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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SHENYANG 000044 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/07/2028 
TAGS: PGOV PINR ECON CH
SUBJECT: NORTHEAST CHINA LEADERS TO WATCH (PT. 1): LIAONING 
 AND JILIN 
 
REF: A. (A) 07 SHENYANG 245 
     ¶B. (B) 07 SHENYANG 220 
     ¶C. (C) 07 SHENYANG 47 
 
Classified By: CONSUL GENERAL STEPHEN B. WICKMAN. 
REASONS: 1.4 (b/d). 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Northeast China is home to a number of 
promising, up-and-coming officials worth watching as they 
seek to prove their political mettle in "revitalizing" this 
strategic corner of the PRC.  Communist Youth League 
lineages remain a common denominator in most, but not all, 
profilees.  Recent leadership changes have given all three 
of Northeast China's governorships, and one party-chief 
slot, to Youth Leaguers, though contacts generally caution 
against overestimating this.  Li Keqiang's ascension to 
Beijing last fall unleashed substantial turnover in 
Liaoning Province's highest echelons, but attendant 
internal jockeying may have left the leadership slightly 
less cohesive.  Farther north, Jilin Province experienced 
less top-level turnover, but both Party Secretary Wang Min 
and Governor Han Changfu--two of several promising 
officials there--look to be serious candidates for possible 
national office.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (SBU) This is the first in a two-part series on 
leadership dynamics in northeast China over the past year, 
with a particular emphasis on rising stars likely bound for 
higher, possibly national, office.  Part one focuses on 
Liaoning and Jilin provinces, part two on Heilongjiang 
Province, farther north. 
 
LIAONING AND THE POST-LI KEQIANG LEADERSHIP 
------------------------------------------- 
¶3. (SBU) LI'S SUCCESSKR, A.I.  Liaoning Party Secretary 
(PS) LI Keqiang's long-anticipated elevation to the 
Politburo Standing Committee in fall 2007 unleashed a 
fairly substantial leadership turnover in the province's 
highest echelons, more so than at corresponding levels in 
Jilin and Heilongjiang province.  Beijing tipped Liaoning 
Governor ZHANG Wenyue--in a high-level Xinjiang posting 
before his transfer to northeast China--to replace Li as 
Party chief of the booming province, which continued to 
blaze the path to "northeast revitalization," clocking 
official "GDP" growth of 14.5 percent in 2007, well ahead 
of the national average.  Post contacts widely regard the 
dour 64-year-old rumored friend of Premier Wen Jiabao--both 
shared the same influential patron in younger years--as a 
placeholder, given his impending compulsory retirement at 
¶65.  Zhang became a target of popular dissatisfaction when 
the collapse of a massive pyramid scheme triggered 
significant protests in Liaoning (refs A-B) toward the end 
of 2007.  But unconfirmed rumors of his son's involvement 
in the affair seem to have had no measurable effect on 
Zhang's political fortunes. 
 
¶4. (C) A GOVERNOR CHALLENGED?  Succeeding Zhang as Governor 
is Shenyang Party Secretary CHEN Zhenggao, a polished 56- 
year-old Youth Leaguer who spent his formative professional 
years in Dalian.  Chen worked his way up the ranks of the 
Dalian Communist Youth League (CYL) and municipal 
government in the 1980s and 1990s before transferring to 
Shenyang in late 1997.  Five years as a Liaoning vice 
governor eventually earned him an appointment as PS of 
Shenyang in 2005.  In private, we have found Chen--who has 
one daughter currently in Syracuse completing a Master's-- 
pleasant, business-savvy, eager to practice his English and 
comfortable sounding off on foreign-policy issues. 
Shenyang residents generally do not hold Chen in the 
highest regard, however, and blame him for weak economic 
growth wrought by an overemphasis on (inflationary) real- 
estate development during his tenure as PS of the seven- 
million-strong provincial capital.  High-level Party 
insiders in Liaoning tell us Liaoning Deputy PS LUO Lin 
waged a bruising campaign for the governorship; Chen 
ultimately prevailed, but contacts say Luo Lin's influence- 
-forged through his hand in cadre assignments and 
promotions while he was chief of Liaoning's powerful 
Organization Bureau--has left Chen challenged internally. 
 
¶5. (C) A POWERFUL DEPUTY PS.  Deputy PS Luo Lin is chief 
among Liaoning Province's crop of up-and-coming younger 
officials worth watching (Luo is profiled in ref C).  A 53- 
year-old from Dalian--a political proving ground for a 
number of leading Liaoning officials these days--with deep 
provincial and some national CYL experience, Luo is a 
consummate Party insider who continued to consolidate his 
power while working with Li Keqiang and Zhang Wenyue. 
During the second half of 2007, he profited by informally 
cadging his old portfolio at the Organization Bureau for 
 
SHENYANG 00000044  002 OF 003 
 
 
several months after the departure of SU Shulin--the 44- 
year-old former PetroChina executive and rising star 
profiled in ref C--who was tapped to lead Sinopec. 
Contacts say Luo had some important national support, but 
nowhere near enough, to succeed Zhang Wenyue as governor. 
Now, however, from his governor-level position as Deputy PS 
and from his new perch as Chairman of the Liaoning Chinese 
People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Luo has 
the administrative weight and ability to contest Chen 
Zhenggao, if necessary.  Luo's work experience over the 
past three decades is almost exclusively Liaoning-centric, 
but he remains an ambitious leader with many years of 
political life ahead of him. 
 
