From: <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/spesial/wikileaksdokumenter/article3994480.ece">Aftenposten</a><br>
Date: 27.02.2009
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIJING 000517
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/27/2034 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, CH, TW 
SUBJECT: PRC LEADERS KEEN TO FORGE CLOSE TIES WITH U.S.; HU 
JINTAO SEEKS TAIWAN BREAKTHROUGH AS HIS LEGACY
REF: A. BEIJING 145 
B. 07 BEIJING 6673
Classified By: Political Minister Counselor Aubrey Carlson. 
Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).
 

Summary 
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1. (C) The PRC leadership is determined to forge close ties 
with the new U.S. Administration, viewing relations with 
Washington as the key to China's engagement with the world, 
according to an Embassy contact with access to the Chinese 
leadership. Though China has long viewed its relationship 
with the United States as its most important, a "shift" took 
place following the August 2008 Olympics, when Chinese 
leaders realized that good relations with Washington "saved" 
the Beijing Games and "brought the rest of the world to 
China." This same contact asserted that President Hu Jintao 
is actively pursuing a "breakthrough" on Taiwan as his 
primary attempt at establishing a "legacy." As early as 
2006, Hu reportedly formed a "study team," which is still 
active, to research a "new way forward" on Taiwan. The lack 
of a response so far from Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou to 
Hu's six-point proposal of December 31, however, is a concern 
to China's leaders, our contact asserted. End Summary.

U.S. RELATIONS "THE KEY" TO THE REST OF THE WORLD 
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2. (C) China is keen to pursue close relations with the new 
U.S. administration, according to XXXXX. XXXXX told 
PolOff on February 19 that PRC leaders believed, based on the 
Olympics experience, that the rest of the world would largely 
continue to look to the United States to determine how to 
deal with a rising China. Thus, relations with Washington 
were "the key" to China's engagement with the rest of the 
world. According to "multiple sources" within Zhongnanhai, 
according to XXXXX, this new emphasis on better relations with 
the United States had originated "straight from the top" 
(meaning from President Hu Jintao) and not from the Ministry 
of Foreign Affairs. The phrase that "everyone" was talking 
about in Zhongnanhai, XXXXX claimed, was "getting relations 
right with the United States means getting relations right 
with the entire world." (Note: In Chinese, XXXXX said the 
phrase is, "zhua zhu meiguo, jiu zhua zhu quan shijie.")

3. (C) The PRC leadership's determination to forge closer 
ties with the United States stemmed from the "lessons" China 
had learned from the August 2008 Olympic Games, XXXXX 
asserted. Though China had long viewed its relationship with 
the United States as its most important, following the August 
2008 Olympics, Chinese leaders realized that good relations 
with Washington had "saved" the Beijing Games and "brought 
the rest of the world to China." Then-President Bush's early 
decision to attend the Olympics and refusal to politicize the 
Games, even after the March 2008 unrest in Tibet, had given 
Hu Jintao and the Chinese people "great face" and stood in 
stark contrast to the "wavering" and "grandstanding" of 
leaders like French President Sarkozy. Most importantly, 
XXXXX argued, it had been the U.S. position that eventually 
"prevailed," with the rest of the world "following the U.S. 
lead" and deciding to attend the Games. XXXXX commented that 
the days of Beijing's relying primarily on relations with the 
Third World, or the UN, were "long gone," XXXXX averred, 
declaring, "It's all about the United States now."

HU JINTAO PURSUING TAIWAN "BREAKTHROUGH" AS HIS "LEGACY" 
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4. (C) Turning to China's cross-Strait policy, XXXXX 
claimed that President Hu Jintao was actively pursuing a 
"breakthrough" on Taiwan as his primary attempt at 
establishing a "legacy." Just as former paramount leader 
Deng Xiaoping had agreement on the reversion of Hong Kong to 
PRC sovereignty as part of his legacy, Hu wanted to "do 
something big" on Taiwan. XXXXX dismissed Hu Jintao's 
signature domestic policy, the Scientific Development Concept 
(SDC), as "rubbish" (gou pi), reiterating that, in his view, 
a breakthrough on Taiwan would be far more important than 
anything Hu might accomplish through continuing to push the 
Scientific Development Concept. (Comment: This is the 
second Embassy source to claim that Hu is aiming for his 
Taiwan policy, and not the Scientific Development Concept, to 
be his primary legacy -- see ref A.)

5. (C) For several years, Hu Jintao had had in mind a 
breakthrough on Taiwan, XXXXX asserted. As early as 2006, Hu 
had formed a "study team," which was still active, of leading 
Chinese scholars and other experts to research a "new way 
forward" on Taiwan. The group's goal was to find a path that 
lay somewhere between the "one country, two systems" approach 
that remained unacceptable to Taiwan and anything that 
smacked of "special state-to-state relations" that remained 
anathema to the Mainland. XXXXX said he had "heard" that Dean 
of the Tsinghua University Law School Wang Zhengmin was one 
member of this study group.

6.. (C) Hu Jintao's best-known speeches on cross-Strait 
relations had grown out of this desire to achieve a 
breakthrough and the work of this study group, XXXXX averred, 
including Hu's offer of a "peace agreement" during his 
keynote address to the 17th Party Congress in October 2007 
(ref B) and his "six-point" proposal in his December 31, 2008 
speech (ref A). Currently, XXXXX claimed, the Chinese 
leadership's greatest concern regarding this hoped-for 
"breakthrough" was the lack of a substantive response from 
Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou to Hu's December 31 speech. 

PICCUTA 
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