US embassy cable - 05PARIS3441

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 003441 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FROM USOECD 
 
OES FOR DRAGNICH 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/19/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, ECON, CH, TW 
SUBJECT: (C) OECD: CHINA CONTINUES PRESSURE AGAINST 
EXPANDED TAIWAN TIES 
 
Ref: Paris 03155 
 
(U) classifed by: Morton Holbrook, Economic Counselor, 
USOECD.  Reason: 1.4(d) 
 
1. (C) Chinese Embassy officials have continued to 
press the OECD Secretariat to oppose Taiwan's 
applications to join committees as observers.  In 
conversations on May 11 and May 18, the officials, 
including the Embassy's Commercial Counselor, requested 
that the OECD notify member country delegations of 
China's opposition to Taiwan's requests.  They asserted 
- as previously (reftel) -- that Taiwan's motive for 
its recent expression of interest in OECD observerships 
was political. The latest request was made (as before) 
to Frederic Langer, a mid-level OECD Secretariat 
official who is in charge of the OECD's country program 
for China. 
 
 
OECD response: it's the committees 
---------------------------------- 
 
2. (C) After consulting with higher officials, 
including OECD Secretary General Donald Johnston, 
Langer relayed the OECD's response:  the OECD valued 
its cooperative relations with China, as had recently 
been expressed in the joint statement released after 
Commerce Minister Bo Xilai's attendance at the OECD's 
Council at Ministerial Level meetings May 3-4 (copy 
faxed to EAP/CM and EU/ERA).  However, the OECD 
Secretariat could not block applications for 
 
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observerships or make statements to member delegations 
on behalf of a non-member country. 
 
3. (C) If China wished to send a statement to the 
Secretariat setting out its own position, the 
 
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Secretariat would make that statement available to 
 
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members, without endorsing it.  However, Langer told 
the officials, it was hard to predict what member 
states reaction would be; there could well be a 
negative reaction.  He also noted that the various OECD 
Committees would give Taiwan's applications very 
thorough scrutiny based not on political criteria but 
on whether Taiwan and the OECD would both benefit from 
Taiwan's participation.   He suggested that China need 
not be concerned that a committee might approve an 
application from Taiwan that was not well-grounded in 
the work of the committee. 
 
Coming events with China 
------------------------ 
 
4. (C) Langer told us that China is currently scheduled 
to participate, at the Vice Ministerial level, in two 
upcoming OECD meetings, an economic review of China on 
June 3, and a review of China's agricultural policy 
that will begin on June 10 (China's delegation to the 
agricultural meetings is scheduled to be led by Duan 
Yinbi, Vice Minister, State Council, Western 
Development Office).  There has been no suggestion as 
yet that these meetings will not proceed as scheduled 
with PRC attendance.  As far as the OECD is concerned, 
the ball is now back in China's court. 
 
Morella