Mao's New America Watcher

WHEN the Great Proletarian Revolution burst over Communist China, Peking recalled all but one of its 42 ambassadors. The lone exception was Huang Hua, then Peking's man in Cairo. His dedication to Communism and his diplomatic acumen in directing China's relations with all of Africa and the Middle East had obviously earned the confidence and respect of China's leaders, even in a period when they were not inclined to trust many people.

Thus it was natural that when Peking began dismantling the wall of isolation erected during the Cultural Revolution, Huang Hua (Yellow Flower) was named to head one of China's most sensitive foreign posts, the new embassy in Canada. When Huang, 58, arrives in Ottawa some time in the next few weeks, he will become the Communist government's first ambassador in North America.

Huang's fluent, Oxford-accented English and quick wit have impressed Westerners. One Canadian diplomat describes him as "less stereotyped than most of his colleagues, who usually speak like editorials in a Peking daily." Moreover, he possesses an asset that is rare among Chinese diplomats: experience in dealing with Americans. This especially qualifies him for the "America watching" that is likely to be among his most important tasks in Canada.

Huang's contact with Americans dates from the mid-1930s, when he studied at U.S.-supported Yenching University in Peking. In 1944, he served as a Communist liaison officer to the U.S. military mission in Yenan. There he charmed Americans with his affability--as well as his ability to win at Monopoly.

Considerably less charmed were the Americans who faced him nine years later across the table at the Korean truce talks in Panmunjom, where Huang led the Chinese delegation. He refused to speak English, would not shake hands with the American delegates and interminably denounced them as "capitalist crooks, rapists, thieves, robbers of widows." At one session, his marathon attacks became so insulting that Arthur Dean, chief American negotiator, gathered up his papers and stalked out of the conference room. One American participant recalls: "Huang Hua was quite stunned. He cried 'Come back!' That was the only time I heard him use English."

In Canada, Huang faces the most difficult challenge of his career. His reading of the American scene and the reports he cables to Peking will strongly influence Chinese policy toward the U.S. at a particularly delicate moment.

Accompanied by a Chinese cook and his wife, a diplomat who has served in the Foreign Ministry, Huang and his staff of 14 will work from the top floor of Ottawa's posh Juliana Apartments. From there, he will have a fine view of the Canadian Parliament, the Ottawa River and the Gatineau Hills. But the view that is likely to interest him most will be the one he gets--from the press, TV and assorted visitors--of the U.S.

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