RED ALERT! U.S. DIPLOMATS VISIT (QUASI-) CLOSED CITY OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CHENGDU 000263 SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP/CM E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/18/2019 TAGS: PGOV PHUM ECON EINV SOCI CH SUBJECT: RED ALERT! U.S. DIPLOMATS VISIT (QUASI-) CLOSED CITY OF MIANYANG REF: A) CHENGDU 262, B) CHENGDU 218 CHENGDU 00000263 001.2 OF 003 CLASSIFIED BY: David E. Brown, Consul General, U.S. Consulate General Chengdu, Department of State. REASON: 1.4 (b) ¶1. (C) Summary and Comment. Consul General recently visited Mianyang, Sichuan Province's second largest city, and a "Science and Technology City" where Beijing carries out research for its nuclear weapons program. The city is also home to Changhong, a former military-industrial company that now has ambitions to become one of the world's leading electronics companies. Mianyang's mayor described an innovative system that allowed citizens to submit on-line petitions, but then ominously added that the petition system also had the benefit of allowing "public security departments" to "promote harmony" and "create stability" -- making us wonder whether the city also uses it to track and sanction `trouble makers.' Mianyang's earthquake reconstruction projects are "going well," the mayor said, but actually lag other areas of the province, we believe. The city recently attracted foreign investment by U.S. firm Emerson Electric, and is hoping that improved infrastructure -- including a high-speed rail link to Chengdu and Xi'an -- will lure other multinationals. Students at CG's lecture at a local university criticized professors for planting questions; one student gave a passionate defense of free speech and fiercely criticized the Chinese government's Internet "Great Fire Wall." ¶2. (C) Comment. Mianyang is an old line military city, lagging in competition with other Sichuan cities. Mianyang's important military-industrial sector may be both an advantage and a curse: its well educated workforce should be a strong draw to higher-tech foreign companies, but its government appears more secretive and less sophisticated than in Chengdu. Most likely, it does not feel the same pressure that has forced other former military cities to reform their thinking. End Summary and Comment. Dear Foreign Guests? Or, American Spies at the Gate? -------------- -------------- ¶3. (U) Consul General made a day-trip on November 13 to Sichuan Province's second largest city, Mianyang, which is located 90 minutes northeast of Chengdu, and perhaps the closest large city in China to the country's geographic epicenter. Mianyang, a lovely city of 600,000 with 5.4 million in the surrounding counties, is old, dating from 200 BC. With its proximity to cool, green mountains, it is unsurprising that Mianyang is famous as the birthplace and/or residence of a series of China's most revered poets, including Li Bai and Du Fu. ¶4. (SBU) Mianyang's modern history under the PRC is equally storied, but for completely different reasons. Mianyang was one of Mao's "Third Line" military-industrial cities, and it remains the only city in China designated by the State Council as a "Science and Technology City" (kejicheng),Mayor Zeng Wanming told us. 800 scientists receive a special State Council allowance, and there are 100,000 science and technology experts in the city, he said. On an earlier trip, we learned that Mianyang's "Science City" district, where Beijing carries out research for its nuclear weapons program, is still closed to foreigners. ¶5. (C) Perhaps partly because of the city's sensitive status, when Consul General passed through the highway toll booth outside the city, his car was met by a police escort that accompanied him to all his meetings: -- first, with Changhong, originally a military-industrial state enterprise founded under Mao's 1958 "Great Leap Forward," now a huge consumer electronics company with longer-term ambitions of becoming a world-class multinational (Ref A); -- then, a courtesy call on Mayor Zeng; a lunch with a more pragmatic, locally born Vice Mayor, Liu Dong; and a lecture on the "30th anniversary of US-China Relations" at Southwest China Science and Technology University. Mayor: The Party Line and Nothing But the Party Line CHENGDU 00000263 002.2 OF 003 -------------- -------------- ¶6. (C) Mayor Zeng, a tall, square-jawed politician straight out of Communist Party of China (CPC) central casting, was not particularly helpful, making only a faint allusion to the desirability of (foreign) investment, then proudly talking about (home-town favorite) Changhong. ¶7. (C) When CG noted press reports suggesting that Mianyang had an innovative system that allowed its citizens to submit on-line petitions, and inquired how a recent poll had indicated that (a positively Soviet) "100 percent" of its users had been satisfied with it, Zeng explained that, if a citizen asked 10 questions and received 10 answers, then this counted as 100 percent "satisfied." He then added ominously that the petition system also had the benefit of allowing "public security departments" to "promote harmony" (cu hexie) and "create stability" (chuang wending). When pressed further, Zeng downplayed the petition system's importance, saying that, for example, farmers with no access to the Internet were not using this petition system. ¶8. (C) Comment: Zeng's additional remarks about the "public security departments' using the petition