Before reading this article, please click "Follow". It not only facilitates you to discuss and share, but also brings you a different sense of participation. Thank you for your support. In the 270s, many foreign professors wrote letters to well-known universities such as Peking University in China, hoping to communicate with each other in education, and hope to send students to learn from each other.
However, none of the letters from these foreign professors received a reply, just when many countries believed that our country would not send students to study.
am on July 10, 1978, at 3 am, the US President Jimmy Carter , who was sleeping, was woken up by a phone call. The person who called Dr. Frank Pres, a scientific consultant, said on the phone: " I am meeting Comrade Xiaoping. Comrade Xiaoping asked me a question that I cannot answer. I must call to get your opinion. " heard It was Comrade Xiaoping's question. The US president sat upright and asked the doctor to tell Comrade Xiaoping's request. " Comrade Xiaoping asked if he could send Chinese students to study in the United States. He wanted to send 5,000 people to the United States. "
"You go and tell Comrade Xiaoping that he can send 100,000 people here." After hearing the question, Carter thought for a while and gave the doctor such an answer.
At this time, Comrade Xiaoping wanted to break the situation where there were no international students in China and began to vigorously promote international students. Although it was Comrade Xiaoping's decision, there were still people who were worried about this measure. often asked Comrade Xiaoping what to do if the international students went out and didn't come back.
Comrade Xiaoping answered this with only one sentence. Those who listened to this sentence stopped saying anything, and after hearing this sentence, they all admired Comrade Xiaoping.
What did Comrade Xiaoping say? Also, why should Comrade Xiaoping vigorously promote the policies of international students?
The first batch of international students went to the United States to study, and after returning to China, they became pillars of the country
On December 26, 1978, 52 overseas students boarded the plane to the United States as the first batch of international students sent to the United States to study. Among the
52 people, Jiang Boju and Zhang Gongqing are different from the other 50 people. They happened to receive scholarships from American universities to go to the United States to study, while the other 50 international students, such as Zhang Chuhan , Li Yanda , Liu Baicheng , Zhao Nanming and others were sent to the United States to study as "visiting scholars".
The same thing is that all 52 of them have learned advanced science and technology in the United States, and after learning these technologies, they brought these technologies to the national industry again after returning to China.
50 international students became academicians of the country after returning to China, and Jiang Boju and Zhang Gongqing also became academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences after returning to China.
Zhang Chuhan, as one of the 50 international students, has one thing in common with these international students, that is, he loves learning, or can be called hungry learning.
At that time, the development of the United States surpassed that of our country. Zhang Chuhan, who had just arrived in the United States to study, was fascinated by the advanced development of the United States. The advanced instruments in the laboratory and computers that American families had. These were extremely rare and even non-existent in China at that time.
only spent two years studying abroad. Once the time comes, there is no chance to study in American schools. Therefore, Zhang Chuhan cherishes the past two years. It can be said that in these two years, Zhang Chuhan must not waste every minute and every second.
Library, laboratory, computer room are places where international students such as Zhang Chuhan often stay. It can be said that they don’t go to other places except these places. Usually, they only take the last midnight school bus to return to their residence when they are studying. Sometimes they are fascinated by learning and no midnight bus left after they are out of their way, so they have to find a place to sleep for one night and continue to study the next day.
The popularity of this study is not only Zhang Chuhan, but also Zhao Nanhua, who studied abroad with Zhang Chuhan. Zhao Nanhua talked about the two years when he studied in the United States at that time, the two years with the most intense work in many years.
Zhao Nanhua, who studied atomic energy, has not had weekends during this period of study in the United States, and he should not even think about it during holidays. Every day, Zhao Nanhua is studying and studying hard. In order to use more advanced American instruments, during the period of time in an American school, Zhao Nanhua had to stay in the laboratory until 12 o'clock and not leave until the laboratory closed.
The first batch of Liu Baicheng who went abroad to study had never seen a computer before coming to the United States, but Liu Baicheng found at the landlord's house where he was boarding, and his seven or eight-year-old children could operate the computer system, which brought a huge impact on Liu Baicheng.
