Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09SHENYANG185
2009-10-20 03:24:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Consulate Shenyang
Cable title:  

YANBIAN SINO-KOREAN HARMONY: THIS IS HOW WE DO IT

Tags:  CH EAGR ECON KN KS PGOV PHUM PREF PREL 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO4408
PP RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHSH #0185/01 2930324
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 200324Z OCT 09
FM AMCONSUL SHENYANG
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8870
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC 0230
RHMFISS/COMUSKOREA J2 SEOUL KOR
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC 0173
RUCGEVC/JOINT STAFF WASHDC 0123
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC 0182
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 SHENYANG 000185 

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/K, EAP/CM, INR
MOSCOW PASS TO VLADIVOSTOK

E.O. 12958: DECL: TEN YEARS AFTER KOREAN UNIFICATION
TAGS: CH EAGR ECON KN KS PGOV PHUM PREF PREL
SUBJECT: YANBIAN SINO-KOREAN HARMONY: THIS IS HOW WE DO IT

REF: A. SHENYANG 143

B. SHENYANG 163

Classified By: Consul General Stephen B. Wickman. Reasons 1.4(b/d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 SHENYANG 000185

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/K, EAP/CM, INR
MOSCOW PASS TO VLADIVOSTOK

E.O. 12958: DECL: TEN YEARS AFTER KOREAN UNIFICATION
TAGS: CH EAGR ECON KN KS PGOV PHUM PREF PREL
SUBJECT: YANBIAN SINO-KOREAN HARMONY: THIS IS HOW WE DO IT

REF: A. SHENYANG 143

B. SHENYANG 163

Classified By: Consul General Stephen B. Wickman. Reasons 1.4(b/d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: China is hard at work on its ethnic minority
policy in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture bordering
Russia and North Korea. In exchange for political
allegiance, the Chinese seem to allow the local Sino-Koreans
considerable sovereignty in governing most issues, from
refugees to economic relations with the Koreas. Meanwhile,
our contacts in the area report that their usually combative
North Korean counterparts have become more accommodating
than in recent memory. Contacts recently returned from
North Korea say the food situation continues to be stable in
comparison to past years. END SUMMARY.


2. (U) Consul General and ConGenOff traveled to Jilin
Province's Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture October 15-
18 to participate in the celebration of Yanbian University's
60th anniversary. Notable guests included former State
Ethnic Affairs Commission Chairman Li Dezhu, Vice Minister
of Education Lu Xin, Jilin Province Party Secretary Wang
Min, Kim Il-Sung University President Song Ja-rip, and the
Director of the North Korean Academy of Social Sciences.

CHINESE MESSAGE: ETHNIC SOLIDARITY
--------------


3. (C) For a small university on the China-DPRK border,
Yanbian University's 60th anniversary ceremony was attended
by a large number of luminaries, including the former State
Ethnic Affairs Commission Chairman Li Dezhu, himself a Sino-
Korean. University President Jin Bingmin punctuated his
keynote address with more than one pointed reference to
"ethnic harmony" and solidarity between the Korean and Han
Chinese people of the Prefecture, a theme repeated
throughout the weekend's festivities.


4. (C) During dinner before the party began watching the

televised confessions of the Uighurs convicted for their
part in the Urumqi violence, the university's Foreign
Affairs Office (FAO) Director Liu Mingzhu, a Sino-Korean,
shook his head and said: "Something like that would never,
ever happen here... impossible." After several minutes of
watching violent replay, Liu said the news was "depressing"
and asked the waitress to change the channel.


5. (C) Even more over the top were the antics of a Beijing-
based Sino-Korean "boy band" performing at a star-studded
musical event featuring well-known alumni and headlined by
the Sino-Korean winner of China's 2008 "American Idol"-style
CCTV talent competition. The Beijing-based band took the
stage to a screaming crowd of hundreds of students and
community members. Prancing about the stage, warming up the
audience, and building up the crowd to garner screams of
many female college students, the band leader asked all of
the Sino-Koreans in the audience to "raise their hands and
cheer." The Sino-Koreans cheered loudly. He then asked all
of the Han Chinese students in the crowd to do the same, and
the Han Chinese crowd did their best to outdo the Sino-
Koreans and cheered loudly. Satisfied by the substantial
volume from both quarters, the band leader then excitedly
reminded the entire audience that they were "all Chinese,
the future of the People's Republic of China" and asked
everyone to cheer "together." The crowd, somewhat
nonplussed, cheered loudly, but the sudden political
correctness seemed to dampen an even louder final cheer.

