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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 SHENYANG 000173 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/03/2013 
TAGS: CH EAGR ECON EFIN ENRG PINR PREL
SUBJECT: LIAONING'S ECONOMY:  DOWN BUT NOT OUT 
 
Classified By: CONSUL GENERAL STEPHEN B. WICKMAN; REASONS 1.4 (b/d). 
 
¶1. (C) Summary. Local leaders in three of the Liaoning 
Province's less well-off urban areas put a good front on 
this province's relative resiliency in the face of 
recession but privately conceded their worries.  The most 
telling statistic is electricity demand, which was flat in 
October and dropped 11 percent in November, showing that 
manufacturing is clearly in recession. One Deputy Mayor 
said it was very unlikely that China's provinces would be 
able to meet the local stimulus targets set by Beijing 
unless the center provided additional funding. Meanwhile, 
Liaoning governor Chen Zhengao has taken a team of mayors 
and vice mayors on a mission to Guangzhou to help nearly 
bankrupt 
Guangzhou enterprises relocate or invest in Liaoning at 
bargain prices. End Summary. 
 
¶2. (U) The Consul General and two local assistants paid 
first visits to two of Liaoning Province's poorest cities - 
- Fuxin and Chaoyang -- October 28-November 1 and to nearby 
Tieling, November 20-21.  Joined by the Principal 
Commercial Officer and her staff for the Chaoyang segment, 
the visit to Western Liaoning was heavy on commercial 
content.  The schedule also included a speech at the 
Liaoning Engineering and Technology University -- to our 
knowledge, the first ever outreach event at this venue -- 
and a heartwarming stop a school for orphans - one of only 
two such schools in the country (the other is in Jilin 
Province).  The Tieling visit featured a visit to the "new 
city" development project, which will open this month. 
 
King Coal in Fuxin... 
--------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) It's been a long time since anyone from the 
consulate visited Fuxin, one of the poorest of Liaoning 
Province's fourteen municipalities, but it's a lot easier 
now that we can fly along the province's newest expressway 
(opened in late September).  The signage is so new that our 
Foreign Affairs Office (FAO) handlers could not tell us 
where to turn off, but Fuxin is working hard to take 
advantage of the new link.  Among our discoveries:  Fuxin 
has one of the best-run government-owned guest houses in 
these parts; hosts a renowned international Agate Festival; 
is the "Basketball Capital" of the northeast; and is 
dominated by state-owned power companies expanding 
aggressively toward Inner Mongolia.  Fuxin has also just 
established a sister-city relationship with Gary, Indiana 
and hopes for more cooperation with U.S. and other foreign 
enterprises. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Mayor Pan Liguo gave the usual virtuoso recap of 
Fuxin history, especially its 60-year record as a coal- 
mining and power-production center, noting that reserves 
are nearly exhausted.  At the current extraction rate -- 
around 20 million tons per year - Fuxin's reserves will 
last only another 20 years.  The 35,000 miners currently 
employed at state-owned facilities are down from a peak of 
200,000, and there are now only 30,000 miners working in 
private mines. The city is trying to develop substitutes: 
coal-mine gas, wind turbines, and coal-based chemicals 
linked to Inner Mongolia's Xilin Gol Area, whose rich 
reserves may reach 200 billion tons.  In 2007, the National 
Railway Corporation began construction to link Fuxin and 
the Xilin Gol area.  A coal gasification project with an 
investment of RMB 26.4 billion (USD 3.86 billion) has 
received the National Development and Reform Commission's 
first-stage approval and is in the final "assessment" 
period.  The development will more than fill Liaoning's 
annual gap in demand for coal and products of around 
800,000 tons per year.  Fuxin is also building the 
country's largest wind power plant, located next to the 
Kerqin Grasslands of Inner Mongolia, which will have 600 
megawatts of installed capacity by year end, about a third 
of the final target.  The mayor was sanguine about the real 
estate industry, reporting that prices are continuing to 
rise even for "economic" housing to replace the old slums. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Liaoning Engineering and Technology University 
(LETU) Vice President Wang Jiren, an expert on mine 
safety, told us that 100 percent of China's current 
coal mine accidents are caused by "human error" stemming from 
a lack of strict management controls and poor education. 
Wang said there is an unflattering saying that 
"one only becomes a miner if one can do nothing else and 
has no other choice."  So the key to increased safety -- 
and Fuxin has had its share of disasters -- is how to 
educate the miners and improve their quality.  Wang added 
 
SHENYANG 00000173  002 OF 004 
 
 
that small-scale mine owners are especially reluctant to 
invest in safety facilities, another reason for the high 
frequency of accidents.  Wang reported that Liaoning has 
"begun" to close all its private mines (about 100 in all) and 
prohibits owners from becoming involved in production and 
management; they simply own shares and receive 
dividends.  Each private coal mine will be assigned a 
qualified mining management company. 
 
