Where's Mao?

In mid-December, Red China's Dictator Mao Tse-tung stood up in Peking to receive the credentials of new Soviet Ambassador P. F. Yudin. Since then, as far as anyone knows, Mao has not been seen in public. Persistent rumors have described the Chinese dictator as seriously ill with heart disease. Whatever the rumors, Mao did not appear at a New Year's meeting of high Communist officials, and he failed to show at a committee meeting on Jan. 21, on the anniversary of Lenin's death. His birthday last Nov. 17 went entirely unnoticed in China, though Russia and the satellites whooped it up in his name.

Two weeks ago, the Central Committee of China's Communist Party held its first plenary session since 1950 to conduct a full review of the troubles facing Chinese Communism. Mao himself has attended or presided over every similar plenary session since 1922, and this one seemed to be one of the most important. There were, by their own words, vital problems facing China's Reds: 1) the "spontaneous tendencies toward capitalism" still cropping out among China's peasants; 2) the grow ing possibility of "imperialist agents with in our party," a condition made chilling by a pointed reference to Beria's fate (the Chinese Communist Party is the only one in the world that has never undergone a wholesale purge).

What did Dictator Mao Tse-tung have to say about all this? The official communique last week said only: "Comrade Mao was away on holiday and so was not present."

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