The Kansas City Touch

All over China people suddenly seemed to realize that the elections were just around the corner. Interior Minister Chang Li-sheng calculated that 150,000,000 Chinese were eligible to vote. Nobody had any hard figures on the number of candidates, but in the polls of Nov. 21 and Dec. 21, some 4,000 delegates would have to be elected to China's National Assembly and its Legislative Yuan. Constitutional government was being inaugurated on schedule. Last week, China, just like Western models, had ward heelers, slush funds, wire pullers, whispering campaigns, vested interests and a sprinkling of high-minded amateurs.

"Don't Be Silly." Office seekers worked out their own electoral techniques. Nanking noted with special interest the race of the Misses Liu, Li and Shen for a seat in the Yuan. Gossiped China News: "Miss Liu has been telling people, in an offhand manner, 'Oh, by the way, do you know that Miss Li long ago said she is not interested in running?' Miss Li has countered by telling people, 'Don't be silly--of course I'm interested.' "

Miss Li masterfully avoided censure when a Chinese reporter came for an interview, learned she was still abed at 10 a.m. "I only stayed in bed to read," she explained. "Reading what?" quizzed the reporter. "Why," said the candidate, "the Constitution."

Miss Shen's tactics seemed even more cunning. Said she: "I definitely have no intention of running. How could I, who have neither money nor power, time nor leisure, compete with the others?" Miss Shen said she would rather nurse wounded soldiers. Naturally, with the soldiers' vote to think of, that sort of campaigning worried rivals.

"Illiterates Are Legion." In the Social Democratic Rebirth Weekly, Writer Tu Jen feared that his countrymen lacked political intelligence: "When I look closely into realities, I feel that the forthcoming elections are but a beautiful dream. . . . Illiterates are legion. . . . Those who understand what democratic government is are indeed very few. . . ."

There were, however, plenty of signs that the democratic process in China, while not perhaps as up-to-date as that of Kansas City, was not wholly different from it. When the Kuomintang announced this week its list for the Legislative Yuan, old-guard members who were not up for renomination let out a howl of protest. They had fed so long and faithfully at the public trough--and was this to be their reward?

Cried Chen Yang-piao: "In Fukien if I am not the No. 1 candidate, I surely am the No. 2. Why am I not on the list?" Teng Kung-hsien pounded the speaker's table as though squashing injustice. "We have been on the wrong road! Why belong to the Kuomintang after all?"

But such fickleness was scorned by Chen Chih-fong. He was disgruntled, but he staunchly said: "We must struggle within the party ranks. When we are alive we must live as Kuomintang men. When we die we must be Kuomintang ghosts."

Miss Chang Yulin held out the ultimate threat: "If I fail, I shall reveal all the secrets of the elections."

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