On May 20, 1978, an urgent ringing of the phone woke up the sleeping US President Carter from his sleep. Carter did not dare to neglect at all, because the phone calls at this time usually represented emergencies.
The caller was President Carter's scientific adviser. Carter asked, "Is there any bad news?" The adviser replied: "No, I am talking to Deng Xiaoping now, but he asked a question that I couldn't answer. I could only I take the liberty to ask you for advice.”
Carter knew that this matter was not simple, so he rubbed his sleepy eyes to make himself more awake. "Tell me, what is it?"
only heard the consultant say: "Deng Xiaoping asked me if I could send international students to study in the United States? "Yes, of course." Faced with this "difficult" problem, Carter was a little confused. Is this kind of problem worth calling in the middle of the night?
"Is it okay to have 5,000 international students?" As soon as he said this, Carter suddenly realized, "Don't say 5,000, we also welcome 100,000 people!"
However, after Deng Gong made the decision to "send international students to the United States" Before the decision, many people in the country held objections. Yes, what they were afraid of was the brain drain, but Deng Gong's words put their minds at ease. So how did Mr. Deng push against all odds to encourage international students to study in the United States?
The development history of studying abroad
Due to the isolation of the country in the late Qing Dynasty, the Chinese nation, which once stood on top of the world, was like a falling meteor, losing its luster in front of the Western world.
When the Western powers used strong methods to pry open the door of our country, the Chinese people truly realized that China had long been derailed from the world.
After the Opium War, China is declining day by day. People with lofty ideals who want to reverse this situation are constantly looking for new ways and roads to save China in danger.
After continuous research, the final conclusion was to go out and see the world, learn new theoretical knowledge, and learn advanced concepts of governing the country.
So in 1912, a group of celebrities put forward the slogan of "losing world civilization at home", and immediately launched the work-study movement.
After several years of preparation, many people with lofty ideals have traveled across the ocean to study abroad, and this includes the young Deng Xiaoping!
After this "study abroad wave", we realized that studying abroad, a way to open our eyes to the world, is a shortcut for our country's progress, and it is the fastest and most effective way to save our country from the fire.
Therefore, after this, this group of revolutionary elites participated in the study-abroad movement in the Soviet Union. Comrade Deng Xiaoping was also among this group. His two experiences of studying abroad provided necessary conditions for the formation of his thoughts.
Professor Min Weifang once said: "Comrade Deng Xiaoping's broad vision cannot be said to have nothing to do with his experience of studying abroad."
Therefore, studying abroad not only allowed him to enrich his knowledge, but more importantly, it allowed him to broaden his horizons and thinking and being able to look at problems more deeply, which provided him with valuable experience for his future political work.
Later, Comrade Deng Xiaoping shouldered the important responsibility of socialist construction . However, as a country with a large population, China's talent reserve at that time was very small, only more than 70,000 people.
So from that time on, Deng Xiaoping realized that the ultimate focus of national development and national rejuvenation lies in talents! If there is no talent, then everything is empty words!
Therefore, in the late 1970s, most of Deng Xiaoping's series of measures were for the sake of national ethics!
Disputes over whether to vigorously send overseas students
In 1977, Comrade Deng Xiaoping, who returned to preside over the work of the central government, believed that the construction of New China was imminent, so he visited Europe, the United States, Japan and other countries many times to learn from their advanced experiences.
When Comrade Deng Xiaoping was personally there, he realized that the gap between us and foreign countries was so huge. In order to promote the all-round development of our country as soon as possible, Deng Xiaoping came up with the idea of sending overseas students to study in the United States.
In June 1978, Tsinghua University President Liu Da proposed that some international students could be sent abroad to learn advanced experience. This proposal was highly affirmed by Comrade Deng Xiaoping, but it also encountered opposition from most people.
In fact, people's minds were not liberated enough at that time, and they had an instinctive resistance to the capitalist country. In addition, considering our country’s national strength at the time, sending students abroad was not just a simple decision, but also required a huge amount of expenditure to put it into practice.
But at that time, the country had just started the pace of reform and opening up, and money was indispensable for anything. Coupled with the fact that the country's foreign exchange reserves are stretched thin, it is really a big burden to spend huge sums of money on government-sponsored study abroad !
And more importantly, life abroad is luxurious and the remuneration is much higher than at home! Therefore, many people think that the country spends a lot of effort to send them out. It would be fine if these people return to the country to participate in construction after completing their studies. But if they linger in a foreign country, wouldn't they end up making wedding dresses for others, and they will be happy in vain?
When asked about this, Deng Xiaoping also gave his own opinion: "I agree that students should not only be sent abroad, but hundreds or thousands of them should be sent.
We cannot guarantee that all the students sent abroad will come back. Even if If 10% of people don't come back, there's still 90%. If 20% don't come back, there's still 80%.
Sending students abroad is an important way to comprehensively improve our country's science and education level within five years. Through this, we can Only by seeing clearly the differences between domestic universities and foreign universities can we make progress in a real sense."
Deng Xiaoping also said: "Based on the standard of 5,000 yuan per person in living expenses, 3,000 talents would cost 15 million U.S. dollars."