system were mysterious and possibly disturbing in light of allegations, appearing coincidentally in the same day's (November 13) edition of the "International Herald Tribune," that China's national government had tolerated an extensive network of secret jails operated in Beijing by provincial and municipal governments to prevent their citizens from complaining to national officials. The article alleges that 1) provincial and municipal officials in China are subject to a national evaluation system in which they are penalized based on the number of complaints received in Beijing about their management; and 2) these officials thus have a strong incentive to prevent petitioners from reaching the central government. While we have no evidence that Mianyang's petition system has any other purpose other than to improve the quality of the city's services, the juxtaposition of Zeng's remarks with this news report was striking. End Comment. Post-May 2008 Earthquake Reconstruction: Mayor Ascribes Major Progress to "Beauty" of China's Socialist System -------------- -------------- ¶9. (C) Zeng noted that, with support from the central and provincial government, earthquake reconstruction projects in Mianyang had been "going well, with 80 percent of projects started and 40 percent completed." Mianyang had a three-year reconstruction plan, but "we are hoping to complete it in two years." While most Chinese interlocutors spare CG heavy propaganda, Zeng at this point laid on thickly his praise for China's socialist system, describing it as "beautiful" and a model of a philosophy of "if someone is in difficulty, help will come from all directions" (yifangyounan bafangzhichi). This was his explanation of why China could carry out "so many reconstruction projects in such a short period." (Note: Based on Zeng's statistics, Mianyang actually appears to be making much slower progress than other areas of Sichuan Province (ref B). End comment.) Vice Mayor: Improved Infrastructure to Bring Development Boom? -------------- -------------- ¶10. (U) Later at lunch, our host, Vice Mayor Liu, revealed that Mianyang had only attracted a couple "Global Five Hundred Companies": France's cement giant Lafarge, and America's Emerson Electric, which now has a factory there under construction. Liu felt that Mianyang's 26 academies (xueyuan) -- a product of the city's role in nuclear and other military research -- meant that that the city should be attractive to foreign investors. Emerson's CEO had visited in September, Liu explained, and had chosen Mianyang because of its lower labor cost, and large CHENGDU 00000263 003.2 OF 003 number of well educated workers. ¶11. (SBU) Unlike Zeng, Liu was an enthusiastic salesman for Mianyang, asserting that the "60 billion RMB" high-speed rail line now under construction would reduce travel time to Chengdu to only 30 minutes, and to Xi'an in the north to just over two hours. This improved infrastructure, and Mianyang's natural beauty, would boost the city's tourism industry as well as attract bedroom commuters to Chengdu, he felt. "Why would any want to live in Chengdu's horrible air pollution when they could live in Mianyang?" he confided. Moreover, prices of real estate in Chengdu had also soared, he said, reaching 5700 RMB per square meter, versus only 3500 RMB in Mianyang. Lecture at University: Students Angered by Planted Questions -------------- -------------- ¶12. (C) CG's lecture at Southwest China Science and Technology University was standing room only, a lecture hall of about 300 seats with perhaps an additional 100 students crowded around the perimeter. After the lecture, as soon as CG opened the floor to questions, a teacher jumped up with raised hand to pose the first question - a friendly query about promoting greater exchanges. As the Q&A session continued, ESTH officer and LES -- seated in the audience near one side -- were able to hear a number of students angrily complain about professors planting (soft-ball) questions and other students "wasting opportunities" by asking (touchy-feely) questions, e.g. about what CG thought of Chinese culture. One of the students near ESTH officer did have a chance to pose a question, however, and seized it -- making an articulate and surprisingly blunt critique of the Chinese government's "red fire wall" controlling the Internet. In the five lectures that CG has done so far at Chinese universities, this was the most passionate and direct challenge to the PRC government that CG had heard. A Church? A Mosque? No, a Hospital -------------- ¶13. (SBU) While driving into town to our first meeting, we passed what appeared to resemble a Catholic church, complete with multiple tall spires with crosses on top. When inquiring over lunch what kind of church it was, Mianyang Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese Vice Chairman Liu Leiming scratched his head and wondered, "Church, what church? It must have been a mosque." Liu explained that Mianyang's population, composed of 20 percent ethnic minorities including the "Qiang" group concentrated in Beichuan County, was hit particularly hard by the huge, May 2008 earthquake. The (Muslim) Hui people were also numerous in Mianyang, and had lived there for a "long time, hundreds of years," he explained. We must have mistaken a mosque for a church, Liu concluded. When CG noted that there had been crosses on the spires, Liu said, "Oh, that's not a church, it's a hospital with red crosses. BROWN