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O 270700Z JUL 07
FM AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUANGZHOU 000851 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON ETRD PGOV CH
SUBJECT: Guangdong Overseas Chinese Businessmen's Association Stands 
United -- "Front" That Is 
 
 (U) This document is sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect 
accordingly. 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: In a conversation with the Consul General on July 
26, the new head of the Guangdong Overseas Chinese Businessmen's 
Association, Zhou Zerong, said that the provincial government, with 
central government backing, had decided that the new organization 
was necessary to link together four other disparate, municipal-level 
groups dedicated to assisting overseas Chinese.  The implication, 
despite Zhou's comments to the contrary, is that the group's 
formation has more political meaning than economic -- that it is 
part of the party's United Front strategy.  Zhou himself, the very 
well-connected head of the Kingold real estate group here and one of 
China's wealthiest individuals, said the (current) 386-member 
Association would also have a working level office that provided 
assistance in terms of helping overseas Chinese access the local 
market and deal with challenges.  End summary. 
 
The role of the Association and Government supports 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶2. (U) Prior to the founding of this provincial-level Association, 
Zhou said, there were similar municipal-level groups in Guangzhou, 
Shenzhen, Zhongshan and Jiangmen (all Pearl River Delta cities). 
These associations served as a bridge between overseas Chinese 
investors and local governments, protecting members' rights, filing 
complaints, participating in local social charity events, and 
"conveying" Government messages to members.  The new provincial 
Association, which is supervised by the Guangdong Government's 
Overseas Chinese Council, includes members of the municipal 
associations as well as representatives from enterprises throughout 
Guangdong.  Zhou added, in response to the Consul General's 
question, that Taiwan enterprises can also join the Association. 
 
¶3. (U) The founding meeting clearly had political implications, with 
participation by Ren Qiliang, Deputy Director General of the State 
Council's Overseas Chinese Council; Chen Shaoji, Chairman of the 
Guangdong CPPCC, Huang Longyun, Guangdong CPC Standing Committee 
Member and Executive Vice Governor; and Zhou Zhenhong, Guangdong CPC 
Standing Committee Member and Director General of the United Front 
Department. 
 
¶4. (SBU) The Association also includes a number of honorary chairs, 
including Lu Ruihua, former Guangdong Governor and now Vice Chairman 
of the NPC Overseas Chinese Committee; Zhang Guoying, former 
Guangdong Congress Chair and also a Vice Chairman of the NPC 
Overseas Chinese Committee; Guo Rongchang, former Chairman of the 
Guangdong CPPCC and now Vice Chairman of the Hong Kong, Macao, 
Taiwan and Overseas Chinese Committee; and a host of other officials 
in the Guangdong Department of Foreign Trade and Economic 
Cooperation. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Zhou -- who spent four years in Australia in the 1980s and 
was ranked by Forbes as China's fourteenth richest person for his 
dealings in real estate, media and restaurants -- said the formation 
of the Association was the brainchild of the Guangdong provincial 
leaders and he was told it might be a good idea if she served as 
Chairman.  One of his seven Vice Chairmen is Zhang Yan, the 
chairwoman of Nine Dragons Paper Company, of whom Forbes wrote that 
she was richer than Oprah, an appellation that she likes. 
 
Bio note on Zhou Zerong 
----------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) The 53-year-old Zhou was born in Chaozhou in eastern 
Guangdong.  Zhou went to Hong Kong in the 1970s and attended 
university there.  In the 1980s, in Australia, he built his first 
fortune by selling minerals, seafood, frozen food and fruits to 
China.  Zhou, who holds an Australian passport and whose wife and 
two children live in Sydney, is well connected to local government 
officials.  In addition to his new role with the Overseas Chinese 
Businessmen Association, he also chairs two other similar chambers. 
He was invited by Beijing to become the Chairman of China 
International Chamber of Commerce for Overseas Chinese Enterprises, 
but declined, citing the press of business.  Zhou is thought to have 
used his considerable connections to take over "New Express," a 
major daily newspaper in Guangdong founded by Yangcheng Evening News 
Group; the latter affiliated with the Guangdong Provincial CPC. 
Zhou reportedly paid tens of millions of RMB for the paper, an 
unusual transaction given government sensitivity to media control in 
China.  Although both Kingold and the Yangcheng Evening News Group 
co-operate the Express, it is in reality controlled by Zhou's empire 
out of the Kingold building. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
 
GUANGZHOU 00000851  002 OF 002 
 
 
¶7. (SBU) The founding of the Association likely will not lead to an 
upgrade in more high-end and environmentally- friendly foreign 
investment in Guangdong.  Most overseas Chinese invested projects 
continue to be labor-intensive or polluting ones; according to Zhou, 
such investments are, in fact, not/not actively discouraged as we 
thought, but just don't get the favorable conditions provided to 
technology and market-leading firms.  It strikes us that the 
Association is essentially a creature of the CPC's United Front 
program and the code phrase -- promoting a "harmonious society" -- 
likely tells all one needs to know about its activities.  End 
Comment. 
 
 
Goldberg