(C) BIO DETAILS UFWD HEAD LIU YANDONG'S HUSBAND

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 SHANGHAI 007121

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DEPT FOR EAP/CM, INR/B AND INR/EAP
NSC FOR WILDER AND TONG

E.O. 12958: DECL: X1 MANUAL REVIEW
TAGS: PGOV PINR EINV ECON KPAO CH
SUBJECT: (C) BIO DETAILS UFWD HEAD LIU YANDONG'S HUSBAND

SHANGHAI 00007121 001.2 OF 002


CLASSIFIED BY: Mary Tarnowka, Political/Economic Section Chief,
U.S. Consulate, Shanghai, Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(c),(d)




1. (C) Summary: On December 4, Poloff met with Yang Yuanxing
(STC: 2799/0337/1932),husband of Hu Jintao protigi and United
Front Work Department Head Liu Yandong, in connection with a
visa referral for his upcoming tourist trip to the United States
on December 20. Liu has been rumored to be in line to take over
as Shanghai Party Secretary from acting Party Secretary Han
Zheng sometime in the next year. Yang provided biographical
details about himself, his wife and his daughter. End summary.


2. (C) Yang explained that both he and his wife were "cadre
kids" (gaogan zidi). Both of them spent the first eight years
of their lives in Shanghai, although neither was born there.
Yang was born April 22, 1942, in Hubei and his wife was born in
Tongzhou, Jiangsu. Her family home--the place where her
father's family was from--is Nantong. Yang's father, Yang
Xiandong, was an agriculture specialist who graduated with a PhD
from Cornell University in 1937. He had been an official in the
Shanghai government and moved to Beijing in 1949 to be a vice
minister in the first Ministry of Agriculture in the new PRC
government. Yang Xiandong did not join the Chinese Communist
Party until after he moved to Beijing. According to the 1981
version of "Who's Who in the People's Republic of China," Yang
Xiandong also participated in the first session of the first
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in September

1949.


3. (C) Liu attended the high school affiliated with Qinghua
University. In the early 1970s, during the Cultural Revolution
(1966-76),Liu was selected as one of a handful of people to
study English. She still speaks reasonably well, according to
Yang. Yang speaks Russian, having studied it during college.
He also speaks a few phrases in English, but not enough to carry
on a simple conversation.


4. (C) Early on during the Cultural Revolution, Yang's father
was accused of being a spy for the United States. Yang was sent
down to the countryside, but was spared from the severe
persecution that many of his cadre kid friends endured because
his father had been on close terms with Chairman Mao Zedong.
(Note: According to "Who's Who," Yang Xiandong was at least
partially rehabilitated in 1972 when he made a public appearance
at the mourning ceremony for a deceased famous cadre. He was
not identified in the press further until 1978 when he
reappeared as the president of the Agriculture Society. By the
following year he was restored to his post of Vice Minister of
Agriculture. End note.) Yang was not inclined to say much
about his experiences during the Cultural Revolution. He did,
however, say that Liu had fared better than he had during the
period because of her family connections, although he did not go
into detail about Liu's family.


5. (C) Yang said he and Liu Yandong had been married for 35
years and had one child, a 34 year old daughter. Yang said that
during the early years of their marriage, he and Liu had been
too poor to afford to have another child. Their daughter spent
seven years in the United States in New York City, arriving in
the mid 1990s. She had been visiting Washington DC with a
Japanese friend during the terrorist attacks of 9/11. That
morning, the two had been slated to visit the Pentagon and
missed the attack by half an hour; she saw the flames from the
hotel where she was staying. Both parents tried unsuccessfully
to reach her for several hours. When Liu finally reached her,
she suggested that her daughter return to China, settle down and
get married. The daughter agreed and currently resides in
Beijing. Yang did not say if she was currently married.


6. (C) Yang has a total of three siblings: two younger sisters;
and one younger brother. His brother's family resides in Salt
Lake City, Utah, although his brother is currently living in
Singapore where he is conducting business. All of Yang's
siblings are U.S. citizens, although he rarely visits them when
he travels to the United States. Yang has several cousins and
friends in the United States as well. Yang has been to the
United States several times, most recently in 2004.


7. (C) Yang owns his own business, China Southeast Technology
Trading Head Office (Zhongguo Dongnan Jishu Maoyi Zonggongsi),
located in Beijing's Haidian District at No. 3 Fuxing Road, Room
320 of the Science and Technology Hall ("keji huitang"),with
capitalization well in excess of RMB 1 million. His company
deals with: "new technology, new products, development of

SHANGHAI 00007121 002.2 OF 002


electronics products, research and manufacture, application,
sales, and consultancy; computer network systems engineering;
and cosmetics research, production, and sales."


8. (C) Yang is also the secretary general of the "Lu Xun
Cultural Garden Planning and Construction Committee" in Beijing.
He said that currently, the committee was selling off
properties that it owned to get capital and tearing down
residential units on other land it owned to make space for the
garden. Yang noted that he is distantly related to the famous
Chinese author Lu Xun, which was why they had named the project
after him. Yang said that initially, he had been paying Lu
Xun's son 40,000 RMB per year for the right to use "Lu Xun" in
the title. Yang recently decided to change the name of the
venture to "Lu Yi" to avoid having to pay the fee. While he
stopped paying Lu Xun's son, his business card still bears the
name "Lu Xun" and, Yang said, the business is still officially
registered as "Lu Xun." The project's website is
"www.lyshc.com".


9. (C) Yang is also a photography buff and travels around China
and the world on photo excursions with his two DSLR cameras--a
Canon and a Nikon. In fact, his meeting with Poloff was to
request a visa referral so he could spend 20-30 days traveling
the United States to take pictures. Yang said that Liu is also
very interested in photography, but does not have time to pursue
this interest due to her job. Yang is very interested in travel
and boasted that he is friends with the heads of many tourist
associations and top-quality hotels throughout China.


10. (S) Yang's personal passport number is G03990756. It was
issued April 16 2002, and expires April 15 2007. He has a
Beijing "hukou" residence and his identification card number is

110102194204222310. According to his business card, Yang's
phone number is 86-10-8846-2789. His fax number is
86-10-8846-2790. His cell phone number is 1390-138-8790.


11. (C) Yang attended the lunch with Ms. Zhang Shidan, Deputy
Director of the Zhejiang Association for Science and Technology
International Department. Ms. Zhang appeared to be in her early
30s and spoke excellent English. She said that Yang was
affiliated with the National Association for Science and
Technology, which was why she had traveled with him. It did not
appear that they had known each other long prior to this lunch.
JARRETT