VZCZCXYZ0001
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHVN #0632/01 3391034
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 041034Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY VIENTIANE
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 2307

UNCLAS VIENTIANE 000632 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR IIP/S (R. ADAMS and P. BENDA) 
STATE FOR EAP/PD (S. HINTON) 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS (J. EMERY) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAOPREL LA
 
SUBJECT:  BABY STEPS: U.S. SPEAKER BLONG XIONG OPENS SOME DOORS IN 
LAOS 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY.  Blong Xiong, President of the Fresno City Council, 
participated in a U.S. Speaker program in Laos from November 17-21 
that Post had planned to focus on local governance and constituent 
services in the United States for roundtables of smaller audiences 
from academic and administrative organizations. Instead, the 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs only reluctantly approved a short 
program that included, at MFA's insistence, the more sensitive issue 
of Hmong-American relations.  From the Embassy's perspective, the 
program still ended up a notable success, with Party organizations 
prominently represented in the audience at Mr. Xiong's primary 
lecture and two excellent meetings at MFA.  While not all that we 
had wished, the program brought one of the most senior 
Hmong-American elected officials to Laos on an official visit - a 
first worth noting. END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. Mr. Blong Xiong, whose mother is ethnic Lao and whose father is 
ethnic Hmong, is one of the few elected officials in the United 
States with a Hmong background.  He was born in Laos in 1969 and 
came to the U.S. as a refugee with his family at the age of five. He 
holds a Master of Business Administration and has had several years 
of experience in both the public and private sector. Elected to the 
Fresno city council in 2007, Xiong became the President earlier this 
year. His program in Laos focused on local government and 
administration in the U.S. and what it is like to be Lao-Hmong in 
America. 
 
---------------------- 
HOT POTATO, HOT POTATO 
---------------------- 
 
¶3.  Although positive when the program was first proposed informally 
in the spring, the Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) took an 
unusually long time to grant formal approval.  After first assuring 
us that MFA didn't see any potential problems, the MFA Europe and 
Americas Department tossed the program to another division within 
the MFA, snatched it back, and briefly threatened to cancel the 
program entirely ("not enough time") one week before the start date 
- and after Mr. Xiong had already arrived in Laos.  The Director 
General of the Europe and Americas Department was convinced of the 
program's potential benefits only after direct intervention by 
Ambassador Huso. 
 
¶4.  Post's initial request kept the proposed lecture topics as 
anodyne as possible, including "Local Governance Models in 
California" and "City Planning and Budgeting," but MFA officials 
requested what they considered a more neutral (or perhaps more 
interesting?) topic: the role of overseas Lao in strengthening 
bilateral relationships.  (Note: Post agreed to ask that Xiong cover 
both, although we were surprised to hear that the MFA thought the 
role of overseas Hmong was not as politically sensitive as the 
Fresno city budget.)  In addition, since formal approval came late 
and during the largest religious and cultural holiday in Laos, the 
MFA informed Post that "all the requested parties" would join one 
large lecture hosted by the Institute of Foreign Affairs (IFA), 
rather than holding a series of smaller roundtables as Post had 
proposed.  Furthermore, although MFA officials stated that they very 
much wanted Xiong to meet with the authorities for the City of 
Vientiane to begin work on exchanges and mutual cooperation, the new 
mayor and his staff were "fully occupied" on the dates in question. 
(Note: The newly-appointed Mayor formally took office the week of 
Xiong's arrival, and most likely was in fact otherwise occupied.) 
Finally, Post received a call from MFA at 4:30 pm the day before the 
lecture, informing us that journalists would not be invited, 
disappointing our hopes for what is traditionally robust press 
coverage of Embassy PDS events hosted at IFA. 
 
------------------- 
THE WEEK IN REVIEW 
------------------- 
 
IFA Lecture 
----------- 
¶5.  The lecture at IFA included a packed house of over 80 government 
officials and Lao People's Revolutionary Party structure 
representatives, including from offices that were not on our 
original proposal, such as the Ministry of National Defense (MND), 
Lao Federation of Trade Unions, Lao Front for National 
Reconstruction, and Lao Women's Union.  Officials from MFA and MND 
requested copies of the powerpoint presentation, which focused 
exclusively on the structure, roles, and responsibilities of the 
Fresno City Council, while most questions came from the Party 
representatives.  The lecture itself created no controversy and 
generated no pointed questions, although the participants were 
interested in hearing about Xiong's attempt to balance his city 
responsibilities with pressures from his ethnic community. 
 
Presentations to Student Groups 
------------------------------- 
 
¶6.  Xiong also spoke to student groups during his visit.  He 
lectured at the American Corner to a class of university students 
from the Lao American College on city government and local 
responsibilities.  The students were particularly interested in 
local elections and the decisions Xiong had to make as an official. 
Xiong toured the facilities at the Lao American College and spoke to 
the director, Virginia van Ostrand, about opportunities for the U.S. 
Lao-Hmong community to support scholarships for students in Laos. 
Xiong later spoke to approximately 50 secondary school students at 
Eastern Star Bilingual School on the same topic of local governance. 
 Questions from this group were more targeted to national issues, 
including what policy changes Xiong expects to see once 
President-elect Obama takes office.  (Note: This is the first time 
Eastern Star has hosted a U.S. speaker or Embassy event. The school 
is small but students are generally from wealthy and influential 
families.) 
 
