CITIES OF CHONGQING AND CHENGDU: RIVALS AND BROTHERS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 CHENGDU 000232 SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP/CM E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/16/2019 TAGS: ECON EINV EAGR ELAB PGOV PINR CH SUBJECT: CITIES OF CHONGQING AND CHENGDU: RIVALS AND BROTHERS REF: A) CHENGDU 222; B) CHENGDU 229 CHENGDU 00000232 001.2 OF 004 CLASSIFIED BY: David E. Brown, Consul General, U.S. Consulate General Chengdu, Department of State. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (U) Summary: Chongqing and Chengdu have a long history of rivalry, but are increasingly becoming part of a larger megalopolis. Chongqing's GDP growth was 12.5 percent in the first half of 2009, ranking it sixth among all provinces, and resulted from: construction of new economic and financial zones, less bureaucracy because of its status as an autonomous municipality, winning a disproportionate share of Beijing's economic stimulus package, preferential tax policies under the Great Western Development Plan, and "great guanxi" because Party Secretary Bo Xilai is a powerful Politburo member. Chengdu, by contrast, boasts of a highly skilled labor force, key emerging industries such as solar, and expanding international air routes. ¶2. (C) Conversations with a Chongqing Vice Mayor and Chengdu's Mayor suggest both cities are struggling to make their pilot projects in urban-rural integration a success; Chengdu claims to have been more successful and have less of a problem with rural poverty and finding employment for migrant labor than does Chongqing. Making a surprisingly transparent jab at Bo Xilai, Chengdu's mayor told us that Chonqging officials "like to use the press to exaggerate what they have done," citing ONE on-going crackdown on gangs as more show than reality. End Summary. Introduction: Chongqing-Chengdu Rivalry's Long History -------------- -------------- ¶3. (U) Consul General recently met separately with Chongqing Vice Mayor Zhou Mubing and Chengdu Mayor Ge Honglin, providing an interesting contrast between two cities, often seen as rivals, and sometimes as brothers. Chongqing has gained and lost its independence vis-`-vis Sichuan's provincial capital of Chengdu at various times over history. In the 11th century BC, it was known as the state of "Ba," and a rival of the state of "Shu," which is today's Chengdu/Sichuan. In 1929 it became a municipality, was Chiang Kai-shek's provisional capital during WWII, but was absorbed again into Sichuan in 1950. It finally separated from Sichuan in 1997 as China's fourth (and by far the largest) autonomous municipality directly under the Central Government (along with Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai). Faceoff: Chongqing Vice Mayor and Chengdu Mayor Boast about Their Cities -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Chongqing: While at first not comparing his city to Chengdu, Zhou boasted that Chongqing's GDP growth was 14.2 percent in 2008, and 12.5 percent in the first half of 2009, ranking it sixth among all provinces. This superior performance was the result of several factors, he said: Economic and Financial Zones: Chongqing is building a new development zone north of the city, and a financial center downtown where the Yangtze and Jialing rivers meet. (Comment: CG was impressed by the bustle of mammoth construction sites both at the bonded zone at the river port in Cuntan district (ref A),and the rising financial district under construction downtown. End Comment.) Less Bureaucracy: Since Chongqing became an autonomous municipality, it has been composed of 40 districts and counties directly under the municipal government. Since there is no prefecture layer between Chongqing and county-level governments, the burden of government bureaucracy is not as heavy in Chongqing, where the ratio of bureaucrats to total population is only 1:50, vice the national ratio of 1:30. Stimulus Package: Chongqing is winning a disproportionate share CHENGDU 00000232 002.2 OF 004 of the central government's four trillion RMB stimulus package -- about five percent of the total, although Chongqing's population (of 32 million) is only two percent of the national total. (Note: Chongqing's population is actually about 2.5 percent of China's total, which still implies receiving twice the average share of the stimulus monies. End Note.) Preferential Tax Policies: Chongqing has also benefitted significantly from the central government's Great Western Development Plan, under which Chongqing is able to grant investors a reduced tax rate of only 15 percent of