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costs and interminable negotiating delays. For example, our request for 28,000 square meters of land space was countered by an offer of only 5,000 square meters, with the excuse that any larger amount of land would require confiscation of a valuable vegetable patch. In fact, the site in question is a parking lot.
We discussed the feasibility of using the State Department's new authority under the Foreign Missions Act to exert leverage on the Chinese Government to ameliorate this situation with the consul gen- eral. He agreed that that approach should be explored and suggested that dramatically raising PRC diplomatic mission rents in the United States might stimulate better cooperation on their part. In examining the advisability of using leverage, we learned that the situation in the United States has been complicated by the eagerness of some U.S. mayors to have the Chinese establish missions in their cities, notwith- standing the State Department's efforts to exact a quid pro quo for U.S. missions in China.
NEW CONSULATES IN CHINA
Another factor in this issue is that the State Department's China desk, while mindful of the difficulties in Guangzhou, is giving priority to opening three new consulates in China-Shenyang, Chengdu, and Wuhan-and is using the Foreign Missions Act leverage to achieve this end. In our view, this approach raises several problems. First, the opening of new consulates in China prior to the reopening of certain congressionally designated consulates would violate the Zablocki amendment, which prohibits such action. Second, the rationale for opening three additional consulates is to promote American business and to attain more accurate political knowledge of China. While the purposes are generally understandable, the difficulties which our polit- ical officer in Guangzhou has experienced in accomplishing his mis- sion would seem to call into question some of the value of opening. three new consulates. Finally, the intent of the Toreign Missions Act is to improve conditions at existing U.S. overseas missions before fa- cilitating the opening of new posts.
Even if the problem of office space and staff housing could be re- solved immediately, we were told that it would be 3 to 4 years before new construction would be completed. In the meantime, in addition to the high rent being paid for office and staff quarters, the State De- partment is also paying for structural alterations in the hotel to pro- vide badly needed space for visa applicants and American citizen services. One U.S. consular official commented that, at this rate, the United States will pay for the whole hotel four times over.
IMPORTANCE OF CONSULATE GENERAL/GUANGZHOU
The significance of the office space and housing problems outlined above is accentuated by the increasing importance of the functions performed by the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou. The con- sulate was one of the first 10 established by the fledgling United States, and was in continuous operation from 1792 to 1941. Since its reopen- ing in 1979, it has become one of the largest immigrant visa issuing posts in the world-currently equaling the U.S. Consulate General/
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