Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06SHANGHAI7137
2006-12-21 04:18:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Consulate Shanghai
Cable title:  

SHANGHAI ELECTIONS--A MIX OF PAGEANTRY AND FICTION

Tags:  PGOV PINR EINV ECON CH 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO0670
RR RUEHCN RUEHVC
DE RUEHGH #7137/01 3550418
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 210418Z DEC 06
FM AMCONSUL SHANGHAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5375
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 5706
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 SHANGHAI 007137 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/CM, INR/B, INR/EAP, AND DRL
STATE PASS USTR FOR STRATFORD, WINTER, MCCARTIN, ALTBACH, READE
TREAS FOR OASIA - DOHNER/CUSHMAN
USDOC FOR ITA/MAC - A/DAS MELCHER, MCQUEEN
NSC FOR WILDER AND TONG

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/21/2046
TAGS: PGOV PINR EINV ECON CH
SUBJECT: SHANGHAI ELECTIONS--A MIX OF PAGEANTRY AND FICTION

REF: A) BEIJING 24246

SHANGHAI 00007137 001.2 OF 005


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



C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 SHANGHAI 007137

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/CM, INR/B, INR/EAP, AND DRL
STATE PASS USTR FOR STRATFORD, WINTER, MCCARTIN, ALTBACH, READE
TREAS FOR OASIA - DOHNER/CUSHMAN
USDOC FOR ITA/MAC - A/DAS MELCHER, MCQUEEN
NSC FOR WILDER AND TONG

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/21/2046
TAGS: PGOV PINR EINV ECON CH
SUBJECT: SHANGHAI ELECTIONS--A MIX OF PAGEANTRY AND FICTION

REF: A) BEIJING 24246

SHANGHAI 00007137 001.2 OF 005


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




1. (C) Summary: Despite efforts to portray them as paragons of
democratic virtue, three contacts descriptions of Shanghai's
district-level People's Congress elections reflected little more
than choreographed political pageantry. Congenoffs visited
elections in two separate Shanghai districts, Minhang and
Jing'an. In both cases, event organizers went out of their way
to provide well-rehearsed answers designed to demonstrate their
districts' openness. However, unintentional holes in the script
showed through--the public nature of the "secret" voting booths,
a vote being miscounted in favor of the frontrunner, or voters
stuffing the ballot box with more than their allotted number of
proxy votes--giving some insights on just how far the process
still has to go to be considered truly democratic. End summary.

The Election Process: Democratic...
--------------


2. (C) On December 10 and 12, more than 10 million votes were
cast at more than 43,000 polling stations throughout Shanghai to
elect 5,033 district-level and 7,993 township-level People's
Congress representatives. Shanghai Municipal People's Congress
researcher Zhou Meiyan on December 5 explained the nuts and
bolts of the election procedures. According to Zhou, a list of
registered voters was published 20 days prior to the election.
Five days later, a list of "preliminary candidates" (chubu
houxuanren) was due to the district election officials.
Candidates could be added to the candidate list when at least 10
persons nominated an individual who was at least 18 years old.
Zhou said that work units' managers could also nominate

candidates and that the local party committees directly added a
large number of candidates to the list.


3. (C) The preliminary candidate name list typically contained
many more candidates than would be allowed for the number of
People's Congress seats available. National law stipulated that
the there must be at least 30 percent more candidates than
seats, but that there could be no more than 50 percent more
candidates. In Qingpu District, for instance, the preliminary
name list had about 3,000 candidates while there were only 300
candidates allowable for the formal ballot.

...to a Point
--------------


4. (C) Zhou said that the preliminary candidates were whittled
down by a non-transparent "voter small group" (xuanmin xiaozu)
process. The party committee in each voting district organized
several small groups to decide which candidates to cut. If the
small groups were unable to agree on a slate of formal
candidates, national law dictated that a preliminary election be
held. However, there had never been a preliminary election held
in Shanghai because the districts found them "too much of a
hassle." Zhou said it was easy to avoid a preliminary election
since the party controlled the selection of the small groups and
the public was kept intentionally uninformed.


5. (C) Zhou, who works at the municipal government building,
said that there were 30 preliminary candidates in her building
(Note: The municipal government building is considered one
voting district. End note.). She said that the small groups in
her building had trimmed the list down to six formal candidates.
However, neither Zhou, nor any of her superiors knew how the
final name list had been chosen, nor were they aware of who
served on any of the small groups. The only person on the
preliminary candidate name list that the Municipal People's
Congress staff had nominated failed to make the final cut.


