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The Chinese reputation for subtlety in foreign affairs has also suffered from the antics of an outfit known in Europe as "Lee Wang's Circus," a cadre of 42 Red Chinese spoilers—instant experts on every subject from genetics to nuclear fission. Their mission: to disrupt international conferences, grab the microphone and propagandize loudly against the revisionists, colonialists and imperialists. Fortnight ago, the circus turned up in Budapest for a 54-nation symposium of the left-leaning World Federation of Scientific Workers, managed to reduce the session to a howling cacophony. "The only way to avoid them," said one bitter Hungarian, "is to get your conference sponsored by UNESCO. Then the Chinese automatically boycott it."
Despite these setbacks in prestige, Peking has a familiar way out. The Red Chinese have taken care not to extend any true commitment of men, money or moral support that cannot be hedged at a later date. That, after all, is Peking's eminently scrutable style. "When it comes to putting blue power chips on the table," says a Western China-watcher, "they just don't have very many. They have to run around stirring up trouble to distract attention."