¶6. (U) During a brief visit to a coal-mine-gas generating 
station run by Fuxin Mining Group, Deputy Chief Engineer 
Wei Huaxing told us the group had built 47 such generators 
at different pumping stations.  Total capacity has reached 
24,600 kilowatts --one quarter of group's in-house needs. 
The pumping stations use the existing coal-mine gas 
emission wells, which used to let the gas into the air, 
causing pollution and waste.  Wei reported that gas having 
a density of over 30 percent can be used directly for 
combustion engines while a density of 10 percent can be 
converted easily to power.  Density inside the mines must 
be limited to 0.5-0.7 percent to prevent explosions, which 
occur at levels exceeding 0.75 percent.  The group is 
researching the utilization of even these very low 
densities.  Wei also noted that Fuxin Mining Group 
cooperates with Japan on a gas purification project and 
receives pollution offset subsidies through the UN 
programs. The site we visited had a 10,000-cubic-meter 
storage tank, which Wei said they would tap when prices 
spiked.  On the road, for example, we passed a crowded 
queue at one of the city's two coal-mine gas stations for 
converted taxis, which have proven extremely popular with 
local drivers.  Fuxin Mining Group and the state-owned 
gasoline companies helped re-equip the taxis at a cost of 
only RMB 200 (USD 30) per engine so that the taxis can use 
either coal gas or gasoline through the flip of a simple 
switch.  The coal gas is only one third of the price of 
gasoline. 
 
...Burns Less Brightly for Now 
------------------------------ 
 
¶7. (C) Over lunch, Deputy Mayor Zhang Bengang went into an 
animated critique of the NDRC approval system, which 
was the biggest obstacle to getting things done at the 
local government level.  He said getting NDRC approval was 
more difficult than for any of the line ministries 
required for project development and that the system was 
non-transparent and slow.  Over breakfast, Zhang continued 
critiquing the growing number of unfunded mandates being 
dictated by the central government, a theme that he 
returned to during a Thanksgiving event held on November 30 
in Shenyang.  Zhang said that the stimulus package enacted 
by the central government in response to the global 
economic recession required each province to achieve 
unrealistic expenditure targets that had to be financed 
locally.  He said that relatively prosperous provinces like 
Liaoning might come close to meeting their targets but that 
poorer provinces in the South and West would never be able 
to meet the mandates without additional central government 
funding.  Zhang had praise for Liaoning governor Chen 
Zhengao, who he was joining on a mission to Guangzhou the 
following day.  Chen's mission was to entice nearly bankrupt 
Guangzhou enterprises to relocate or invest in Liaoning. 
Chen planned to offer old factories and land at bargain prices 
in an effort to both save the southern enterprises and 
expand employment in Liaoning. 
 
Chaoyang's Fossil Imagination 
----------------------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) Chaoyang Deputy Mayor Chen Lie described his 
administration of over 20,000 square kilometers, 
Liaoning's largest district in terms of area and fourth 
largest in terms of population (3.7 million).  Covering 
five counties, two county-level cities, two districts, and 
one provincial-level development zone, Chaoyang remains 
the least-developed area in Liaoning, though the growth 
rate in local GDP and government revenue 
skyrocketed to first place in 2007.  Chen predicted another 
leap in GDP this year, from RMB 33.4 billion in 2007 to RMB 
43 billion, while government revenues climb from RMB 2.2 
billion to RMB 3 billion.  Chaoyang has seen a big increase 
in fixed asset investment, especially as reflected in the 
expansion of Lingyuan Iron and Steel, a joint venture with 
Anshan Steel.  By the time expansion is completed in 2010, 
Chaoyang will have an annual steel capacity of 10 million 
tons. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Chaoyang Mayor Zhang Tiemin boasted about the 
 
SHENYANG 00000173  003 OF 004 
 
 
city's world-class fossil museum that has hosted two 
international conferences on paleontology and that will 
soon double in size (replete with golf courses for an 
expected up tick in Japanese and Korean visitors) and the 
construction of a new museum downtown.  Despite the area's 
relative poverty, the rate of college enrollment is high 
(third highest in Liaoning) and the government provides 
generous assistance to the poor through direct financial 
subsidies, vocational training, and farming aid.  He said 
the average net income for a farmer in Chaoyang is now 
about RMB 4,300 (USD  630) per year.  Asked about the 
effects of the international economic downturn, Zhang 
mentioned that the Feima Group's exports of tires and 
hubcaps to North America had fallen off substantially but 
he was otherwise sanguine.  He similarly shrugged off the 
fact that his district was the only district in the 
province to suffer a net decline in agricultural production 
this harvest year, saying that the peasants expected this 
to happen one out of every four or five years.  He also 
remarked on the growing relationship between Navistar 
International (a U.S. firm) and state-owned Dongfeng 
Chaoyang Diesel. 
 