6. Although it was technically possible for independent
candidates to run (i.e. candidates who had put their own name
forward rather than being nominated by someone else),none had
ever won in Shanghai. The small group process effectively
weeded out non-approved preliminary candidates. Moreover, since
the Party controlled the propaganda apparatus, it was next to
impossible for independent candidates to reach the voters. Zhou
said that she and Professor He Junzhi, who ran the Fudan
University Voter Research Center, were aware of only three
persons who had put themselves forward as independent candidates

SHANGHAI 00007137 002.2 OF 005


this time around, although Zhou thought there might be a few
more.


7. (C) Zhou said that five days prior to the election, the
formal candidate name list came out. Although campaigning, as
such, was not allowed, constituents were "encouraged" to meet
potential representatives at scripted "meet the candidate"
(jianmianhui) events. Zhou noted, however, that the times for
these forums were often limited and inconvenient. For instance,
the only chance for her to "meet the candidate" in her district
was scheduled for 2:00 PM on a weekday, making it next to
impossible for anyone who worked to actually meet any of the
candidates for whom they were supposed to be voting. During a
December 20 discussion, Zhou clarified that there was no law
that explicitly forbade campaigning. Neither, however, was
there a law that explicitly allowed it. Election officials
erred on the side of caution and took an absence of approval as
an implicit prohibition.


8. (C) Zhou said that one of the biggest problems with the
elections was proxy voting. She said that because of the large
movement of people within China, most voting was done via proxy.
She said, for instance, that if a migrant worker in Shanghai
wished to vote, they needed first to return to their official
"hukou" residence and file paperwork with their local election
officials stating that they wished to vote elsewhere. Since
most migrant workers could not afford a trip home for that
purpose, most relied on their family members to cast their
ballots for them. However, this method often led to voter
fraud, with one person voting multiple times, regardless of what
the proxies' wishes were. Moreover, since in order for an
election to be "legal" it required a certain turnout percentage,
election committees would often "help" voters who had not voted
by the time the polls closed by casting ballots for them.

Preliminary Candidate Elections at Fudan: Why Are We Here?
-------------- --------------


9. (C) During a December 6 discussion, Fudan University
graduate student and recently inducted party member Lu Lei
described the process of selecting preliminary candidates at the
School of Journalism. The Journalism School was divided into
three classes and her class, composed of third-year students,
occupied eight different apartments. She said that on November
27 at 9:00 PM her class president sent a message to everyone
that there was a mandatory meeting that evening at 10:00 PM.
When Lu and her classmates showed up, they were divided into
"small groups" according to apartment and were told to elect a
"small group leader" to lead the voting in each group.


10. (C) They were then told that each class needed to put
forward a candidate for a December 12 event. None of the
students or candidates knew what the event was--Lu only later
found out that it was the Yangpu District People's Congress
elections. The class president said that the name list of
representatives was due the following afternoon and they needed
to finish the process that night.


11. (C) Several small groups tried to nominate people who did
not show up for the meeting as punishment for not sharing in the
tedium but were reprimanded by the class president for not
taking the process seriously. After each small group chose its
preliminary candidate, the whole class voted to put forward one
preliminary candidate from the entire class. Lu did not know
how the compiled list of preliminary candidates from the various
university classes was narrowed down further.


12. (C) Lu said that neither she nor any of her classmates took
the meeting seriously, chatting and eating dinner--many in their
pajamas--while they were supposed to be discussing whom to
nominate. Students who were nominated by and large were not
happy at having been selected. Lu had initially been nominated
as a candidate and was elated to have lost to someone else. She
said that students' attitudes had changed since the 1989
Tiananmen protests and that no one she knew was interested in
politics. Students today were concerned with personal issues,
not systemic change. (Note: Lu is the only student Poloff has
met who has openly discussed doing independent research on
Tiananmen, knows of the brutality of the crackdown, and is able
to name several of the student leaders of the period. End note.)

Unscripted Election Anecdotes
--------------


SHANGHAI 00007137 003.2 OF 005



13. (C) During a December 14 discussion, Fudan University
graduate student Chen Daowen said that on election day, students
were told to report to certain classrooms at prescribed times
based on department. Students were told they were required to
cast a vote and faced criticism from professors or school party
leaders if they failed to show up. She had no idea how the
candidates had been selected. Chen said that the students were
also given instructions on which of the two candidates they
should vote for--a female PhD candidate named Feng Ai. Chen
said that for the previous week, the university had run a
propaganda campaign for Feng, completely ignoring the other
candidate. Chen could not even remember his name.


14. (C) She said that there were no "secret ballot booths" in
the polling place, just a large table where students could mark
the candidate of their choice or write in the name of someone
else. Since most of the students did not know anything about
the candidates, they either selected the person they had been
instructed to vote for or wrote in their own name. Feng Ai,
unsurprisingly, won the election with over 70 percent of the
vote.


