OLYMPICS: CENTRAL CADRES SENT TO PROVINCES TO MEET

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIJING 003118

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/14/2038
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL KOLY CH
SUBJECT: OLYMPICS: CENTRAL CADRES SENT TO PROVINCES TO MEET
PETITIONERS, PREVENT DISRUPTION OF GAMES, CONTACT SAYS

REF: A. BEIJING 2592

B. BEIJING 3005

Classified By: Political Minister Counselor Aubrey Carlson
for reasons 1.4 b,d.

Summary
--------------


1. (C) China's Central Government, according to one
Embassy contact at the Ministry of Environmental
Protection (protect),is sending cadres out to the
provinces to meet directly with petitioners in an
effort to dissuade them from traveling to Beijing
during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Our source
is himself being sent to Zhejiang Province as part of
this program, which he said was initiated by Vice
President Xi Jinping. Each Ministry has been paired
with a province, our contact reports, and must send
cadres there to hear petitioners' grievances. End
summary.

Heading Petitioners off at the Source
--------------


2. (C) Mou Guangfeng (strictly protect),Director
General of the Department of Environmental Impact
Assessment Management at the Ministry of Environmental
Protection, told PolOff August 10 that he will travel
to Zhejiang Province the week of August 18 as part of
a campaign to prevent petitioners from traveling to
Beijing. Mou expects to remain in Zhejiang for a
month. Each Central Government ministry, he said, has
been assigned a province and is responsible for
sending cadres to that province to meet with
petitioners. Mou said the program is the brainchild
of Vice President Xi Jinping and is linked to the
Government's efforts to maintain security during the
Olympic (August 8-24) and Paralympic Games (September
6-17). By giving petitioners a chance to speak
directly with a Central Government official, Mou said,
the hope is they will feel less of a need to travel to
Beijing.

Each Ministry Assigned to a Province
--------------


3. (C) Mou said he does not know how provinces were
assigned to particular ministries, but he said
Zhejiang is a good match for the Ministry of
Environmental Protection since many disputes there,
such as an ongoing controversy over noise pollution
around Hangzhou's Xiaoshan Airport, involve
environmental issues. Mou said his job will be to
represent the Central Government and to respond to all
petitioners, regardless of whether their grievances
involve environmental issues. Mou told PolOff he is
glad his ministry was assigned to prosperous Zhejiang
Province and not a poorer area, where petitioning
issues tend to be more "complex" and harder to
resolve.


4. (C) Mou said that the Ministry of Housing and
Urban-Rural Development (where Mou's wife once worked)
has been assigned to deal with petitioners from
Shanghai Municipality.


5. (C) The Minitry of Environmental Protection often
calls on Mou to help respond to public protests over
environmental issues. In 2007 he traveled to Xiamen
to meet with residents who had demonstrated against
the construction of a chemical plant. Earlier in
2008, Mou was the Ministry point person during
negotiations with Shanghai residents angry at plans to
expand the city's maglev train.


6. (C) The Chinese domestic press, including the
August 4 issue of Caijing Magazine, has made reference
to a program to send Central Government officials out
to the provinces to deal with petitioners. These
media reports, however, have offered few details about
this effort. Caijing and other media reported that
the program is an outcome of a June 28 video
conference convened by the Central Government to urge
local leaders to handle petitioners "properly" during
the Olympic Games. The June 28 conference took place
the same day a major riot broke out in Weng'an,
Guizhou Province (ref A),and a few weeks before the
Central Government issued new rules outlining
punishments for local officials who fail to handle

BEIJING 00003118 002 OF 002


petitioners properly (ref B).
RANDT