their income, vice 33 percent at the national level. This reduced rate was an important factor in convincing Hewlett-Packard to make a large new investment (with Taiwan partner Foxconn in a large notebook computer factory to open in 2012). Great "Guanxi:" Bo Xilai - a former Commerce Minister - is Chongqing's Party Secretary, and an influential member of the Communist Party's national-level Politburo. (Comment: some local observers credit Bo Xilai with single handedly convincing several foreign multinationals to come to Chongqing. The conventional wisdom in Chengdu is that Bo has had friction with Vice President Xi Jinping; many here are rooting for Bo to be promoted to higher office, with the most optimistic hoping that Bo could beat out Xi in the race to replace President Hu Jintao. End Comment.) ¶5. (SBU) Chengdu: Ge said that Chengdu did not have much foreign investment compared to coastal provinces and cities, but that more and more high-tech firms such as (Cisco rival) Huawei and (U.S. software company) Symantec were attracted by Chengdu's relatively low labor costs and highly skilled labor force. He invited CG to visit Chengdu's high-tech park to see the American companies there (which include Motorola and Agilent). Chengdu is a center of China's solar power industry, producing 3,000 tons of (poly)silicon in 2008. It is also putting great efforts into building electric cars that will soon be exhibited in international trade fairs, Ge added. ¶6. (U) Another draw for Chengdu was its international air connections to Paris, Amsterdam, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Bangkok, etc, Ge said. Non-stop flights to Taipei were convenient. The Chinese government had approved flights to Bangalore, but the Indian government had yet to do so, he said. Urban-Rural Development Reform; Migrant Labor -------------- ¶7. (SBU) Chongqing: Zhou also admitted that his city faced many economic challenges. While an autonomous "municipality," a large part of it is really rural (about 70 percent) and poor, with 20 countries -- particularly in the northeast and southeast -- not only poorer than the national average, but even below the average income level of western China, he said. In this context, Zhou explained that Chongqing was selected as ONE of two pilot locations (along with Chengdu) for urban/rural coordinated development reform. ONE key part of this reform concerns allowing farmers to transfer their land rights (but not sell the land since the state owns all land). The Government has been careful with this reform because there are more and more landless farmers, who are a potential threat to social stability, Zhou stated. For now, land transfer is allowed for farmers who have a stable, lifetime income of about 1000 RMB per month, social security, heath care etc. ¶8. (SBU) Chongqing is also exploring a new way for farmers to get mortgage loans based in part on using land rights as collateral, Zhou said. (Note: This is already being done in the Chengdu metropolitan area, with experiments that began last July after a half year spent documenting peasants' land rights. This experiment, already started in Dujiangyan -- ONE hour from Chengdu -- was to extend to all parts of the Chengdu metropolitan area within two years. See also ref B. End Note.) CHENGDU 00000232 003.2 OF 004 ¶9. (SBU) About 3-4 million local farmers have left home as migrant workers in other provinces, or cities in Chongqing, Zhou said. During the (January-February) 2009 Spring Festival period, about ONE million returned home, many because they had lost their jobs because of the global financial crisis. 60-70 percent left immediately after the Spring Festival and, several months later, only 50-60,000 still remain at home, meaning that the crisis did not have a serious, long-term effect on migrant workers in Chongqing. This being said, the Chongqing government provided considerable assistance to migrant farmers, including free skills training and job hunting, he said. ¶10. (SBU) Chongqing only needs about one-third of its large rural population (for a modern agricultural economy),Zhou said. Should the other two-thirds move to urban areas, this will create huge problems such as finding jobs, housing, education, health care, and social security, he added. ¶11. (SBU) Chengdu: Without providing specifics, Ge gave an upbeat view of Chengdu's efforts to address urban-rural disparities and improve the well being of migrant farmers. Unlike government officials in some other areas "who only pay attention to the construction and economic development of downtown areas to show their achievements and help