More on John Pemberton’s possible China 1940s diplomat.
03-0524 PRC CD
MR(?) 172 remains unexplained for now……
Further to the March 2013 Post ‘Fancy a Chinese?‘ and the subsequent identification of the Chinese character on the shield, Alex Kavka sends the Blog the Chinese ideogram for ‘ambassador’, on his Taiwan diplomatic photo 359. It is the same as that of the current PRC diplomatic corps (not necessarily ambassador) ideogram 01-718 and another 1972-4 Taiwanese dip. 1 50 also shows the same character. (from ‘RG’.)
Shown below are the examples from both countries, for comparison… (Top, RC (current), centre, PRC, bottom, RC historic)
Peoples’ Rep. China diplomatic corps from 1970s/80s. Brumby archive
Formosa/Taiwan dip.1972-4 (RG plate)
Europlate blog 
Could the “MR” be № in some form?
if it were as you suggest, David, what would that convey? Vic
Perhaps the round plaque indicates that the person is Ambassador number 172, or that the car has Ambassador registration number 172?
What looks like “MR” or “№” could perhaps in fact be a Chinese character. Did Yun Li have anything to say about it?
David and Alex – I see what you mean about the sign for ‘number’. Let me press Yun Li on the matter, in case it IS a Chinese ideogram.
Vic