SPLIT NORTH KOREAN PERSONALITY
--------------


6. (C) Yanbian University of Science and Technology (YUST)
and Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST)
Vice President David Kim was back in town for the
festivities, at least partly because he said it made no
sense for him to remain in Pyongyang as planned when the
university was not yet up and running. Kim said that his
North Korean Education Ministry interlocutors were very
positive and cooperative during his short stay in Pyongyang,
proposing that the PUST leadership go ahead with its plan to
begin business courses this fall. However, Kim convinced
other PUST leaders to set their sights on a successful April

SHENYANG 00000185 002 OF 002


1, 2010 launch rather than a late fall escapade that might
unwittingly derail the entire project.


7. (C) FAO Director Liu spent the Chinese national day
holidays accompanying a delegation of agricultural experts
to Rason, far from Pyongyang, where the university had
donated rice, wheat, and potato seeds and shared farming
best practices. Liu said that in contrast to his previous
visits to North Korea a few years ago, his North Korean
hosts were more laid back, less focused on protocol and
propaganda, and more focused on making outreach and
achieving shared goals (Ref A).


8. (C) Sino-Korean Yanbian University lecturer Jin Xinghai
said that while he enjoyed visiting North Korea because of
its cleanliness, hospitality, and the fact that he had
relatives in North Korea, he echoed a common complaint of
Chinese officials who have extensive DPRK dealings. He said
the North Koreans regularly caused a protocol ruckus by
finding excuses to get angry at their Sino-Korean hosts
(NOTE: the Prefectural FAO Vice Director also told us she
dreaded having to host North Korean delegations to Yanbian
because they would undoubtedly find something to get angry
about).


9. (C) Jin cited the visiting North Korean delegation to the
University's 60th anniversary festivities as an example.
Their flight from Shenyang arrived after the start of a
dinner banquet; while the Kim Il-sung University president
was quickly ushered to his seat at the head table, the rest
of the roughly 20-member delegation was seated further away
from the front. With the exception of the president, the
entire delegation walked out thinking they had been
disrespected. Jin praised FAO Director Liu for reminding
the Yanbian University leadership that "a poor country with
a damaged ego" is more likely to be offended and act petty.
Liu convinced the Yanbian University President to pay
special attention to the North Korean delegation at a
banquet on their final night before returning to Pyongyang
via Shenyang.

FOOD SITUATION IMPROVED, DEFECTORS IN YANBIAN LEFT ALONE
-------------- --------------


10. (C) YUST Dean Norma Nichols, also recently returned from
Pyongyang, relayed the puzzled statements of a Western aid
organization leader who was with her on the same trip for
PUST's dedication (Ref B). The aid director, a veteran of
religious charity work in sub-Saharan Africa, expressed
surprise at the appearance of Pyongyang citizens somewhat
critically: "I know what starving people look like... these
people are clearly not starving." Nichols said that
Pyongyang in September 2009 was a "world apart" from her
prior visit in the late 1990s as an aid observer and that
the food situation appeared to be much better. She assumed,
however, that remote rural areas were much worse off than
Pyongyang or the PRC-DPRK border regions.


11. (C) A Sino-Korean trader whose childhood friends are
actively involved in farming exchanges, however, said the
situation was far from being ideal. Apart from the obvious
shortages of arable land and fertilizer that perennially
limited North Korea's total output, his expert friends
complained about poor land management, such as overplanting
and monoculture fields.


12. (C) When Congenoff asked David Kim about the situation
of undocumented North Koreans living "illegally" in China,
Kim opined once again that the Chinese officials in Yanbian
were "reasonable" and "willing to turn a blind eye" to their
presence.

WICKMAN