At the same time, Liu Baicheng also realized the importance of computers in life in the future. Liu Baicheng, who had never been exposed to computers before, decided to learn computer language within two years of studying in the United States.
Liu Baicheng, who has no foundation in computer language, followed undergraduate students in American schools to learn computer language from scratch. After class, Liu Baicheng learned this cup of coffee at home and learned it until three o'clock in the morning. After this, Liu Baicheng successfully entered the computer field before returning to China.
After returning to China, Liu Baicheng invested the computer technology he learned in the United States into the construction of traditional Chinese industries, bringing a technological innovation to traditional Chinese technologies.
50 international students are studying abroad with the best efforts because they know that the learning opportunities in the past two years are hard-won and were brought to them by Comrade Xiaoping. Thinking of the situation when he went abroad at that time, everyone will be grateful to Comrade Xiaoping and the country.
If it weren't for Comrade Xiaoping's strong promotion, there wouldn't be any chance for these international students to study in the United States.
Tsinghua President proposed to study abroad, and Comrade Xiaoping strongly agreed with
On June 23, 1978, the principal of Tsinghua brought his own educational report to Comrade Xiaoping and then Vice Premier Fang Yi. When reporting on
, Tsinghua Principal Liu Da specially raised the issue of sending international students, because more than just this, some countries have proposed to exchange international students with our country, and Liu Da also thought this was a very good project.
Comrade Xiaoping said after listening to Liu Da’s report: "I agree with the issue of sending international students. Not only do I have to send, but also a large number of students. It is worth investing money on it. For specific issues, the Ministry of Education can be studied later. "
Minister of Education Jiang Nanxiang walked around the office excitedly after hearing Comrade Xiaoping's instructions in the office. As the Minister of Education, he naturally knew how important it was to send international students to study.
But while excited, the Minister of Education also had some concerns. After all, it would cost a lot of money to send an international student out at that time. If these international students came back, it would be fine. If someone didn't come back and stay abroad, it would be a huge loss.
Since Comrade Xiaoping’s instructions to international students were made, many people have raised objections, and what they are worried about is the issue of international students not coming back.
In the face of this problem, Comrade Xiaoping responded quickly: " You send people out first, don't be afraid that people will run away. 10% or 20%, aren't there 80% left? "
After hearing Comrade Xiaoping's words, everyone also felt Comrade Xiaoping's persistence in sending students, and at the same time admired Comrade Xiaoping's courage.
After all, under the circumstances at that time, the country was in the development stage. If people sent out at a high price were not returned, they would bring great obstacles to the development of the country.
Comrade Xiaoping still firmly expressed that he would send people and send more people to study abroad.
China and the United States sent international students together, but the process went smoothly, but the result was smooth. After Comrade Xiaoping proposed and promoted the study abroad plan, studying abroad officially kicked off. First, three months after Pres returned to the United States, hoping that China could send someone to the United States to discuss studying abroad. The invitation of
is naturally irrejectable to China. In the end, the president of Peking University, , Zhou Peiyuan, , was appointed as the head of the delegation, led the Deputy Minister of Education and others to the United States for inspection.
Although both sides have the intention to study abroad, there are still difficult areas to advance in negotiations. After all, both sides represent their own country, so they naturally have to defend their own country's rights. Although the process was very difficult, the matter of China and the United States sending international students to each other was finally decided. China can send 500 to 700 people to study in the United States, while the United States can send 60 people to China for study. After finalizing the staff, Zhou Peiyuan took people to inspect American universities, while the Deputy Secretary of Education stayed in Washington to continue negotiations with the US side.
Because the US Air Force, Department of Defense, FBI , CIA , NASA and other departments must formulate rules for international students sent by China through a national defense perspective, while the Deputy Minister of Education must fight for more rights for these Chinese scholars.
When the Deputy Minister of Education was meeting with leaders of multiple departments in the United States to solve the problem, Zhou Peiyuan also inspected and decided on the university where Chinese students studied when they came to the United States.