JILIN: FOUR TO WATCH 
-------------------- 
¶6. (SBU) PS AND GOV BOTH REMAIN...FOR NOW?  Jilin Province 
experienced less leadership turnover at its highest levels 
than Liaoning and Heilongjiang over the past year, as both 
PS WANG Min and Governor HAN Changfu remained in place. 
The departure of four vice governors in late 2007 and early 
2008, however, infused new blood into an administration 
still badly lagging its northern and southern provincial 
neighbors in "revitalization" efforts, its theoretically 
impressive official "GDP" growth of 16 percent in 2007 
notwithstanding. 
 
¶7. (C) WANG MIN AND HAN CHANGFU.  In the lead-up to the 
17th Party Congress late last year, both Jilin's PS and 
Governor, initially dispatched for their economic- 
development experience, were rumored to be bound for more 
prosperous climes.  PS Wang Min, 54, a former academic who 
burnished his national credentials as PS of Suzhou--where 
between 2002 and 2004 he earned acclaim for his "Suzhou 
Model" of economic development--was rumored to be a top 
candidate to replace BO Xilai as Minister of Commerce in 
Beijing.  Jilin officials told us that Wang, an Anhui 
native and former governor of both Jiangsu and Jilin, was 
"not interested" in the Beijing job, though we have found 
this unconvincing.  With experience in two disparate 
provinces and a good national reputation, Wang's political 
future seems bright.  So, too, does that of Han Changfu, 
whom unconfirmed rumor had it was considered as a possible 
governor of Guangdong Province.  The 54-year-old former 
national CYL Central Committee member, Executive Vice 
Minister of Agriculture, and specialist on rural 
development (see ref C for profile) has had his hands full 
in Jilin.  Growth is up, but structural problems will make 
it hard for him to shine like Wang Min did in Suzhou. 
Still, Han's provincial-level administrative and national- 
level economic-policymaking experience--including a stint 
as Deputy Director of the Central Finance Leading Group's 
General Office in the later 1990s--makes him a compelling 
candidate for a return to national office. 
 
¶8. (C) In private, we have found Wang Min polished and 
business-savvy, but "all-business."  Lower-level officials 
speak highly of him and describe this former mechanical- 
engineering professor and Vice President of the Nanjing 
Aeronautical Institute as economically progressive, open- 
minded and refreshingly less egotistical than many other 
leaders of his stature.  Mentioned repeatedly by local 
officials has been Wang's inclination to grant localities 
decision-making autonomy, especially for investment 
projects.  By contrast, we have found Han more bookish and 
reserved.  Lower-level officials do not speak as positively 
about him as they do about Wang Min, and tend to describe 
Han as relatively more economically conservative, though 
eager to concentrate on the "minsheng" (people's 
livelihood) issues that are the hallmark of the Hu 
Jintao/Wen Jiabao administration. 
 
¶9. (SBU) ZHU YANFENG.  The notable standout in Jilin's new 
vice-gubernatorial cohort is ZHU Yanfeng, the 47-year-old 
former General Manager of First Auto Works (FAW)--one of 
China's largest automobile manufacturers, and Jilin 
Province's largest state-owned enterprise--unexpectedly 
tapped as Executive Vice Governor.  A number of former FAW 
executives now serve in senior Jilin political postings, 
but none in recent memory have secured a position so 
senior.  Zhu entered FAW in the early 1980s as a technician 
and gradually worked his way up the ranks, becoming General 
Manager in 1999.  Over the next eight years, Zhu 
concentrated on building FAW's independent design capacity 
and brand recognition; by the end of 2007, FAW ranked 385 
in the Fortune 500.  A Central Committee alternate since 
2002, Zhu--now number two in the Jilin government 
hierarchy--is arguably being groomed for national political 
office. 
 
 
SHENYANG 00000044  003 OF 003 
 
 
¶10. (C) DENG KAI.  This young Han Chinese Youth Leaguer, 
49, has been Party Secretary of the politically-sensitive 
Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, in the PRC-DPRK 
borderlands, since 2004.  His experience has mostly been 
Jilin-centric, but he has moved through a succession of 
powerful portfolios: Deputy Secretary of the Jilin CYL, 
Deputy Director of the province's Organization Bureau, and 
head of its Propaganda Bureau.  Prospects for promotion out 
of Yanbian are bright: just about all past top Yanbian 
leaders have been rewarded handsomely with high-level 
provincial or national jobs (e.g., Zhang Dejiang eventually 
became PS of Guangdong and a Vice Premier; Tian Xueren 
became Jilin's Executive Vice Governor).  In private, we 
have found Deng at ease, confident, and somewhat 
forthcoming.  Experience beyond Jilin Province would do him 
well to remain competitive nationally, but given his young 
age, solid provincial experience, and the recent promotion 
patterns out of Yanbian, Deng looks to set to continue his 
rise. 
WICKMAN