them get promoted," he said, Chengdu's government has paid attention to the development in both rural and urban areas. "I went to Canada for study in early 1990's, and just like the United States, the deep impression I made there is that the gap between urban and rural is not very large. So I've tried to narrow the gap in Chengdu since I was appointed Mayor." Ge claimed that Chengdu did not have any "real" beggars. Even if you can see beggars on Chengdu's streets, they are really from other areas in Sichuan or other provinces, he said. ¶12. (SBU) Chengdu's government is trying to improve education for both rural and urban children in order to help more of them to be white-collar workers, Ge added. At the same time, Chengdu is also "considering" the social security network of its rural population. (Note: 55 percent of Chengdu's 11 million-person metropolitan area is considered to be rural, i.e. about six million people. End Note.) Inter-City Rivalry: Healthy Competition? -------------- ¶13. (U) Chongqing: Regional competition between Chongqing and Chengdu is natural and is good for their economic and social development, Zhou said. Even within Chongqing, there is intense competition between counties. China's new tax revenue system, whereby revenue is divided into two parts between the central and local governments (fenzao chifan),has given local governments more power to direct their own development, he said. Chongqing and Chengdu are also "good brothers," Zhou stressed. After the earthquake in Sichuan, Chongqing provided considerable aid, and received 5,000 victims for free medical treatment. ¶14. (SBU) Chengdu: Ge was not as kind in speaking of Chongqing, saying that "if you stayed in both cities for three days, you would come to the conclusion that Chengdu is definitely more developed than Chongqing." He explained that Chongqing has much larger poor rural areas, and Chongqing's urban-rural income gap is even larger than Chengdu's. Ge acknowledged that Chongqing had substantial heavy industry, but felt Chengdu was the clear leader in high-tech, nuclear and other industries (such as aviation and solar power). ¶15. (SBU) Perhaps because the rivalry is more intense than he might admit, Ge also said that Chongqing officials "like to use the press to exaggerate what they have done." ONE example is the on-going crackdown on gangs in Chongqing, he said, where the image in the media is "different from the reality." Calming down some, Ge concluded that it was "reasonable for Chongqing CHENGDU 00000232 004.2 OF 004 and Chengdu to compete with each other." He lamented, however, that foreign investors use this rivalry to seek greater investment incentives, citing the case of a Danish company that said it was leaning towards investing in Chongqing because that municipality "offered everything that Chengdu had and more." Rivals, But Two Halves of an Emerging Megalopolis -------------- -------------- ¶16. (U) Comment: Perhaps because they are sick of this rivalry, China's central government planners are starting to promote a new concept of the two cities as a larger, integrated megalopolis, with the new name of "Cheng-Yu," composed of one-character municipal abbreviations, respectively, for Chengdu and Chongqing. While the two cities are currently separated by a 3.5 hour highway drive, rail service now only takes two hours, and will be further reduced to 45 minutes when a high-speed rail is completed. End Comment. Chengdu's Mayor: Tired of His Job and Surprisingly Blunt -------------- -------------- ¶17. (C) Comment: Ge's criticism of Chongqing's crime crackdown was a surprisingly blunt and scarcely veiled jab at Bo Xilai -- a much higher-level official than Ge. Over dinner, Ge confided to CG that he had been Chengdu's mayor for two terms, but that he was "really tired of the position." He felt that, in China, the responsibilities of mayors are too large, e.g. "if an accident kills 30 people, the central government may take over the case and force his resignation." ¶18. (C) Ge may have been feeling under the gun because of other controversies that have rocked his administration. Shortly after the May 2008 earthquake, Ge was severely criticized by visiting Premier Wen Jiabao because the city of Chengdu had just opened a hugely expensive municipal office complex in a grassy development zone outside of the city center. In a public humiliation, Ge's administration was forced to put the complex up for sale. Ge's comment to CG that he was "uncertain what he would do after stepping down as mayor" suggests that Ge is not confident that he will be promoted at the end of his term. BROWN