After some negotiations, the Chinese delegation finally won good conditions for international students. I believe these international students will definitely gain something in the United States.
After returning to China, the Ministry of Education's mission changed from recommending studying in the United States to selecting people to study in the United States. At first, the first 50 international students to go to the United States were to go to the United States in September 1979.
But soon China and the United States will establish diplomatic relations. Comrade Xiaoping specifically notified the Ministry of Education that 50 international students must be sent to the United States before , China and the United States establish diplomatic relations on January 1, 1979.
Before the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, 52 people went to the United States to study
After receiving this order, the Ministry of Education's task became tense instantly. The originally abundant selection time suddenly became extremely tense at this time.
In order to select people who have learned more in the United States, this time, the selection focused on selecting students with backgrounds in science and engineering, and the location was also limited to key colleges and national academies.
During that time, the one I talked most about studying in key colleges and colleges of science was about studying in the United States. Liu Baicheng didn't expect to choose him at first because his father used to be a capitalist, and for this reason, he applied to study in the Soviet Union twice and was beaten.
But what Liu Baicheng didn't expect this time was that the department actually invited him to take the exam. During the exam, Liu Baicheng discovered that this time he went to the United States to study was different from before.
This time, studying abroad does not have strict requirements on political conditions and family background. What is more important is personal professional ability, especially in English ability, because if you go to the United States and want to study better, it is not possible without a good English ability.
At that time, there were very few people in my country who knew English at the same time. Most of them learned Russian. Liu Baicheng had learned English since he was a child and could complete conversations in English in middle school. It was naturally not a problem to read English literature, which made him a lot of outstanding in selection.
In the end, Liu Baicheng successfully broke through the exam for hundreds of people on the main building of Tsinghua University, and passed the exam with 8 other Tsinghua teachers, becoming the first batch of international students to study in the United States.
After the list of 50 people was established, the country held a training camp for these 50 people. The purpose of the training camp was to make them get used to their life in the United States, and to introduce the international situation at that time, as well as what they need to pay attention to when studying abroad.
Because there was a big gap between China and the United States at that time, the details of life were also different. In order to allow these 50 international students to adapt to American life in advance, this training camp was held.
During this training camp, the country also gave each person 700 yuan to use it as a clothing fee. In order to support the country's face, everyone chose to customize the same coats, suits, leather shoes and bags.
, who received the American scholarship, Jiang Boju and Zhang Gongqing also customized the same style of clothing, which also made a unique look. On the evening of December 26, 1978, 52 almost identical people were preparing to fly to the United States at the capital airport of , . At that time, the Vice Premier of the State Council came to see them off in person.
studied hard during his time in the United States, and returned to China to complete the construction after completing the study.
52 first batch of international students who went to the United States. Not long after arriving in the United States, Comrade Xiaoping and his wife Zhuo Lin also came to the United States due to the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States. The first batch of international students were divided into two groups to welcome Comrade Xiaoping and his wife.
The United States also invited 52 Chinese students when hosting a banquet for Comrade Xiaoping and his wife. At the end of the reception, Comrade Xiaoping's wife Zhuo Lin specially called 52 international students together and told them: "It is not easy for the country to send you here. If you have finished your studies, you must return to China. If you don't go back, Comrade Xiaoping will be anxious. "
From Zhuo Lin's words, we can also feel the pressure that Comrade Xiaoping was under at that time. After all, if the first batch of people do not go back, it will be even more difficult to invest money in studying abroad.
Fortunately, none of the 52 international students failed to disappoint Comrade Xiaoping's wishes. They worked hard for two years in the United States. After studying in the United States, except for one of them postponed their return to China, the rest returned to the country on time, and used the knowledge they learned in the United States to become pioneers in their respective fields.
Since then, China has started a wave of studying abroad. All of this depends on Comrade Xiaoping's foresight. It is precisely with Comrade Xiaoping's foresight that the country has developed today.
