Qian Changming 2021-07-06
(Translator’s preface: I came across this article on July 6,
2021, on the Utopia Chinese language website.
Mao Zedong was vitally interested in the natural sciences and in
particular nuclear and particle physics and their verification of the laws of
materialist dialectics. In turn, leading scientists like Qian Xuesen were appreciative
of his interest in their work and recognised his leadership in defeating the
Guomindang and the Japanese, and leading China onto the now-abandoned path of
socialism.
By way of background to Qian Xuesen, the following notes
might be of interest:
Qian Xuesen (1911 - 2009) was an aerodynamicist and
systems scientist, one of the founders of engineering cybernetics, a member of
the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a member of the Chinese Academy of
Engineering. Qian Xuesen graduated from Jiaotong University in 1934; he went to
the United States in 1935 and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in 1936 with a master's degree, and then transferred to the
Department of Aeronautics of the California Institute of Technology. He
received his doctorate in aeronautics and mathematics from the California
Institute of Technology in 1939, and then stayed on and was involved in the
Manhattan Project, which ultimately led to the successful development of the
first atomic bomb in the USA. In 1945, he was sent to Germany to investigate
the Nazi’s rocket technology. In 1950,
despite protests by his colleagues, he was stripped of his security clearance
by the US reactionaries. After spending five years under house arrest, he was
released in 1955 at the request of Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai
in exchange for the repatriation of American pilots who had been captured
during the Korean War. Upon his return, he helped lead the Chinese nuclear
weapons program. This effort ultimately led to China's first successful atomic
bomb test and hydrogen bomb test, making China the fifth nuclear weapons state,
and achieving the fastest fission-to-fusion development in history.
Additionally, Qian's work led to the development of the Dongfeng ballistic
missile and the Chinese space program. In 1957, Qian was elected an academician
of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He served as a Vice Chairman of the
National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
from 1987 to 1998.)
Qian Xuesen's call in his later years:
"If Mao Zedong Thought
and the public ownership system are lost, China is finished!" [1]
Qian Xuesen, the people's scientist, is a shining example of
a Chinese proletarian intellectual. He was a great patriot and an even greater
communist. It was his dedication and that of his comrades - Deng Jiaxian, Qian
Sanqiang, Zhao Jiuzhang, Yu Min and others - that helped to build China's
status as a major power in space science and technology by supporting the
nuclear umbrella of the "two bombs and one star". Should people
listen to his words?
Why did Qian Xuesen make such
a call?
First of all, it was because of his own feelings.
After
witnessing the corrupt rule of the Guomindang government in his early years and
the persecution of the McCarthy's American style of "democracy", Qian
Xuesen eventually returned to New China under the care of Chairman Mao and
Premier Zhou. With his scientific spirit and tireless efforts, he became a
world-renowned scientist, an aerodynamicist, the founder of Chinese manned
space flight, the "Father of Chinese Science" and the "King of
Rockets".
Qian Xuesen was received six times by Chairman Mao and met with him to talk about philosophy, science and the proletarian worldview. He was impressed by the Chairman's wisdom and foresight, which guided him to become a true communist fighter. He once wrote with deep emotion:
"The fact that the Great Leader Chairman Mao rescued me from my plight in a foreign country and personally led me onto the path of revolution, freeing me from the bondage of old traditional ideas, is something I will never forget. I will always remember Chairman Mao's sage advice time and again". He vowed:
"I must
earnestly study Marxism, Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, consciously limit
bourgeois legal power, wholeheartedly combine with the workers and peasants, earnestly
reform my world view, better fulfil the tasks entrusted to me by the Party, and
never fail to live up to the training and education given to me by the great
leader Chairman Mao". (Qian Xuesen: "Never forget Chairman Mao's
gracious teachings for life!
This is what Qian Xuesen said, and indeed what he did.
After the death of Chairman Mao, a series of tremendous changes took place in the land of China. Many old revolutionaries and Party members, in the midst of this gradual and dramatic change, became dizzy and straightened out, unable to distinguish between socialism and capitalism, revolution and counter-revolution, good people and bad people, right and wrong, and in a word, lost their political direction.
However, Qian Xuesen, the people's scientist, was different from the rest, and was really "awake when everyone was drunk". After the 1990s, when the "anti-Mao" trend was in full swing politically, domestic and foreign enemies attacked and slandered Mao Zedong, the People's Leader, and completely denied Mao Zedong's Thought; economically, in the name of "reform and opening up", they denied public ownership and engaged in capitalist and colonialist privatisation. He saw that the formerly beautiful socialist motherland was falling into the abyss of capitalism, and this was why he made this heartbreaking appeal.
Secondly, this was also Qian's deep understanding of the history that "only socialism can save China".
China is an ancient civilisation with a long history, having been under feudal rule for more than 2,000 years and having created ancient glories, but falling behind in modern times. Since then, countless patriots have fought to change their country's bad luck. From Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan's "Open your eyes and see the world" to Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing's Taiping movement, from Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao's reformist movement of the Hundred Days Reform to Sun Yat-sen and Huang Xing's Xinhai Revolution, all of them failed. Only by following the path of socialism under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought did we change the fate of the Chinese nation. As Chairman Mao pointed out:
The May Fourth Movement then broke out in 1919, and the Communist Party of China was established in 1921. After an arduous struggle, Chairman Mao combined the universal truths of Marxism-Leninism with the practice of the Chinese revolution - forming Mao Zedong Thought. This ultimately guided the Chinese Revolution to a great victory. History has proved time and again that whenever the Chinese revolution is not guided by Mao Zedong Thought, it suffers setbacks and even faces annihilation; whenever it is guided by Mao Zedong Thought, the Chinese revolutionary cause flourishes.
Modern capitalism is the final stage in the development of a system of private exploitation, in which the few get rich and the many suffer from poverty. It has created an international system in which the world is divided into two poles: the seven countries of Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Russia, Japan and Italy (about 10% of the world's population) as one pole, the capitalist sovereign states, and the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America outside Japan (90% of the world's population) as the other pole, the colonial vassals. The relationship between the two is one of minority and majority, of conquest and subjugation, of exploitation and plunder, of slavery and subjugation. For various historical and practical reasons, a country like China - if it follows the capitalist path - is doomed to become a vassal of the imperialist countries. (Translator's note: I disagree with this conclusion. For reasons that the Communist Party of Australia [Marxist-Leninist] has explained, the capitalist path has taken China onto the highway of social-imperialism. See: Explaining+China+Final+v2.pdf (cpaml.org) especially pages 13 - 20).
Who will benefit if China discards Mao Zedong's thought, takes the capitalist road again and reverts to being a vassal of imperialism? It will only benefit a tiny minority of traitors, traitors and bureaucratic bourgeoisie; the vast majority of the Chinese people will suffer. It was Qian Xuesen's profound understanding and appreciation of this truth that led him to utter his final cry.
Mao Zedong Thought and the public ownership system must not be lost!
"We are socialist!" "Never forget that we are on the road to socialism. This must never be forgotten!" "Socialism must triumph over capitalism. We have this confidence because this is the objective law of social development." (Qian Xuesen: Creating Systematics, p. 20, Selected Letters of Qian Xuesen, Vol. 1, p. 462)
Note [1]. Quoted in Kung Xiantian: "Qian Lao
said: If we lose Mao Zedong Thought and the public ownership system, China will
be finished!
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