Cablegate: New Indian Cg's Major Complaint - Lack of Access

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UNCLAS GUANGZHOU 000088

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

State for EAP/CM, SCA/INS, and INR/B

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL ETRD SOCI CH IN
SUBJECT: New Indian CG's Major Complaint - Lack of Access

(U) This document is sensitive but unclassified. Please protect
accordingly. Not for release outside U.S. government channels. Not
for internet publication.

1. (SBU) During a brief introductory call, Indian Consul General
Indra Mani Pandey expressed surprise and dismay over the lack of
access to senior local government and communist party leadership.
Shortly after arriving on January 20, he placed requests to meet
Guangdong Party Secretary Wang Yang as well as Governor Huang
Huahua. He opined that Guangdong's Foreign Affairs Office had yet
to respond to those requests or even offer a meeting with Vice
Governor. Pandey said he doubted the delays were due to either
Chinese New Year holidays or recent border dust ups between India
and China, assigning the blame to indifference and bureaucracy. He
observed that China routinely took the U.S. and India to task over
the Dalai Lama.

2. (SBU) Pandey estimated around 10,000 Indian citizens resided in
his consular district, which includes the provinces of Fujian,
Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan, Sichuan, and Hunan. He
understood nearly 3,000 are university students and that most attend
medical schools in Guangdong. A handful of small Indian-invested
firms had sprung up, such as restaurants and yoga training centers,
but Indian businessmen complained about China's complex, confusing,
and opaque investment and business environment. Trade between south
China and India is growing, Pandey said, with China importing Indian
raw materials and exporting machinery. He predicted limited
bilateral trade growth as the two countries are largely competitors
producing similar products, in his view.

3. (SBU) Bio info: Pandey speaks Arabic and has had tours in Cairo,
Damascus, Kabul, Islamabad, and Geneva; he does not speak Chinese.
His wife Sushma and daughter accompanied him to Guangzhou from his
most recent assignment in New Delhi. Pandey said he is on friendly
terms with Pakistani Consul General Mohammad Iftikhar Anjum as the
two live in the same apartment complex and their Consulate offices
are in close proximity.

GOLDBECK

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