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DE RUEHBJ #4231/01 3350841
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O 010841Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2643
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 3018
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIJING 024231 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
TREASURY FOR OASI/ISA (DOHNER AND CUSHMAN) 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/01/2016 
TAGS: PREL PHUM PTER TH CH
SUBJECT: PRC-THAILAND: WEN JIABAO POSTPONES BANGKOK VISIT 
BECAUSE OF SENIOR ECONOMIC DIALOGUE 
 
REF: BEIJING 23354 
 
Classified By: Political Section External Unit Chief Edgard Kagan. 
Reasons 1.4(b/d). 
 
¶1. (C) Summary: Premier Wen Jiabao has canceled a planned 
trip to Bangkok that would have been the highest-level PRC 
visit since the coup.  The trip, which Wen had promised to 
make during an October bilateral meeting with General Surayud 
at the China-ASEAN Summit, will be rescheduled because of 
Wen's decision to be in Beijing for the United States-China 
Senior Economic Dialogue.  China has urged the Thai to move 
more quickly in restoring elected government, but this 
position had nothing to do with the postponement of Wen's 
trip to Bangkok, MFA officials responsible for Southeast Asia 
told us.  They also commented on internal Thai politics, 
former PM Thaksin's visit to China and Islamic extremism in 
Southern Thailand.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (C) Premier Wen Jiabao has postponed his planned December 
15 trip to Thailand so that he can be in Beijing for the 
United States-China Senior Economic Dialogue, MFA Southeast 
Asia Division official Wang Hongliu told poloff December 1. 
Wang, the Philippines desk officer, said Wen will make a 
brief state visit to the Philippines and then return to 
Beijing following the December 11-13 East Asia Summit and 
ASEAN-Plus-Three meetings in Cebu.  Wen's visit would have 
been the highest-level PRC trip to Bangkok since the coup. 
During the China-ASEAN Summit in October (reftel), Wen had 
promised General Surayud, the head of Thailand's interim 
government, that he would make the visit in December, but the 
trip will have to be rescheduled, Wang said. 
 
No Link To Criticism Of Coup 
---------------------------- 
 
¶3. (C) The postponement had nothing to do with China's muted 
criticism of Thailand's interim government, Wang said.  MFA 
Southeast Asia Division Director and former PRC political 
counselor in Thailand Wu Xiangyou said PM Wen Jiabao, in his 
October meeting with Surayud, urged the Thai to write a new 
Constitution and return to elected government as soon as 
possible.  China was satisfied with Surayud's response that 
Bangkok is working hard on drafting a new constitution and 
will return to elected government within a year, he added. 
 
¶4. (C) Surayud was selected over other more politically 
experienced leaders because he does not represent any 
specific social interest group and was seen in Bangkok as 
more neutral, Wu said.  Asked about concerns that Surayud 
might grow to like power and not be eager to return to 
democratic or constitutional rule, Wu said he believed 
Surayud had already found that ruling Thailand was a 
"headache he could do without."  Instability caused by 
disgruntled former PM Thaksin Shinawatra supporters, poverty 
and a lack of unity among Thaksin's opponents after the coup 
are among those headaches, Wu suggested.  He believed that a 
new Thai Constitution would contain elements that provide 
greater restraints on the military's power in order to make 
this Thailand's last coup. 
 
Thaksin in China 
---------------- 
 
¶5. (C) Press reports from Bangkok suggesting that Thaksin's 
early November visit to Beijing was aimed to disrupt 
Surayud's visit to China for the China-ASEAN summit were 
"ridiculous," Wu said.  First, when applying for his visa at 
the PRC Embassy in London, Thaksin's personal secretary made 
it explicit that Thaksin would not arrive in China until 
November 1, the day after Surayud was slated to leave China. 
 Second, Chinese officials issuing the visa made it clear 
that no Chinese officials would meet with Thaksin while he 
was in Beijing.  Third, Thaksin never traveled to southern 
China where the Wen-Surayud meeting took pace. 
 
Islamic Terrorism Of Concern 
---------------------------- 
 
¶6. (C) China offers no military aid or support to Thailand's 
counterterrorism efforts but is concerned about the rise of 
Islamic extremism in Southern Thailand, Wu said.  Noting that 
he had visited the region while serving in Bangkok, Wu said 
that residents of the Muslim South are extremely wary of 
outsiders, even Thai citizens from the rest of the country. 
Chinese traders have been killed while attempting to visit 
 
BEIJING 00024231  002 OF 002 
 
 
the region to sell goods, Wu said.  Southern Thailand hosts a 
Wahabbi school that is the largest or second-largest in the 
world, he claimed.  Beijing is not aware of any evidence 
linking the Southern Thai Muslims to international terrorism, 
but believes the potential exists for such terrorism.  While 
the violence and Islamic extremism in the Thai South is 
destabilizing, the PRC rarely addresses it with Bangkok 
because Beijing sees it as an internal Thai affair, Wu said. 
 
Randt