Meeting with MFA Europe and Americas 
------------------------------------ 
¶7. Finally, Xiong had two important and extremely positive meetings 
at MFA, one with the Director General of Europe and Americas, 
Ambassador Khouanta Phalivong, and the second with Director for 
Overseas Lao, Mr. Lyying Sayaxang, who is himself ethnic Hmong. 
Khouanta went out of his way to thank Xiong for his participation 
and spent a good 10 minutes inviting Xiong back to Laos for a longer 
and more robust program.  He said the Embassy could submit our 
original proposal for "complete approval" and the MFA would be 
pleased to facilitate a series of events with Vientiane 
Municipality.  Furthermore, Khouanta noted that he had requested 
information about Xiong from the Lao Embassy in Washington, and had 
been pleased to learn that Xiong is already a good contact of the 
Lao Ambassador there.  Khouanta told Xiong that the Government of 
Laos would be happy to act as host for the next official visit, and 
Xiong could work either through the U.S. Embassy here or the Lao 
Embassy there. He also made a point of asking Xiong for his "honest 
perspective" about conditions in Laos, to which Xiong replied that 
he has seen only positive change during this visit in comparison 
with his previous visits as a tourist. 
 
Meeting with MFA Overseas Lao 
----------------------------- 
¶7.  Xiong's meeting with Overseas Lao Director Lyying included all 
of the welcoming remarks and hopes for another trip that DG Khouanta 
had delivered earlier, in addition to a list of "messages" Lyying 
asked Xiong to take back to his community.  Lyying made a point of 
stating (and restating) that this was the first visit to Laos by a 
Hmong American in an official capacity. He said that his office is 
working to get approval for native Lao with foreign passports to: 
--receive visas for 90 days, rather than the usual 30; 
-- expedite the approval for cultural performers entering and 
leaving the country; 
-- "make it easier" for families and volunteers to come to Laos to 
help as "experts" in different areas; 
-- allow Lao to return family members for burial here; and 
-- permit overseas Lao to return and retire in Laos. 
 
¶8.  Director Lyying said that the GOL had learned a lesson from 
others, including Vietnam, and asked Xiong to "tell the people that 
the Government of Laos will welcome all overseas Lao to come back 
home."  He then noted that requests would be approved case by case, 
as there were some "individuals" who may not receive approval. The 
Director also stressed that every dollar sent to Laos from the 
United States was helpful, and that the government would not 
interfere with money sent to family member.  He cautioned, however, 
that overseas Lao must obey local rules and regulations when they 
want to return to set up NGOs or other organized assistance 
mechanisms in Laos. 
 
¶9.  Language Note: Lyying began the meeting with an apology for 
speaking in Lao, but noted that since this was an official meeting, 
the two needed to use the official language of Laos. Furthermore, he 
noted the U.S. Embassy escorts didn't speak Hmong, and his own 
notetaker was ethnic Khmu.  Lyying then immediately switched into 
Hmong, for what Xiong says was a quick conversation about Lyying's 
recent trip to Minnesota. 
 
--------- 
COMMENT 
--------- 
 
¶10.  Despite the last-minute negotiations to get a rump program off 
the ground, Post believes we achieved some notable success with 
Xiong's visit. The Embassy was disappointed at the delays and 
obfuscation of the MFA during the approvals process for this 
program, given what we thought were the obvious advantages of 
building relations with an increasingly important overseas Lao 
community and the relatively tame subject matter of U.S. local 
government structures. The Public Diplomacy Section had hosted 
 
speakers earlier in the year, without difficulties, on matters we 
thought were more sensitive, including a two-week program on 
international human rights norms and comparative government with two 
Georgetown University professors and a rule of law program led by a 
U.S. federal judge.  We were also surprised that the MFA insisted on 
adding overseas Lao relations to the program, and told us this topic 
was "more neutral" than city planning and budgeting. 
 
¶11.  Still, while our usual set of academics was not included, Party 
and MND participation meant that we reached some traditionally 
less-accessible audiences, and ones that may have the least amount 
of accurate information about the United States. Despite the lack of 
local press coverage, Post believes the large lecture format turned 
out to be a great success. Students at both schools were also 
clearly delighted to have an ethnic Asian speak in perfect American 
English, and they were even more engaged on the topics than many of 
the officials in the IFA lecture. 
 
¶12.  The meetings with the MFA were so warm and almost apologetic 
that we believe the invitation for this particular Hmong-American to 
return was quite sincere, and that the GOL would permit him to speak 
to a wider range of offices next time. Finally, the program did help 
avoid what could have been a public relations setback for relations 
between the Lao government and the overseas Hmong community in 
Fresno: media interest in Xiong's visit in California had already 
generated TV and print press stories even prior to his arrival, and 
Xiong has interviews with local TV scheduled for the week after his 
return home.