DASH FOR THE CASH: LOCAL PARTY SECRETARY GETS HIS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIJING 001318 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/15/2034 TAGS: PGOV ECON KPAO CH SUBJECT: DASH FOR THE CASH: LOCAL PARTY SECRETARY GETS HIS PIECE OF THE STIMULUS PIE Classified By: Acting Political Section Chief Dan Kritenbrink. Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (C) Providing a window on the thinking of local officials in China, the Party Secretary of Hulunbeier City in Inner Mongolia on May 12 described to POLOFF his successful campaign to obtain a large chunk of PRC stimulus package funding for his city, as well as his efforts to maintain the municipality's GDP growth rate at an ambitious 18 percent, despite the global financial crisis. The Party Secretary traveled to Beijing in November, immediately after the central government announced its stimulus package, to personally secure RMB 800 million (USD 118 million) in funding for new local infrastructure projects. Hulunbeier's own permanent representative office in Beijing -- separate from the larger provincial liaison office -- was a key factor in the city's ability to lobby successfully for such funds. The Party Secretary's approach to the global slowdown was to simply "ignore it" and urge his subordinates to "charge ahead" with development plans as if nothing had changed. End Summary. DINNER WITH THE PARTY SECRETARY -------------- ¶2. (C) Over dinner with POLOFF May 12, Cao Zhenghai (protect),the Party Secretary of Hulunbeier City, Inner Mongolia, boasted of his success securing funding from the central government's economic stimulus package and maintaining high economic growth. Hulunbeier is a municipality of 2.7 million people in the far northeast corner of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR). The city's economy -- based on coal mining, resource extraction and electricity generation -- has one of the fastest growth rates in China. WHAT GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS? -------------- ¶3. (C) Party Secretary Cao described his subordinates in Hulunbeier as being overcome with pessimism following the outbreak of the global financial crisis last year and reflexively wanting to scale back growth targets for 2009. Such gloom, he argued, was mainly "psychological" and not based on the city's real economic situation. In an internal meeting in late 2008, Cao told city leaders that given the lack of export-oriented industries in Hulunbeier, "there is no reason why the financial crisis should affect us." Cao said his approach to the financial crisis has essentially been to "ignore it" and charge ahead with ambitious 2009 goals of 18 percent GDP growth and 20 percent government revenue growth. (Note: Provincial and sub-provincial GDP statistics in China are notoriously inaccurate. Some central government officials have proposed abolishing the use of these figures altogether due the tendency of local officials to inflate these figures as well as concerns that they focus local officials' attention on achieving growth at the cost of the environment and other efforts to raise overall living standards.) ¶4. (C) Hulunbeier, Cao asserted, was on course to meet or exceed its ambitious growth targets, and government revenue had grown at an annual rate of just over 30 percent in the first quarter of 2009. Cao attributed Hulunbeier's performance to new investment in the energy and chemical sectors. Though he admitted total energy demand in China had fallen, Hulunbeier sells most of its coal and electricity to China's northeast provinces, an area where the economy is dominated by state-owned enterprises and that has been largely insulated from the global economic slowdown. FACE TIME IN BEIJING -------------- ¶5. (C) Infrastructure spending, including money from the central government's stimulus package, was an important component of Cao's plan to maintain Hulunbeier's 18 percent GDP growth. Cao bragged that he had personally secured RMB 800 million (USD 118 million) in direct stimulus funding for his city BEIJING 00001318 002 OF 002 from the central government, which he claimed was nearly three times the average amount for similar sized cities. "I was in Beijing the second day after they announced the stimulus (in November)," Cao said, adding that he personally visited the National Development and Reform Commission with a list of "ready-to-go" local infrastructure projects. Cao repeatedly emphasized the importance of Hulunbeier maintaining its own representative office in Beijing (separate from the larger IMAR provincial liason office) to lobby for such resources. (Note: At this point, Cao's son, a senior in finance at Beijing's Renmin University who also attended the dinner, challenged his father on the wisdom of such infrastructure spending. The return on such investment, the son argued, would likely be very low. Cao dismissed this argument, saying that the return on capital was irrelevant next to the boost such projects provide to GDP growth.) SUPPORT FOR VIRTUAL PRESENCE POST (VPP) CONCEPT -------------- -- ¶6. (SBU) Cao voiced strong support for Mission China's Virtual Presence Post (VPP) Program and invited the Inner Mongolia VPP team to visit his city in 2009. Hulunbeier, Cao said, did not yet have a sister city in the United States, and he hoped to enlist the VPP team's assistance in identifying a suitable match. MEETING AND GREETING -------------- ¶7. (C) Asked how he spent most days on the job, Cao said his life as Party Secretary was dominated by official meetings, inspection tours, and greeting visiting IMAR and central-level officials. Cao said the summer months bring a steady stream of high- level visitors to Hulunbeier who come for both business and pleasure (the lakes and grassland around Hulunbeier are considered among IMAR's most scenic areas). Cao said he must personally greet and entertain any visiting leader at or above the rank of vice minister. Social drinking, Cao joked, was an "essential skill" for IMAR Party cadres. RAISING KIDS THE CADRE WAY -------------- ¶8. (C) In the presence of his son, Cao spoke at length about the difficulties high-level CCP leaders have in raising children. "The children of leaders tend to go to one of two extremes, either they are very talented or completely useless," Cao declared, making clear his son fell into the former category. Cao gave his son only RMB 1,000 (USD 147) per month in spending money, which he noted was modest for a university student in Beijing. "I want my son to be somewhere between the richest kids and the poorest." Cao said he also lent his son RMB 10,000 (USD 1,470) to use to play the stock market and learn about investing, though Cao stressed he expected his son to pay the money back. Cao commented that the children of elites enjoy greater opportunities because of their parents' status, yet they ultimately must prove themselves through their own hard work. He noted that while most college graduates were having great difficulty finding jobs, his son would face no such pressures. "I can pick up the phone and get him a job anywhere he wants to work," Cao asserted. BACKGROUND ON CAO -------------- ¶9. (C) Cao Zhenghai was born and raised in Hohhot, the capital of the IMAR. He has spent his political career climbing the rungs of the IMAR Communist Party hierarchy. He was appointed Party Secretary of Hulunbeier in 2006. He previously served as Mayor of Hulunbeier and as Deputy Party Secretary of Baotou City. He studied at the CCP Central Party School in Beijing from March to July 2008. Cao told PolOff that he expected to eventually be transferred to Hohhot, IMAR's capital, and promoted to IMAR vice chairman (the equivalent of a deputy provincial governor). PICCUTA