CHINESE PARTICIPATION IN ASEAN MEETINGS: TWO

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIJING 007126

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/15/2027
TAGS: PREL PGOV CH BM
SUBJECT: CHINESE PARTICIPATION IN ASEAN MEETINGS: TWO
PREVIEWS

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Classified By: Political Officer Ted Lyng. Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

Summary
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1. (C) Assistant Foreign Minister He Yafei and MFA Asian
Affairs Bureau Deputy Director General Yang Yanli separately
previewed Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Singapore for the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus 3 meeting
and other ASEAN-related events November 18-22. AFM He said
the ASEAN meetings will reaffirm neighborly, friendly ties
and specifically address regional environmental issues,
including sustainable growth and climate change. AFM He said
Burma was not on the agenda but discussion of Burma is
"highly possible." China's highest priority in Burma is
stability, he said. Yang said the ASEAN plus 3 will be the
"main vehicle for East Asian community building." China's
top priority in this year's ASEAN plus 1 meeting is progress
on a China-ASEAN FTA. She said the East Asian Summit (EAS)
is "very confused at this stage." End Summary.

AFM He on ASEAN Meetings
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2. (U) China hopes the ASEAN meetings will reaffirm
neighborly, friendly ties and specifically address regional
environmental issues, including sustainable growth and
climate change, AFM He said during a press conference
November 14. Burma is not specifically on any of the
ASEAN-related agendas, he said, but it is "highly possible"
Burma will come up during discussions. China is not aware of
any plans to issue a statement on Burma, he said. China's
highest priority in Burma is to encourage stability.
"Despite what others think," Beijing, as Burma's neighbor,
will never allow Burma to disintegrate into chaos "like
Iraq," he said. Imposing sanctions on Burma would be
counterproductive and China is committed to helping Burma,
which has now calmed and is moving in the right direction, to
achieve "stability, democracy and development." The Burmese
people themselves must determine what kind of democracy is
appropriate for their country, although "stability is a
necessarily precursor" for democracy and economic
development. Establishing a timeline of days or weeks for
Burma's progress towards democracy is "unrealistic," and the
international community should be patient.

DDG Yang on ASEAN Plus 3
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3. (C) MFA Asia Department Deputy Director General Ambassador
Yang Yanli on November 13 gave Poloff a separate preview of
ASEAN-related meetings and the EAS meeting. She said leaders
should confirm that the ASEAN plus 3 "should be the main
vehicle for East Asian community building." She said the
first joint statement in 1999 served as a roadmap that laid
out priorities for cooperation in the following order:
economics, social/cultural, and security and political. She
said this year's session should reorder and supplement
priorities to: political/security, economic and finance,
energy, environment, sustainable development, and cultural
exchange. This year's session will also bless a 2007-2017
ten-year working plan that includes "hundreds" of cooperative
projects. Yang said Japan and the ROK wanted to consolidate
some of these projects, stressing quality over quantity.

China's ASEAN plus 1 Meeting
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4. (C) Yang said China's top priorty in this year's ASEAN
plus 1 meeting is progress on a China-ASEAN FTA, which she
described as "China's initiative." In addition, this year's
session will discuss deepening relations in ten priority
areas, including, inter alia, agriculture, human resources
development, infrastructure, energy, and investment. Yang
said that the South China Sea might also be discussed, but
that the situation there was "progressing pretty well." She
said China's goal is to see the South China Sea "secure and
peaceful" with countries "concentrating on joint
cooperation." Yang said China was looking forward to hearing
ASEAN's briefing on the ASEAN summit meeting, including the
adoption of the charter, which is the "big splash."

EAS Meeting
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5. Regarding East Asian Summit (EAS) meetings, Yang said that
there will be a leader's lunch and an afternoon meeting. She
said the afternoon session would be devoted to energy,
environment and climate change, and would also include
discussion of the future direction of the EAS. She said
Australia wanted to institutionalize the EAS and Japan had

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ideas for specific projects, but China prefers that the EAS
be a forum for leaders to discuss strategic issues, similar
to the G8. She acknowledged that the future direction of the
EAS is "very confused at this stage." Yang said Australia's
wants to raise Burma in the EAS, but China's position is that
Burma should not be on the agenda. Yang said ASEAN countries
are "pretty cautious" in terms of discussing Burma in the EAS
because they do not want negatively to affect UN Special
Envoy Gambari's mission. She said China believes it
appropriate at this stage to focus on Gambari's efforts and
to avoid "making the situation complicated" by taking actions
outside of that scope.
PICCUTA