CHINA: Tough Guy for Tough Times

By making his brother-in-law, T. V. Soong, Foreign Minister of China, Chiang Kai-shek last week formally recognized two facts. One was the extraordinary ability of one of China's top administrators; the other, that China no longer has any "foreign relations" in the old sense.

With most of the world as war-swept as China, foreign relations now consist chiefly of military councils and conferences. For such councils smooth-speaking diplomats are not as much needed as blunt, hard-hitting men of affairs. Such a man is T. V. Soong, whose reputation as a tough guy is a fable from Singapore to Vladivostok. T. V. also had the advantage of being in Washington, where the most important war councils were taking place (see p. 11).

For almost a decade T. V. has been one of the most potent behind-the-scenes operators in Chinese politics. In Washington he and Ambassador Hu Shih have worked as a team for a year and a half. While Hu Shih ambassadored, made speeches, held the diplomatic front, T. V. in liaison with New Dealer Lauchlin Currie plowed through War Department and Lend-Lease red tape, squeezed supplies for warring China out of reluctant committees.

T. V. had no time for diplomatic honey. Said he: "I'm not here on a good-will mission." From the modest red-brick headquarters of his China Defense Supplies Inc. in Washington, he engineered many a deal, stepped on many a sensitive toe in the State and Treasury Departments.

Last week Chinese wondered where their new Foreign Minister would establish himself—in Washington or Chungking. Quipped one of his aides: "He'll probably set up office in an airplane."