VZCZCXRO8822
RR RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHCN #0036/01 0570937
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 260937Z FEB 08 ZDK
FM AMCONSUL CHENGDU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2743
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 3329

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CHENGDU 000036 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/CM 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  2/26/2033 
TAGS: PGOV ECON SOCI CH
SUBJECT: SOUTHWEST CHINA -- GUIZHOU SLOWLY RECOVERING FROM STORM 
DAMAGE 
 
REF: A) BEIJING 551 B) 06 CHENGDU 1198 
 
CHENGDU 00000036  001.4 OF 003 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: James A. Boughner, Consul General, Chengdu, 
Department of State. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
 
 
 
¶1. (C) Summary:  In the aftermath of what provincial authorities 
claim was the worst winter storm since 1904, China's poorest 
province is struggling to deal with the provision of basic 
necessities to the countryside.  Damage to the province's 
electrical power distribution system was particularly severe, 
and accidents due to icy road conditions appear to have been 
widespread and serious.  Large-scale outmigration of many of the 
province's workers no doubt exacerbated the difficulties of 
dealing with the storm.  Local officials take pleasure in 
comparing their response to that of Hunan Province.  End Summary. 
 
CHINA'S POOREST PROVINCE HIT BY A MASSIVE SNOWSTORM 
--------------------------------------------- ------------------ 
 
¶2. (SBU) Consul General and Congenoff visited Guizhou's capital 
of Guiyang on February 19 to elicit from local leaders their 
assessment of damage from the recent winter storm.  The next 
day, Congenoff drove in a Consulate vehicle from Guiyang to 
Chongqing, making a long detour through northwestern Guizhou's 
rural areas along the way.   Guizhou is ranked as the poorest 
province in China with a per capita income of just USD 736.  It 
also has one of the country's most rocky and mountainous 
terrains that (in addition to making agriculture difficult) can 
cause communications and transportation problems within the 
province even during ideal weather conditions.  Approximately 30 
million people of Guizhou's official population of 39 million 
live in mountain villages and approximately five million people 
have left the province to work in factories on the coast. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Between January 12 and February 1 (roughly), Guizhou 
was hit by a series of ice and snow storms.  Chinese news 
reports indicated 83 counties and cities in Guizhou, 
representing more than 90 percent of the province's total 
administrative units, were affected by the storms.  Ice on power 
lines caused widespread electrical outages, and according to one 
internet news site the province's Communist Party Committee was 
forced to meet by candle light on January 29.  That same site 
also claimed almost half of Guizhou's cell phone users were out 
of service in late January due to damage to communications 
infrastructure. 
 
¶4. (C) Blogs and internet chatrooms painted an even more 
dramatic picture: one source claiming to be located in the 
northwest Guizhou city of Renhuai (population approximately 
60,000) called the town a "dead city," with no water, 
electricity, or goods being delivered.  He claimed that "people 
have died, but there is no fuel to cremate them."  He also noted 
commodities were in short supply:  a jin (1.1 pounds) of coal 
cost 12 RMB (USD 1.70), a candle cost 5 RMB (USD 0.70), and a 
head of frozen cabbage cost 5 RMB (USD 0.70).  He closed with a 
comment that conditions in outlying areas were far worse. 
 
THE OFFICIAL REPORT 
---------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) On February 19, Consul General and Congenoff met with 
officials from the Guizhou Civil Affairs Bureau to discuss the 
effects of the storm.  Vice Director Tan Zuxiang delivered a 
briefing in which he claimed the storm was the worst such event 
since 1904.  Tan said 27 people had died from storm-related 
accidents, while 80,700 had been injured or fallen ill. 
Problems with drinking water supplies had affected almost eight 
million people.  Agricultural losses were particularly severe, 
Tan said, with 1.4 million hectares (3.5 million acres) of crops 
damaged and 54,800 head of livestock killed, causing economic 
losses of 5.7 million RMB (USD$792,000).  Asked about damage to 
forests, Tan estimated that between 20 and 30 percent of the 
province's trees had been destroyed, with probable damage to 
wildlife and endangered species. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Predictably, Tan praised local and central government 
efforts to address the problem, saying 18,000 utility workers 
had been deployed to repair electric lines.  In addition, he 
claimed food and coal had been distributed widely in rural 
areas, although there had been no airdrops to remote areas.  He 
also confirmed news reports that Premier Wen Jiabao and 
Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyuan had visited Guizhou to supervise 
relief efforts. 
 
