Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05PARIS3441
2005-05-19 14:54:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Paris
Cable title:  

(C) OECD: CHINA CONTINUES PRESSURE AGAINST

Tags:  PGOV ECON CH TW 
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C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 003441 

SIPDIS

FROM USOECD

OES FOR DRAGNICH

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/19/2015
TAGS: PGOV ECON CH TW
SUBJECT: (C) OECD: CHINA CONTINUES PRESSURE AGAINST
EXPANDED TAIWAN TIES

Ref: Paris 03155

(U) classifed by: Morton Holbrook, Economic Counselor,
USOECD. Reason: 1.4(d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 003441

SIPDIS

FROM USOECD

OES FOR DRAGNICH

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/19/2015
TAGS: PGOV ECON CH TW
SUBJECT: (C) OECD: CHINA CONTINUES PRESSURE AGAINST
EXPANDED TAIWAN TIES

Ref: Paris 03155

(U) classifed by: Morton Holbrook, Economic Counselor,
USOECD. Reason: 1.4(d)


1. (C) Chinese Embassy officials have continued to
press the OECD Secretariat to oppose Taiwan's
applications to join committees as observers. In
conversations on May 11 and May 18, the officials,
including the Embassy's Commercial Counselor, requested
that the OECD notify member country delegations of
China's opposition to Taiwan's requests. They asserted
- as previously (reftel) -- that Taiwan's motive for
its recent expression of interest in OECD observerships
was political. The latest request was made (as before)
to Frederic Langer, a mid-level OECD Secretariat
official who is in charge of the OECD's country program
for China.


OECD response: it's the committees
--------------


2. (C) After consulting with higher officials,
including OECD Secretary General Donald Johnston,
Langer relayed the OECD's response: the OECD valued
its cooperative relations with China, as had recently
been expressed in the joint statement released after
Commerce Minister Bo Xilai's attendance at the OECD's
Council at Ministerial Level meetings May 3-4 (copy
faxed to EAP/CM and EU/ERA). However, the OECD
Secretariat could not block applications for

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observerships or make statements to member delegations
on behalf of a non-member country.


3. (C) If China wished to send a statement to the
Secretariat setting out its own position, the

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Secretariat would make that statement available to

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members, without endorsing it. However, Langer told
the officials, it was hard to predict what member
states reaction would be; there could well be a
negative reaction. He also noted that the various OECD
Committees would give Taiwan's applications very
thorough scrutiny based not on political criteria but
on whether Taiwan and the OECD would both benefit from
Taiwan's participation. He suggested that China need
not be concerned that a committee might approve an
application from Taiwan that was not well-grounded in
the work of the committee.

Coming events with China
--------------


4. (C) Langer told us that China is currently scheduled
to participate, at the Vice Ministerial level, in two
upcoming OECD meetings, an economic review of China on
June 3, and a review of China's agricultural policy
that will begin on June 10 (China's delegation to the
agricultural meetings is scheduled to be led by Duan
Yinbi, Vice Minister, State Council, Western
Development Office). There has been no suggestion as
yet that these meetings will not proceed as scheduled
with PRC attendance. As far as the OECD is concerned,
the ball is now back in China's court.

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