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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 GUANGZHOU 000049 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/CM 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV ECON SOCI PREL CH
SUBJECT: Ambassador Attends Symposium Comparing U.S., Chinese 
Governments 
 
REF A: 09 GUANGZHOU 701; B: GUANGZHOU 44 
 
GUANGZHOU 00000049  001.4 OF 003 
 
 
This report is sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect 
accordingly. 
 
¶1. (U) Summary: Ambassador Huntsman addressed representatives from 
the Counselor's Office of the State Council of China and the 
Kissinger Institute at a January 20-22 symposium on similarities and 
differences between U.S. and Chinese government systems.  Speakers 
from both sides gave comparative views of government structures and 
reforms, anticorruption efforts, crisis response and the budget 
process.  Chinese speakers highlighted corruption and accountability 
of government officials as challenges.  After the departure of the 
Ambassador and the Consul General, the symposium, which was held in 
Sanya, Hainan, moved to Shenzhen, Guangdong, to hear from local 
leaders about the city's role as a laboratory for government 
reforms. (See Ref A.)  End summary. 
 
High Expectations 
----------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Drawing on his experience as Utah State Governor, 
Ambassador Huntsman described the complicated relationship between 
U.S. federal and state governments January 20 to members of the 
Counselor's Office of the State Council of China -- an advisory body 
and self-styled think tank responsible for considering issues of 
national importance.  Noting that part of the symposium would be 
devoted to issues of government crisis response, the Ambassador 
highlighted his point by saying that while a U.S. state could count 
on Federal assistance in the event of a disaster, that assistance 
literally came with a high price tag.  Following the Ambassador's 
remarks, Counselor's Office Director General and Chairman Chen Jinyu 
said that the Chinese side had high expectations for the 
Ambassador's contribution to U.S.-China relations during his term. 
 
 
National-Level Reforms: Six Down, More to Come 
----------------------- ---------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) Wang Lanming, Chair of the Public Administration Society 
and former Director General of the Central Government Rightsizing 
Office reviewed the Chinese Central Government's six restructuring 
reforms over the past 30 years, which took place in 1982, 1988, 
1993, 1998, 2003 and 2008.  Wang characterized the trend of reform 
as government loosening its direct control of and participation in 
economic issues while focusing on providing better public goods and 
services.  Wang predicted that future reforms would focus on 
streamlining and coordinating the functions of the 
"super-ministries" produced by the most recent reforms. 
 
¶4. (SBU) One important element of any new reforms would be assessing 
their effectiveness, said Wang, who noted that reforms spanned all 
levels of government.  Wang explained that some reforms -- such as 
those emphasizing rule of law, transparency, impartiality, fairness 
and accountability -- reflected ongoing legal and social 
development.  Some reforms, on the other hand, came in response to 
specific incidents, such as the separation and upgrading of the 
Production Safety Supervision Agency following a spate of coal mine 
accidents.  Wang said that recent reforms seek to hold government 
agencies accountable for the use of their authority through 
strengthened supervision by auditing and anticorruption agencies. 
 
Anticorruption Efforts still Unsatisfactory 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) The Chinese Government is "determined" to solve the 
pervasive problem of official corruption, averred Counselor Qiao 
Zhonghuai, a former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs responsible for 
anticorruption in the Foreign Ministry.  Echoing some of Wang's 
remarks, Qiao said the government is now focusing on clarifying 
officials' duties and associated penalties for nonperformance, 
 
GUANGZHOU 00000049  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
applying a new practice of circuit inspection, collecting 
information from the public and examining the experiences of other 
countries for ideas.  Qiao said the corruption problem would remain 
a long-term and serious challenge for China and that the 
government's performance in this regard remains unsatisfactory. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Qiao said that variations in the wealth of China's regions 
made it problematic to set a country-wide standard for 
differentiating between gifts and graft.  When former Embassy 
Beijing Legal Attache Ira Belkin noted that the U.S. standard for 
giving and accepting gifts was to avoid even the appearance of 
impropriety, a number of representatives from the Chinese side 
thought such an ideal admirable but also in conflict with China's 
deep-seated traditional culture of gift-giving. 
 
