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no public evidence that it frees the most cenior officers for careful thought about essential policy issues.
The report is frequently inconsistent its arguments. Thus, it draws atten- tion to the time wasted on proposals from bureaucrats in the field which are not presented in a form that permits instant response by the central govern- ment authority (the Colonial Secre- tariat). This defect seems the result of inadequate administrative experience. The report later argues that the top jobs should be thrown open to all grades of the Civil Service, irrespective of their professional backgrounds, provided they would make good managers.
Yet such an innovation on a less se- lective basis than is now applied (the promotion of a lawyer from Attorney General to Colonial Secretary is the latest example) will increase the danger of departments being directed by second-raters.
Some of the recommendations of the report make good sense. The need to en- sure that senior officials do not take the easy way out, for instance, knowing they will have retired before a mess sur- faces, is clearly sensible. But the com- munity has the right to demand that the rest of the McKinsey report (a much more substantial document) be publish- ed if it is to be convinced that the sweeping proposals summarised in a merc booklet should be adopted with- out furiner ado.
JAPAN
Chinese wedge
By Koji Nakamura
Tokyo: In its month-long "people-to- people" mission in Japan, China's 55-man friendship team has added to the complications affecting the Japanese Foreign Ministry in its relations with the Soviet Union and Taiwan. Ministry offi- cials privately say that the Chinese mis- sion, led by Premier Chou En-lai's po- licy adviser on Japan, Liao Cheng-chi, "more embarrassing than welcome" in its impact on Tokyo's dealings with the Soviet Union.
was
There is little doubt that one of the objectives of the mission was to gene- rate anti-Soviet feeling, as well as streng then Japanese ties with China. In their "grassroots diplomacy," members of the mission condemned the Soviet Union as "a revisionist socialist empire" and vow- ed that if Soviet troops violate Chinese borders they will not "return hoine alive." In sensitive Hokkaido, whose in- habitants are constantly exposed to pos-
MAY 29, 1973
UPI
Liao Cheng-chi (foreground, waving): A time for embarrassment.
sible detention by Soviet authorities in regard to disputed fishing zones (and who would benefit if the northern terri. tories in dispute with the Soviet Union are returned to Japan), the Chinese visi- tors did not conceal their "strongest support" for the claim that the islands should revert to Japan.
China's immediate objective is to wreck Japanese cooperation with the Soviet Union in the Tjumen oil project which runs along its borders and is re- garded as a threat to its security. Soviet officials in Japan retort that the high- way close to the Chinese border, which is part of the project, is not vital to any Soviet desire to destroy China.
Russian reaction to the mission's acti- vities has been sporadic but strong. Radio Moscow has condemned it as “a vicious anti-Soviet demonstration” aim- ed at "obstructing Russo-Japanese rela- tions." Some Tokyo observers think the passage of three Russian warships through the Taiwan Strait on May 12 may have been intended as a warning to the Liao mission.
What is certain is that the mission has driven a wedge into the $2,000-strong Chinese community in Japan. In areas such as Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama and Kobe, where the Chinese (mostly from Taiwan) live, the mission undoubtedly turned pro-Taiwan sentiment into sympathy for Peking. Before the Liao mission, 60% of the community was pro-Taipei; now, it seems, the ratio has been reversed. In fact, spokesinen for the Overseas Chinese Association in Japan say that "we are 90% united be- hind Peking."
and that the transformation of the eco- nomy would be carried out leniently over a long period, are said to have strongly impressed the Chinese from Taiwan. The Japanese Government fears that Taiwan's reaction to the about-face within the Chinese community could take the form of violent reprisals, even sabotage. Taiwan is believed to have a strong connection with Japan's rightist underground.
CHINOISERIE
Legacy at large
By David Parker
Paris: Since May 9, segments of Chinese history from half a million years ago until the 14th century have been spread around the chambers of the Petit Palais in Paris. This museum will house for four months the long-awaited exhibition of recent archaeological finds in China and anybody within decent reach who does not fork out 10 francs to see the show is the barbarian the Chinese have always taken us for.
These treasures - almost 400 items - are on view for the first time outside China and will bring comfort and excite- ment to those sensitive souls who feared that, despite Chairman Mao's dictur "Let the old serve the new," China's cultural heritage had been, if not sacri ficed, then at least obscured in the inter- ests of a particular state system.
Until now, the People's Republic has been revealed to the world at large mainly in the form of industrial, scienti- fic and trade exhibitions; cultural pre- Assurances from the mission that sentations have been mostly modern, re- force would not he used to liberate Tai-volutionary and essentially “political” wan, that its current economic level would be maintained after “liberation"
in character. And although one has always been able to tramp round the
FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW