has largely been strengthened by anticorruption campaigns
in Guangdong Province, but he could be at risk in similar
investigations in Chongqing, his previous assignment. Fujian Party
Secretary Lu Zhangong likewise has increased his availability to
foreign officials and used the surrounding publicity to bolster his
image. END SUMMARY.

Double Transfer a "Success"
---------------------------

2. (U) Guangdong Party Secretary Wang Yang's "Double Transfer"
policy (refs A,B) -- the planned upgrading of Guangdong Province's
economy by shifting labor-intensive, high-polluting and
energy-inefficient industries to less-developed parts of the
province while simultaneously attracting high-tech industries to the
Pearl River Delta -- at best remains a work in progress.
Officially, though, the policy is a success, according to a front
page article from late July in the Communist Party's official
mouthpiece, the People's Daily. The article clearly tied Double
Transfer to the successful implementation of Hu Jintao's trademark
Scientific Development Theory in Guangdong.

Speaking for the Nation
-----------------------

3. (SBU) In the wake of ethnically charged violent unrest between
Uighurs and Han Chinese in both Guangdong's Shaoguan municipality
and Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, Wang could not have made comments on
China's need to "adjust" its policy toward ethnic minorities without
approval from Beijing, according to an official with the Guangdong
Foreign Affairs Office. While talking on the particularly sensitive
subject during a July 30 press conference with foreign media, Wang
-- one of only two provincial party secretaries to simultaneously
hold a position on the Politburo -- warned that China would face
"problems" if it did not adjust its minority policy. Comment:
Guangdong's connection to the unrest notwithstanding, Wang's public
commentary on a sensitive national policy issue was a significant
demonstration of his role as a state-level political leader. End
comment.

New Promises of Access
----------------------

4. (SBU) In a break from previous practice, Wang Yang "is now much
more open to meeting with visiting officials," Guangdong Foreign
Affairs Office Protocol Division official Yang Si told us in June.
Yang also asked us to encourage "high-level VIP" visits to the
province. This message differs from earlier experience, when Wang
rarely made himself available to official U.S. interlocutors. Wang
now seems more willing to appear beside foreign officials whose
presence would presumably raise his personal status and limit his
exposure to intraparty attacks.

5. (SBU) Comment: The three examples above -- a "successful" local
initiative, commentary on an issue sensitive at the national level
and expanded outreach to foreign officials -- are likely calculated
to show Wang as a well-rounded leader ready for increased
responsibilities at the national level. Though accompanied by media
publicity, the intended target audiences are Party cadres involved
in intraparty power dynamics. End comment.

Wang to Officials: Stop Worrying and Get Back to Work
------------------ ----------------------------------

6. (SBU) Wang strengthened his political position during a recent
anticorruption campaign leading to the removal of several of
Shenzhen's top leaders, including the mayor (ref C). In the wake of

GUANGZHOU 00000555 002 OF 002

the investigations, media reported widespread anxiety throughout the
Guangdong bureaucracy, with some officials so concerned they could
be next that they spent their days trading worried rumors with their
colleagues instead of performing work. Wang's late-July statement
to assembled bureaucrats that most of the province's cadres were
"competent" and need not worry about further investigations was
significant for at least two reasons: first, as a national-level
leader, Wang is in a relatively good position to know for certain
whether any more anticorruption campaigns would be forthcoming;
second, almost all the major corruption cases in Guangdong in 2009
targeted officials owing their positions, in whole or in part, to
their connections with the previous Jiang Zemin administration. The
removal of potential political opponents has strengthened Wang's
position, according to multiple contacts.

7. (SBU) Wang might feel the anticorruption heat, however, in
Chongqing -- where he served as party secretary before coming to
Guangdong in 2007 -- according to media reports. The anti-triad
campaign in Chongqing has cracked down on dozens of triad
organizations and arrested several senior local law enforcement
officials, including a vice president of the Chongqing Court, the
chief of the Justice Bureau and over 40 officials at the county
level, according to Cheng Ming Magazine. Many of those officials
were appointed during the days of Wang and Wang's predecessor, He
Guoqiang, who is a current Politburo Standing Committee member and
on the Party's Central Discipline Inspection Commission. Several
contacts recently returned from Chongqing told ConGen Guangzhou that
public sentiment in Chongqing favors Party Secretary Bo Xilai to the
detriment of Wang and He, both of whom are accused of paying lip
service to the organized crime issue.

In Fujian, The Sage and the Barbarians
--------------------------------------

8. (SBU) Wang Yang is not the only provincial party secretary in
south China to see expanded interaction with foreign officials as a
potential boon politically. In an early September meeting with the
Consul General and AmCham South China during the 13th China
International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) (ref D), Fujian
Party Secretary Lu Zhangong uncharacteristically welcomed the
visiting delegation in person. Within recent memory, the Consul
General's meeting with Lu represented the highest access afforded,
to date, to senior officials of Fujian Province. One Consulate
attendee noted that Lu's statements throughout the meeting seemed to
be as much for the benefit of the other ranking provincial Party and
government officials in attendance as they were for the foreign
guests.

9. (SBU) Later the same evening, local television media aired
footage of Lu's series of meetings with a number of foreign business
and diplomatic delegations. The carefully edited content showed
foreign delegation leaders nodding or otherwise "agreeing" with
voice-over comments touting the party secretary's vision for
Fujian's future while also building his foreign affairs credentials.
Comment: Though such editorial craftsmanship is hardly new, Lu's
conscious effort to raise his profile by dealing directly with --
and, ostensibly, "dominating" -- foreign visitors fits an emerging
pattern of campaign-like activity by south China's senior
leadership.

GOLDBECK

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