CHINA watching is no longer a sport," observes Tokyo Correspondent S. Chang, "but a source of anxious anticipation. As mainland China sheds her veils of mystery one after another, she becomes increasingly bewitching." Another apt metaphor might compare China and its growing involvement in world affairs to a mosaic whose pieces are scattered round the globe. Examining last week's U.N. vote, its background and ramifications, is a mission for which TIME'S network of bureaus is particularly well suited. We assigned a score of correspondents to collect all the fragments so that Writer Tim James could assemble them in this week's cover story.

While Chang assayed Japan's position. Hong Kong Bureau Chief Bruce Nelan skipped across the South China Sea to Taipei, where he talked with Nationalist leaders and their constituents. Far East Correspondent Louis Kraar tapped sources in Singapore. Malaysia, the Philippines and Djakarta. Our Paris, Rome and Bonn bureaus reported on European reaction, while Washington correspondents covered the State Department, the White House and Capitol Hill.

Much of the reporting, of course, carne from U.N. headquarters, where we mustered a team that itself resembles a small international body. Our U.N. coverage is supervised by German-born Friedel Ungeheuer, who has worked in Africa, Europe and the U.S. for TIME. While a Harvard student, he studied Chinese history under Benjamin Schwartz, a leading Sinologist whom he interviewed for this week's story. William Mader, a native of Hungary, recently returned to his

State Department beat after a stint in Eastern Europe. At the U.N. he covered the U.S. role in the proceedings. William Marmon, born in Richmond, once taught Latin in Greece, later covered the war in Viet Nam. Last week Marmon, along with David Aikman, analyzed China's probable impact on the U.N. (and vice versa). Aikman, an Englishman, has a doctorate in Chinese and Russian history, and is fluent in eight languages.

In last year's cover story on growing American inefficiency, Associate Editor George Church wrote: "An odd thing happened one year after construction started on Chicago's 100-story John Hancock Building: it began to sink into the ground. Air pockets had developed in the concrete caissons on which 'Big John' rested." The story, widely applauded at the time, subsequently won one of the more coveted prizes given for business journalism. Last week Church accepted none other than a John Hancock Award, worth $1,500 and a dais seat at a banquet. The dinner was given--where else? --atop the skyscraper whose caissons, happily, have been repaired.

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