15. (C) Zhou Meiyan said that since this year Shanghai decided
that persons could vote in their home district if they did not
want to vote in their work unit, she chose to vote in Hongkou.
Much to the chagrin of local election officials who knew where
Zhou worked, she remained at the polling place to observe. She
said that she saw many people stuffing the ballot box with 13 or
more proxy votes; election officials assured her that they were
simply helping family members. She also observed election
workers telling voters--particularly but not limited to
illiterate voters--which candidate they ought to vote for.

Minhang: "Exercising Our Patriotic Authority as Citizens"
-------------- --------------


16. (C) On December 12, Poloff accompanied by FSN Assistant
visited a polling place in Minhang District, one of Shanghai's
most socio-economically diverse districts with large "rural" and
migrant populations. Congenoffs were greeted by Ms. Cheng
Heqing, a member of the local Residence Committee and a member
of the Election Committee. They were led to the second floor of
the Residence Committee building where there were about 100
voters milling around outside a large, unheated conference room
that housed roughly another 100 voters and volunteers. After
being escorted inside, Congenoffs listened to voting officials
explain the rules on how to fill out the ballots and watched as
two ballot inspectors opened the large red box that was on a
table on the platform in the front of the room to demonstrate
that it had not been stuffed before hand. They then sealed the
box with two hand-painted calligraphy couplets to demonstrate it
would not be tampered with during the proceedings.


17. (C) Voters were then encouraged to come forward to cast
their ballots. Most made use of the three "secret ballot
booths" set up along the wall. These booths consisted of a
small table partially surrounded by a red curtain. Voters,
often three or four at a time, crammed into the "private" booths
with curious onlookers peering over their shoulders to see for
whom they were voting. At one point, a loud argument with some
pushing erupted at a booth near Congenoffs. Election officials
assured Congenoffs that it was caused by the lack of space and
people's enthusiasm to exercise their patriotic duty.


18. (C) A large table was set up next to the booths for people
who did not want to vote in private or needed assistance reading
the ballot. Poloff estimated that approximately 60 percent of
the voters utilized the private booths while 40 percent filled
out their ballots in the open. Voters were all required to file
up one by one, in the sight of the election officials and anyone
who wanted to watch, and to ceremoniously place their unfolded
ballot in the ballot box.


19. (C) Voting commenced at approximately 9:40 AM and lasted
until 10:30 AM when the ballot box was opened and the votes
counted. When asked why the poll was only open for one hour,
Cheng informed us that people unable to come could have a
relative cast a proxy vote (weituo piao) for them. Prior to the
voting, Cheng informed Congenoffs that approximately 550 people
were going to vote, with 400 voting in person and 150 via proxy
vote. Cheng said that each voter could cast his or her own
ballot and up to three proxies, provided the voter could produce
the voter registration card of each person for whom they were
casting a ballot. It appeared, however, that only 150-200

SHANGHAI 00007137 004.2 OF 005


people actually attended in person, while the majority of votes
were cast by proxy. Poloff did not see anyone examine the
registration cards for proxy votes. However, no one appeared to
be trying to cast more than their quota of votes.


20. (C) When the voting finished, the poll workers broke open
the ballot box and dumped the votes on the table, ceremoniously
tearing the box apart to demonstrate that no ballots remained
inside. A small group of poll workers then counted the ballots.
Poloff observed that at least one ballot with a write-in
candidate was marked for the leading official candidate. In the
end, of the two candidates named on the ballot, both of whom
were government officials, Liu Hailan beat Wang Jianguo 291 to
225, with Cheng receiving eight write in votes and another
candidate receiving six. Cheng told us that the vote tally
would not be official until later that afternoon once all five
polling stations in this representative district had reported
and recounted. (Note. Minhang's People's Congress meeting is
slated to be held February 9-13. End note.)


21. (C) Cheng said that there were more than 5,000 persons
living within the boundaries of her polling place. Of those,
only 1,300 were eligible to vote. Many of these eligible voters
cast their ballots in their work units' elections and hence, did
not vote at the neighborhood polling station. There were 656
voters--mostly elderly or privately employed--who were eligible
to vote at this station. When asked why such a small percentage
of the population were considered eligible to vote, Cheng
replied that the rest were "not yet 18," which was the minimum
voting age. (Comment: In an increasingly aging city, we find it
hard to believe that 62 percent of the population in this
polling district was below the age of 18. End comment.)


22. (C) Poloff was allowed to speak with one of the 15 or so
voters hanging around after the majority of the voting had
concluded. An older woman surnamed Wu said this was her first
time voting in Minhang, having lived elsewhere most of her life.
She said she had submitted two proxy votes--one for her husband
who was at work, and one for her son who was currently living in
Chongqing--and produced their voter IDs when asked. Wu seemed a
bit nervous, and whenever she stumbled on some of the questions
Poloff asked, one of the "helpful" poll workers sitting next to
her would coach her on what to say.

