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RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0731
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 0206
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 0279
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RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUANGZHOU 000555 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/CM, INR/EAP, INR/B 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON PGOV PINR KJUS CH
SUBJECT: Political Campaign Season in Full Swing in South China 
 
REF A: 08 Guangzhou 406; B: Guangzhou 237; C: Guangzhou 355; D: 
Guangzhou 546 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED -- NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Though less overt than the average American 
political campaign, maneuvering by senior leaders in south China has 
become increasingly public in recent months as officials look to 
shore up their power base and better position themselves for 
advancement in 2012.  Guangdong Party Secretary Wang Yang, whose 
still-incomplete economic policies have been declared "successful" 
by state media, has taken opportunities to speak on national issues 
and is now more open to meeting with foreign officials.  Wang's 
position has largely been strengthened by anticorruption campaigns 
in Guangdong Province, but he could be at risk in similar 
investigations in Chongqing, his previous assignment.  Fujian Party 
Secretary Lu Zhangong likewise has increased his availability to 
foreign officials and used the surrounding publicity to bolster his 
image.  END SUMMARY. 
 
Double Transfer a "Success" 
--------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) Guangdong Party Secretary Wang Yang's "Double Transfer" 
policy (refs A,B) -- the planned upgrading of Guangdong Province's 
economy by shifting labor-intensive, high-polluting and 
energy-inefficient industries to less-developed parts of the 
province while simultaneously attracting high-tech industries to the 
Pearl River Delta -- at best remains a work in progress. 
Officially, though, the policy is a success, according to a front 
page article from late July in the Communist Party's official 
mouthpiece, the People's Daily.  The article clearly tied Double 
Transfer to the successful implementation of Hu Jintao's trademark 
Scientific Development Theory in Guangdong. 
 
Speaking for the Nation 
----------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) In the wake of ethnically charged violent unrest between 
Uighurs and Han Chinese in both Guangdong's Shaoguan municipality 
and Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, Wang could not have made comments on 
China's need to "adjust" its policy toward ethnic minorities without 
approval from Beijing, according to an official with the Guangdong 
Foreign Affairs Office.  While talking on the particularly sensitive 
subject during a July 30 press conference with foreign media, Wang 
-- one of only two provincial party secretaries to simultaneously 
hold a position on the Politburo -- warned that China would face 
"problems" if it did not adjust its minority policy.  Comment: 
Guangdong's connection to the unrest notwithstanding, Wang's public 
commentary on a sensitive national policy issue was a significant 
demonstration of his role as a state-level political leader.  End 
comment. 
 
New Promises of Access 
---------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) In a break from previous practice, Wang Yang "is now much 
more open to meeting with visiting officials," Guangdong Foreign 
Affairs Office Protocol Division official Yang Si told us in June. 
Yang also asked us to encourage "high-level VIP" visits to the 
province.  This message differs from earlier experience, when Wang 
rarely made himself available to official U.S. interlocutors.  Wang 
now seems more willing to appear beside foreign officials whose 
presence would presumably raise his personal status and limit his 
exposure to intraparty attacks. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Comment: The three examples above -- a "successful" local 
initiative, commentary on an issue sensitive at the national level 
and expanded outreach to foreign officials -- are likely calculated 
to show Wang as a well-rounded leader ready for increased 
responsibilities at the national level.  Though accompanied by media 
publicity, the intended target audiences are Party cadres involved 
in intraparty power dynamics.  End comment. 
 
Wang to Officials: Stop Worrying and Get Back to Work 
------------------ ---------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Wang strengthened his political position during a recent 
anticorruption campaign leading to the removal of several of 
Shenzhen's top leaders, including the mayor (ref C).  In the wake of 
 
GUANGZHOU 00000555  002 OF 002 
 
 
the investigations, media reported widespread anxiety throughout the 
Guangdong bureaucracy, with some officials so concerned they could 
be next that they spent their days trading worried rumors with their 
colleagues instead of performing work.  Wang's late-July statement 
to assembled bureaucrats that most of the province's cadres were 
"competent" and need not worry about further investigations was 
significant for at least two reasons: first, as a national-level 
leader, Wang is in a relatively good position to know for certain 
whether any more anticorruption campaigns would be forthcoming; 
second, almost all the major corruption cases in Guangdong in 2009 
targeted officials owing their positions, in whole or in part, to 
their connections with the previous Jiang Zemin administration.  The 
removal of potential political opponents has strengthened Wang's 
position, according to multiple contacts. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Wang might feel the anticorruption heat, however, in 
Chongqing -- where he served as party secretary before coming to 
Guangdong in 2007 -- according to media reports.  The anti-triad 
campaign in Chongqing has cracked down on dozens of triad 
organizations and arrested several senior local law enforcement 
officials, including a vice president of the Chongqing Court, the 
chief of the Justice Bureau and over 40 officials at the county 
level, according to Cheng Ming Magazine.  Many of those officials 
were appointed during the days of Wang and Wang's predecessor, He 
Guoqiang, who is a current Politburo Standing Committee member and 
on the Party's Central Discipline Inspection Commission.  Several 
contacts recently returned from Chongqing told ConGen Guangzhou that 
public sentiment in Chongqing favors Party Secretary Bo Xilai to the 
detriment of Wang and He, both of whom are accused of paying lip 
service to the organized crime issue. 
 
In Fujian, The Sage and the Barbarians 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) Wang Yang is not the only provincial party secretary in 
south China to see expanded interaction with foreign officials as a 
potential boon politically.  In an early September meeting with the 
Consul General and AmCham South China during the 13th China 
International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) (ref D), Fujian 
Party Secretary Lu Zhangong uncharacteristically welcomed the 
visiting delegation in person.  Within recent memory, the Consul 
General's meeting with Lu represented the highest access afforded, 
to date, to senior officials of Fujian Province.  One Consulate 
attendee noted that Lu's statements throughout the meeting seemed to 
be as much for the benefit of the other ranking provincial Party and 
government officials in attendance as they were for the foreign 
guests. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Later the same evening, local television media aired 
footage of Lu's series of meetings with a number of foreign business 
and diplomatic delegations.  The carefully edited content showed 
foreign delegation leaders nodding or otherwise "agreeing" with 
voice-over comments touting the party secretary's vision for 
Fujian's future while also building his foreign affairs credentials. 
 Comment: Though such editorial craftsmanship is hardly new, Lu's 
conscious effort to raise his profile by dealing directly with -- 
and, ostensibly, "dominating" -- foreign visitors fits an emerging 
pattern of campaign-like activity by south China's senior 
leadership. 
 
GOLDBECK