Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09CHENGDU263
2009-11-18 08:29:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Consulate Chengdu
Cable title:  

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

Tags:  PGOV PHUM ECON EINV SOCI CH 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO1216
PP RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHCN #0263/01 3220829
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 180829Z NOV 09
FM AMCONSUL CHENGDU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3527
INFO RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC PRIORITY 0025
RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 4231
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)
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