Minhang Pre-election Activities: A "Model" of Transparency
-------------- --------------


23. (SBU) Cheng said that voter registration began on October
19 and lasted until the last Friday before the election. She
said that theis Minhang polling district regularly achieved
nearly 100 percent registration among eligible voters, saying
that residents were sent frequent reminders to encourage them to
register. Those that failed to register by the time the voter
registration list came out received a personal visit from their
building head. Mostly, the only people who did not register
were migrant workers, although they were also allowed to
register in Shanghai if they obtained and filled out the
appropriate paperwork from their home provinces.


24. (C) She said that preliminary candidates (chubu houxuanren)
were chosen fifteen days prior to the election. According to
Cheng, there were no people who were running independently this
year in Minhang. Cheng disagreed that the "voter small groups"
were secretive. She explained that every registered voter was
assigned to a small group. There were 15 groups in all in this
polling district, with a published name list showing who was in
which group. This polling district had an initial preliminary
candidate name list with eight names on it. The groups met to
look over the list and selected a group leader. They discussed
which two candidates they wanted and the 15 group leaders would
then meet to discuss their choices. The "small group leaders
group" would compare notes and winnow down the list based on
which candidates did not make the cut in the voter small groups.
The narrowed name list would then be discussed again by the
small groups, with each group again selecting its two favorites
and the process would repeat until the appropriate number of
names for the ballot was decided. (Comment: It is hard to
believe that 657 people would hold this many meetings to select
the two candidates. More likely, it would seem, the small group
heads would directly choose the candidates. End comment.)


25. (SBU) According to Cheng, the candidates held multiple
events each day for five days from December 7-11 to enable
voters to learn more about the candidates. Aside from these

SHANGHAI 00007137 005.2 OF 005


events, the only way to learn about these candidates was to read
a small information sheet about them taped to the wall outside
of the polling area.

Jing'an: Less Scripted, Still Problems
--------------


26. (C) On the same day, another Poloff accompanied by FSN
Political Assistant visited an election center located in
Jing'an District. Congenoffs were escorted around the polling
station by Ms. Jiang Wuyi, a member of the Election committee.
The center was open longer then the Minhang center from 8:30 AM
until 1:00 PM. According to Jiang, 2,313 people had registered
in the neighborhood (Note: she did not say how many people
altogether lived in the neighborhood. End note.). The names of
registered voters and the candidates' biographies were posted on
the walls. There were three candidates vying for two positions.
One candidate was the District Mayor and the other two were
government officials who worked in the neighborhood. Jiang said
originally there were four candidates, but one candidate dropped
out after meeting with the election committee. She was vague
about how candidates were chosen and said that the process
involved the community and was overseen by the election
committee.


27. (C) While some voters went directly to the ballot box to
cast their votes, others spent time going over the candidates
biographies and discussing the candidates with fellow voters and
volunteers. Unlike Minhang, there was only one "secret voting
booth" pushed off in one corner. Congenoffs did not see anyone
use it during their visit. Poloff observed volunteers checking
identification cards and giving people their ballots, although
no one appeared to be checking proxy voter registration cards.
Poloff also saw at least three people filling out stacks of
proxy ballots--about four or five per person in addition to
their own--to put into the ballot box. (Note: This was in
apparent violation of the three proxy votes per person
regulation. End note.) Like Minhang, the vast majority of the
voters at the polling center were older. Jiang said this was
not unusual since younger voters usually voted at their work
units or schools. According to Jiang, to prevent voter fraud,
poll workers not only checked IDs but also checked a computer
system which listed where everyone was registered to ensure that
people were not registered in multiple locations.


28. (SBU) Jiang expected voter turnout to be around 80 percent
this year, a drop from last year's 92 percent. She was
confident that there would be a large voter turnout because she
and her team had done a lot of propaganda work to get people out
to vote. Jiang said voters were well informed about the
candidates as the election committee made sure that there were
opportunities for voters to meet the candidates. She
acknowledged, however, that her neighborhood only held one such
session before the elections. One voter said there was no need
for candidates to campaign since this year's candidates were all
members of the community with whom the voters were already
familiar. He added that having candidates who were known to the
community made this year's election "more democratic." In
previous years, sometimes the candidates listed on the ballots
were strangers with no connections to the community. (Note: No
date has been set yet for the Jing'an's People's Congress to
meet. One contact who is member of the Congress said it would
likely happen after Chinese New Years. End note.)
JARRETT