Job with a Needle

U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim last week appointed a Chinese official to the post of Under Secretary for Political Affairs and Decolonization. This was more than the symbolic recognition of a new member's importance. Waldheim was following the almost inviolate tradition that each of the Big Five nations is entitled to a top-level post in the U.N. Secretariat.

The new Under Secretary is Tang Ming-chao, 62, an American-educated diplomat who edited a newspaper in New York's Chinatown before returning to his homeland in 1950. In his new post, Tang will be involved with the work of the U.N. Trusteeship Council. He will thereby be in a position to press for the independence of the world's remaining colonial territories.

At first, the Chinese had been unenthusiastic about the job, perhaps because its franchise overlaps that of the Under Secretary for Political and Security Council Affairs, who happens to be the Soviet Union's Leonid Kutakov. But in the end they accepted, apparently deciding that the new post would strengthen their influence in Africa and Asia--and give them a chance to needle Western powers on colonial issues.

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