¶10. (C) Note: Tieling Vice Mayor Zhou Yiying contradicted 
both Mayor's accounts when we met with her at lunch in 
Tieling on November 20.  She said the mayor had complained 
to her that reduced demand was seriously affecting the 
steel and mining industries in Chaoyang and she did not 
expect Chaoyang to reach its targets.  (Zhou's staff 
toasted her repeatedly at lunch about her recent "election" 
to the Standing Committee of the Tieling Communist Party 
Committee.  Zhou, who speaks almost fluent English, 
received an MBA at Chicago's Roosevelt University and is 
clearly an up-and-comer in this province.) 
 
A Peek at Chaoyang's Welfare Institutions 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) Chaoyang's earthy Director of the Civil Affairs 
Bureau (also the Director of the Chaoyang Charity 
Federation) took the CG on a tour of one section of 
the Chaoyang Municipal Welfare Institute, which consists 
of a Children's Center and Senior Citizens Home. 
The director of the children's facility said there were 
currently some 40 abandoned children and orphans, most of 
whom had severe physical or mental disabilities.  The 
orphanage works with two U.S.-based charities, AWA or the 
American International Adoption Center, to sponsor annual 
visits to the children for one to two weeks at a time, 
helping the children with rehabilitation.  One other U.S.- 
based medical organization also has a relationship with the 
facility.  About 20 children have been adopted overseas. 
Compared to the Shenyang facility we have visited, this 
facility was clearly understaffed and the rehabilitation 
equipment hardly used. 
 
¶12. (U) By contrast, the Liaoning Provincial Orphans 
School in Chaoyang appears to be a stunning success that 
dates from the Cultural Revolution (the school was 
established in 1965).  One of only two such institutions in 
China (the other is in Jilin Province), the school combines 
nine years of compulsory education with vocational training 
to help abandoned or orphaned children succeed in 
mainstream  society.  The vocational school, for example, 
trains students in computer accounting, computer 
application and maintenance, preschool teaching, fashion 
design and tailoring, cooking, beauty and hair styling, and 
other vocations and boasts a perfect placement rate. 
Recently, the middle school reports a 100-percent success 
rate in placing its graduates in high school or vocational 
school, of which another 80 percent make it into college, 
including many in graduate programs.  All the students 
board on campus, some 6-8 students per room with a resident 
teacher to insure care outside of the classroom.  All of 
the financing comes from the provincial government and the 
Liaoning Charity Federation, and the children come from 14 
cities all over the province.   U.S. NGOs, including the 
Casey Cares and Half the Sky Foundations have worked with 
the school in the past, but only a dozen or so children 
aged 8-10 have been adopted oversees. 
 
¶13. (U) The school's dynamic principal, Tong Zixinm, told 
us he has worked in the school for 14 years and spends 
every spring Festival with the children:  "It's like a big 
family."  Tong had been a Youth League Secretary at 
Chaoyang Teachers College before transferring.  Since then, 
the number of students has more than tripled to the current 
level of 648 and Tong proudly looked forward to being able 
to handle over 1,000 students in the large, new facility 
 
SHENYANG 00000173  004 OF 004 
 
 
which opens in Shenyang in 2010. The school has had 3,000 
graduates overall since its founding. 
 
Tieling's Gleaming Aluminum Future 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶14. (C) Tieling Mayor Zhang Jiangqiang was extremely 
upbeat about his successful trip to the United States last 
spring when he visited Alcoa headquarters in Pittsburg and 
signed contracts with five U.S. and Canadian investors, 
including Alcoa.  He stressed that Tieling will not be 
affected by the global economic crisis because the city has 
few export-oriented factories and relies instead on producing 
lathes and mining machinery.  Despite the downturn, moreover, 
Alcoa confirmed that it will follow through on its plan to 
build an 
aluminum fixture fabrication plant in Tieling even though 
Alcoa decided to scrap a similar plant in Eastern Europe. 
Zhang admitted, however, that electricity demand had dropped 
11 percent in November province-wide, proving there was 
indeed a recession in manufacturing.  (Note: When he was 
Party Secretary of Liaoning Province, Vice Premier Li Keqiang 
told the Ambassador that electricity production was one of 
only two 
consistently reliable indicators of economic activity in 
China; the other was bank credit.) 
 
¶15. (SBU) Tieling's "New Town" is being built with aluminum 
fittings that will eventually be produced in Alcoa's 
planned factory in the industrial zone.  Located 4.5 
kilometers south of the old city, the new town will 
hopefully propel real estate development in a city that has 
seen its share of economic woes.  Prices for housing in the 
new town have actually risen over the past few months.  The 
government will formally move to its new headquarters on 
the banks of a man-made lake sometime in December.  One of 
the features of the new government headquarters appears 
particularly apt, if not unique:  the government building 
is flanked by the local People's Congress, on the right, 
and the Political Consultative Committee, on the left, and 
the central office structure is split evenly down the 
middle between the city government and the communist party 
offices.  Communication should be excellent. 
SWICKMAN