Crisis Response 
--------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) Former Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Michael 
Jackson observed that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), 
with its conglomeration of old and new government entities, was a 
U.S. example of a "super-ministry."  Jackson's presentation on the 
mission, creation, and development of DHS prompted Chairman Chen to 
inquire how quickly threat information could travel through the 
reporting chain from DHS to the President's office.  (The answer: 
very quickly.)  A councilor also asked Jackson how DHS handles 
internal conflicts between subordinate agencies.  Jackson explained 
how officials at all levels tried to work through disagreements at 
the lowest possible level, but that an issue could rise, even to the 
President. 
 
¶8. (SBU) In a presentation on the relationship between China's 
central and local governments when responding to a national 
emergency situation, Counselor Shan Chunchang said that gradual 
decentralization of administrative authority had worked well in the 
economic sector, but that such a model was not appropriate for 
responding to crises.  Shan commented that the Chinese Government 
viewed its experiences with SARS and the Sichuan earthquake as 
evidence that control of national-level emergency resources should 
remain centralized.  The Chinese side also specifically cited the 
USG's botched handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster as another 
argument for centralization. 
 
Chinese Financial Data "Should now be Reliable" 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶9. (SBU) The Chinese government has been tightening its control over 
its agencies' budgets, especially by centralizing the management of 
their bank accounts for incomes and expenditures, according to 
Counselor Feng Xiuhua.  Feng said that the government would 
increasingly scrutinize the efficient use of funds and subject 
departments to increased supervision from the People's Congresses. 
Feng said that, in restructuring its budgetary system, the Chinese 
government had made heavy reference to the design of America's 
budget, particularly with regard to the management of incomes, 
expenditures and transfer payments.  When former Ambassador to China 
Stapleton Roy asked about the reliability of Chinese official 
financial data, Feng acknowledged that the Chinese numbers used to 
have quality problems.  However, as a result of strengthened 
government control of data reporting, the data should now be 
reliable, he said.  (Note: The conference decamped to Shenzhen 
January 21-22 for a case study on Shenzhen's reforms.  End note.) 
 
Shenzhen 
-------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) In Shenzhen, Mayor Wang Rong said his biggest challenge 
was to make Shenzhen once again the model for China's administrative 
reforms.  Shenzhen Executive Vice Mayor Li Feng and Deputy Secretary 
General Nan Ling told the symposium participants that the city's 
most recent reforms clearly defined the government's major functions 
 
GUANGZHOU 00000049  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
as public service, market supervision and social administration. 
Moreover, Shenzhen's reforms would consolidate agencies with similar 
administrative mandates into a smaller number of more efficient 
agencies; consolidate market supervision functions previously shared 
by various agencies; and separate authority for policy making, 
executive and supervisory powers into different organizations. 
Chairman Chen said that informal research by a number of counselors 
indicated that the reforms had already shown some positive results, 
such as improved efficiency in dealing with sensitive land use 
issues, and that Shenzhen's experience gave him confidence in the 
future of China's reforms. 
 
Utah-Trained Officials 
---------------------- 
 
¶11. (U) While in Sanya, the Ambassador also met with Hainan 
government officials who had studied in Utah.  The 10 officials 
studied at the University of Utah's school of public administration 
during the Ambassador's term as governor.  All of the Utah-trained 
officials demonstrated their English proficiency and discussed how 
the Utah program had benefitted their careers.   The Ambassador also 
visited the Nanshan Buddhist Cultural Park before departing Sanya 
for the next leg of his trip in Xiamen, Fujian (ref B). 
 
¶12. (U) This cable was coordinated with Embassy Beijing. 
 
GOLDBECK