VZCZCXRO1375
PP RUEHAST RUEHCN RUEHDH RUEHGH RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHPB RUEHPOD
RUEHSL RUEHTM RUEHTRO RUEHVC
DE RUEHBJ #3180/01 3310859
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 270859Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6957
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 0551
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES 0001
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 1844
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 9778
RUEHCP/AMEMBASSY COPENHAGEN 0790
RUEHJA/AMEMBASSY JAKARTA 2023
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 3633
RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO 0667
RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 9427
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 4977
RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA 0009
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 4651
RUEHPG/AMEMBASSY PRAGUE 0880
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA 0520
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 1098
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 1396
RUEHSM/AMEMBASSY STOCKHOLM 1668
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 0105
RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 0789
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 0017
RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
RUEAEPA/HQ EPA WASHDC
RHEBAAA/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIJING 003180 
 
STATE FOR EAP/CM-HABJAN, EAP/CM, EAP/PD-STOLTZ 
STATE FOR OES DAS MIOTKE, OES/EGC, OES/ENV, AND OES/PCI 
STATE FOR S/SECC-STERN, S/P-GREEN, EEB, AND ECA 
STATE PASS TO CEQ SUTLEY 
USDOE FOR INTERNATIONAL 
USDOC FOR MAC AND MAS 
USDOC PASS USPTO FOR WU 
EPA FOR INTERNATIONAL/MKASMAN/GIANNINI-SPOHN 
NSC FOR LOI 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OVIP PREL PGOV ECON PARM MARR SENV ENRG KGHG CH
 
SUBJECT: DOE SECRETARY CHU AND CHINA SCIENCE MINISTER CO-CHAIR FIRST 
JOINT CLEAN ENERGY CENTER STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING 
 
(U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Please handle accordingly. 
 
¶1.   (SBU) On the eve of the U.S. President's first visit to 
Beijing, Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu, China's Minister 
of Science and Technology WAN Gang, and National Energy 
Administration (NEA) Deputy Administrator LIU Qi (acting for 
Administrator Zhang Guobao) convened the first steering committee 
meeting of the new U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center (CERC). 
All three committed to increasing CERC's funding from the previously 
announced amount of USD 15 million to a total of USD 150 million 
over five years and agreed that future steering committee meetings 
should be held at the Secretary-Minister level. Minister Wan 
proposed that an executive secretariat be created to steer the 
direction of CERC research and provide high-level guidance. 
Secretary Chu said that the DOE will consider the naming of an 
Executive Secretariat.  National Energy Administration (NEA) Deputy 
Administrator LIU Qi, however, provided a somewhat different view of 
NEA's vision for the CERC than Minister WAN. Liu said in the 
interest of streamlining and less bureaucracy, NEA preferred not to 
establish an executive secretariat. Liu also suggested that the CERC 
focus on clean energy standards and greater collaboration on nuclear 
energy. [NOTE: NEA is one of three key partners on the Chinese side 
involved in the CERC, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) 
and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) are the other key players. 
END NOTE.]  END SUMMARY 
 
DOE and MOST Concur on Direction of Clean Energy Center 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
¶2.  (SBU) Secretary Chu began the meeting by noting that the United 
States is upping its CERC funding commitment from USD 7 million to 
USD 75 million over a 5-year period. Funding will come from both 
public and private sources, and CERC participants will include 
business, academia, and government.  DOE will solicit public 
comments as they assemble plans for projects in three key areas: 
energy efficient buildings, clean coal and carbon capture and 
sequestration (CCS), and electric vehicles.  Secretary Chu also 
proposed the establishment of an advisory committee composed of six 
representatives from each side. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Noting that "remarkable progress" had been made with 
respect to the CERC, Minister Wan proposed that the steering 
committee be chaired by the DOE Secretary, the MOST Minister and the 
NEA Administrator and should meet annually, alternating locations 
between the U.S. and China.  Wan also suggested establishing an 
executive secretariat composed of director generals (DGs) and deputy 
director generals (DDGs) from NEA, CAS, and the Ministry of Housing, 
Urban, and Rural Development (MOHURD) to manage the relationship, 
and named CAO Jianing, MOST's DG for International Cooperation, as 
Executive Secretary for the Chinese side.  Below the Executive 
Secretariat, Wan agreed on the creation of a joint advisory panel, 
and suggested it be composed of experts from enterprises, 
universities, and research institutes and selected by the executive 
 
BEIJING 00003180  002 OF 003 
 
 
secretariat.  Finally, Wan said that China will match the U.S. 
effort to increase funding and committed USD 75 million to fund CERC 
projects in the three areas that Secretary Chu noted.  Wan said that 
DOE and MOST have already agreed on funding mechanisms and both 
sides should jointly develop plans for funding three projects (one 
in each key area) every year. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Secretary Chu agreed with the management approach that is 
outlined in the protocol, which calls for a principal-level steering 
committee and a joint advisory panel with six members on each side. 
With respect to adding an executive secretariat, Chu said that DOE 
will give it full consideration and work to name the advisory 
members soon.  Experts in the three key areas will be identified for 
the joint advisory board on the U.S. side, but the Secretary 
cautioned that the two sides must have close scientist-to-scientist 
exchanges and collaboration to avoid heading in independent research 
directions. Having highly focused research projects would also help 
avoid this situation. He also suggested that some of the advisory 
panel members be from industry to provide the industry perspective 
on CERC's R&D effort. 
 
NEA Has a Somewhat Different View of Cooperation 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
¶5.  (SBU) Noting that his boss NEA Administrator ZHANG Guobao was 
out of the country, NEA Deputy Administrator LIU Qi said he was 
relaying Zhang's ideas on the structure of the CERC.  According to 
Liu, NEA is concerned that too much bureaucracy will slow the pace 
of CERC R&D; therefore, it is NEA's position that an executive 
secretariat should not be established. Liu suggested that those 
carrying out CERC projects work directly with their respective 
counterparts rather than having an executive secretariat steer the 
direction of research.  Although NEA concurred with having clean 
coal and CCS as a primary focus of CERC, Liu's priorities for other 
areas of research also seemed to deviate from those of MOST. Liu 
suggested that previous discussions on setting renewable energy 
standards, which took place during the U.S.-China Energy Policy 
Dialogue in October, should be folded in to the CERC scope and said 
that NEA would be sending a delegation to the U.S. soon to discuss 
this issue.  Liu, noting intense national policy focus on nuclear 
power, also suggested greater collaboration on nuclear energy. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) COMMENT: NEA Deputy Administrator Liu's proposals on how 
the CERC should be structured were remarkably divergent from those 
of MOST Minister Wan and it is somewhat surprising that such 
differing views were discussed so openly with the USG during the 
steering committee meeting.  Moreover, NEA's desire to avoid 
establishing an executive secretariat chaired by MOST suggests that 
there is an ongoing bureaucratic scuffle between NEA and MOST for 
the lead role in what is likely considered a very prestigious 
bilateral cooperative mechanism. Moreover, a tussle among key 
Chinese bureaucracies could have the potential to impede efficient 
CERC collaboration. END COMMENT. 
 
BEIJING 00003180  003 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶7.  (U) This cable was cleared by the Secretary Chu Delegation. 
 
HUNTSMAN