CHINA CHANGES LEAD BILATERAL INVESTMENT TREATY

C O N F I D E N T I A L BEIJING 003339

SIPDIS

STATE PASS USTR
EEB FOR OIA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/28/2018
TAGS: ETRD EINV TBIO PREL CH
SUBJECT: CHINA CHANGES LEAD BILATERAL INVESTMENT TREATY
NEGOTIATOR

Classified By: ROBERT LUKE, ECONOMIC MINISTER-COUNSELOR, REASON 1.5(B)


1. (C) On August 27 U.S. Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT)
negotiators in Washington received an e-mail from China's
Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) informing them that China had
designated a new lead negotiator for BIT talks scheduled
September 2-5 in Beijing. On August 28 MOFCOM confirmed to
Embassy the change, but declined to provide a reason. The
new negotiator, Director General Li Ling is Director-General
level official in MOFCOM's Bureau of Fair Trade in Imports
and Exports (BOFT) and is the wife of People's Bank of China
(PBOC) Governor Zhou Xiaochun. Earlier, Li also reportedly
had some involvement in the drafting of China's recently
promulgated Anti-Monopoly Law. She has been at MOFCOM or its
predecessor ministries since 1981. She graduated in 1980
from the Beijing Institute of International Affairs. Li is
also a standing member and arbitrator in China International
Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC).


2. (C) Li is well known by the the Embassy as she led
MOFCOM's IPR office in 2004-05 and was a key U.S.
interlocutor on IPR during that period. Those who dealt with
her on IPR report that she did not seem to know well the
substance, but was known for her ability to lead and organize
a negotiating team. She was a personable but often an
inflexible, and sometimes unresponsive negotiator who seemed
unwilling to push back on the Chinese IPR bureaucracy to
reach an agreement. Li speaks limited English and uses an
interpreter for all official meetings.


3. (C) The replacement of Director General Guo Jingyi as the
lead BIT negotiator is not a surprise as Guo indicated a
number of times over the past two months to Econoffs that he
may not lead the talks. While Li has replaced Guo Jingyi as
lead negotiator for the BIT talks, MOFCOM has denied that any
other changes have been made in MOFCOM's Treaty and Law
Department, ie, as far as we know, Shang Ming remains
Director General. MOFCOM would also not provide information
on whether Guo will have a new assignment. Embassy has heard
rumors that Guo has been implicated in an investigation
currently underway at MOFCOM that reportedly involves a
number of mid and high-level MOFCOM officials who were close
to former Vice Premier Wu Yi. However, we have no official
confirmation of these rumors.
RANDT