¶7. (C) Later that evening at a banquet, Provincial Party 
Secretary-General Zhang Qunshan (note: visibly intoxicated) 
 
SIPDIS 
claimed Guizhou's response to the storm had been much better 
 
CHENGDU 00000036  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
than that of other provinces, mentioning Hunan in particular. 
He alleged Hunan authorities had made the mistake of closing the 
province's highways, while in Guizhou the roads were kept open, 
alternating traffic in each direction, which supposedly allowed 
relief supplies to flow more freely.  He also said Hunan's 
highway closure cut off road communications with Beijing. 
Guizhou's principal problems were caused by the almost total 
collapse of its power grid network caused by collapsing power 
lines that were brought down by heavy ice in the mountains. 
(Note: Ref A describes an internal report on Hunan's response to 
the storm.  End note.) 
 
OFF THE HIGHWAY, WIDESPREAD DAMAGE 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (C) The next day, Congenoff (accompanied by a driver and the 
Consulate's LES Political Assistant) set off for Chongqing by 
car.  Just before reaching the city of Zunyi, they detoured from 
the high-speed highway, taking about 100 km (67 miles) of 
secondary roads to the small city of Renhuai, mentioned in 
paragraph 4 above. 
 
¶9. (C) During a brief stop at the small town of Wujiang (located 
close to the main highway from Guiyang to Chongqing), locals 
told us they had experienced power outages, but had not suffered 
from lack of food or other supplies.  Asked about deaths from 
the storm, one restaurant owner told us there had been victims, 
mostly homeless people and beggars.  But, she added, conditions 
were no doubt far worse in more remote areas.  She also 
mentioned that many of the area's migrants to coastal areas had 
been unable to return for the spring festival holidays. 
 
¶10. (C) From there, the road climbed rapidly into a mountainous 
area, apparently inhabited primarily by the Miao minority. 
There, snow remained on the ground.  Roughly one-quarter of the 
area's trees appeared to be denuded of branches, and downed 
utility poles dotted the landscape.  Crops such as Chinese 
cabbage (baicai) appeared to be dead or badly damaged, and in 
some places we saw what appeared to be makeshift greenhouses in 
the fields.  In a few areas there were blue tents with the 
characters for disaster relief (jiu zai) printed on them, 
outside houses with apparent damage to roofs.  We also saw the 
aftermaths of two serious accidents: one in which the trailer 
from a tractor-trailer truck had turned over and broken open; 
the other in which a large truck had slid off the road and 
plowed head-on into a house, nearly destroying it in the process. 
 
¶11. (C) The area also boasted a heavy security presence.  Within 
the space of about ten miles, we passed at least 15 police (gong 
an) vehicles, including two checkpoints.  Another checkpoint was 
manned by helmeted soldiers of the People's Armed Police.  An 
attempt to chat with a local Miao shopkeeper was unsuccessful -- 
asked about her experiences during the recent storm, she simply 
denied any storm had taken place. 
 
¶12. (C) Conditions improved dramatically as we left the 
highlands and approached the city of Renhuai.  Fields were still 
green, and forests appeared largely intact.  However, 
conversations with local residents confirmed they had felt the 
effects of the storm.  A restaurant manager near the center of 
town said the town had been without electricity for 10 days, 
although drinking water had not stopped.  On the outskirts of 
town, a shopkeeper confirmed the 10-day power outage, and added 
that drinking water had been cut off as well.  A station 
attendant told us her gas station suffered a 15-day interruption 
in fuel deliveries.  And a shoeshine lady, who told us she had 
migrated into town from a rural area, said conditions were much 
better inside the city than in her native village.  Most 
contacts also complained that the storm had caused prices of 
goods such as meat, vegetables, and candles to skyrocket. 
(Note: We watched one transaction along the roadside, in which a 
couple purchased two heads of cabbage (baicai) for 4.5 RMB (USD 
0.62); if the commentator mentioned above is to be believed, 
this would mean prices had fallen by about half from the height 
of the storm.  For comparison, Consulate LES staff report that a 
head of baicai would typically cost 1 RMB (USD 0.14) in Chengdu. 
 End note.)  Contacts said that most fatalities in the area were 
the result of road accidents from the icy roads. 
 
COMMENT: 
--------- 
 
¶13. (C) A storm of historic proportions hit an area of China 
already mired in poverty and underdevelopment.  As one official 
readily admitted to us, the fact that five million of Guizhou's 
most able-bodied men and women had left the province for jobs in 
other areas meant that many villages were inhabited mainly by 
the elderly, the sick, and the very young (also reported ref B), 
adding to the difficulty of recovery from the disaster.  Local 
 
CHENGDU 00000036  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
officials are not surprisingly boasting of their own successes 
(especially relative to the perceived failure of other 
provinces), but rural Guizhou will likely be very long in 
recovering its forests, fields, and villages from the effects of 
the storm. 
HILL