Knowing that the net value of China's foreign exchange reserves at that time was only 167 million, if this measure was put into practice, it would cost nearly one-tenth, so no one dared to express their stance easily.
But Deng Xiaoping had a long-term vision after all, and he believed that this expenditure was very necessary. We must know that Premier Zhou once proposed that "no matter how poor we are, we must not be poor in education." Therefore, Deng Xiaoping decided to implement this sentence with practical actions!
The skeptical people present were shocked after listening to Deng Xiaoping's words. They were not only surprised by Deng Xiaoping's far-sighted vision, but also surprised by his decisiveness and courage!
At the same time, Comrade Xiaoping's words also completely enlightened them, and they finally realized that "sending students abroad" not only contributed to the contemporary era, but was also a major and good thing that would benefit the future. Therefore, after unifying their minds, they began to treat foreign students Studying abroad is full of expectations!
It was on the eve of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States. The then US President Jimmy Carter was a moderate leader. After learning about our country's idea of "sending students abroad", he immediately expressed his welcome!
In fact, for the United States, this is an opportunity to drive the national economy and establish a good relationship with China. In this case, U.S. President Carter even said, "Let alone 5,000 international students from China, we will welcome even 100,000."
As for China, facing such a moderate American president is a rare opportunity for us. We can take this opportunity to learn advanced knowledge in the United States and apply it to the development of our country.
Li Qiong, deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Education, followed Comrade Deng Xiaoping's instructions and carefully selected the personnel who were sent to study abroad.
Our country has decided to select young teachers from well-known domestic universities first, because they already have a good knowledge base and it will be easier to accept new things. More importantly, they already have the ideological consciousness to teach and educate people, and they can What you have learned and felt is passed on to the next generation of young people. It is the so-called preaching, receiving karma and solving doubts.
Secondly, we select key young people from major scientific research institutions. This allows key young people to feel the real gap with the world, promote the idea of specialization in the field, and improve their professional knowledge.
finally selects talents from major universities. These people are the future pillars of China. They not only need to undergo strict political background checks, but also need to be proficient in English. After all, after going abroad, you will be in a foreign land, and smooth language can reduce a lot of troubles. Necessary trouble.
The layers of screening were once described by Liu Baicheng, the general manager of international students , as passing three levels in a row. Although this was a joke, it also showed the intensity of the competition at that time.
Liu Baicheng had two opportunities to study abroad, but he was unable to do so due to family background. He was also worried about this selection, fearing that the same ending would happen again and he would completely lose the opportunity to see the world.
Fortunately, gold always shines. Liu Baicheng studied in a Shanghai missionary school since he was a child, and he was able to communicate in English in middle school.
Although English in the classroom has been replaced by Russian since 1952, and there are very few people who can communicate smoothly in English, Liu Baicheng did not give up learning English because of this, but continued to read English literature in his spare time. This has allowed his English proficiency to steadily improve, which is precisely an important reason why he was favored by the central government.
finally passed two rounds of written examinations, from which 52 people were selected by the central government and uniformly trained.
After the training, on the morning of December 26, 1978, Vice Premier Fang Yi received the key young people who were about to go abroad at the Great Hall of the People, and sent them on the plane for the long journey that evening.
In this way, these 52 people started their journey to the United States with the hope of China.
Trip to the United States
It is worth mentioning that at that time, China and the United States had not officially established diplomatic relations, and there were no direct flights, so international students could only start from Beijing and transfer in France before reaching the United States. The entire trip lasted 20 Many hours!
When everyone arrived at the airport in the United States, American reporters who got the news swarmed in, eager to see the Chinese students!
When the camera was focused on Liu Baicheng, the general manager of studying abroad, he did not lose the etiquette of our country at all, nor did he have any panic. Facing the camera, he calmly said:
"China and the United States are both excellent and powerful countries. We are going to Coming is not just for exchanges and learning "What's more important is to promote the relationship between China and the United States and develop the friendship between China and the United States."
This decent answer made the Americans sincerely admire and spontaneously give them warm applause. There are Chinese compatriots.
What is very touching is that among the key people who went to study in the United States this time, they saw their own brothers coming to pick them up in the foreign land of the United States. This made people deeply feel that the frozen state between the two countries is gradually recovering.
After their accommodation problem was solved, another problem came one after another, and that was the language problem. Although the selected people were all good at English, there was still a lot of communication between them and outsiders in the United States. question.
So the staff of the Liaison Office contacted the two universities to let the international students solve their language problems first.
The life of international students at that time was not rich. They lived a work-study life with only 50 US dollars. They could only eat the cheapest meals every day and had no time for entertainment. After three months of training, they went to Study in different schools.
As the team leader, Liu Baicheng went to University of Wisconsin and planned to devote himself to the study of foundry. After all, if a country wants to develop, the foundry industry is indispensable.
But by chance, Liu Baicheng saw the landlord's son playing on the computer, which aroused his curiosity. Through contact learning, he gradually realized the power of computers and believed that China's future development must be inseparable from computer technology, so he began to study computers with concentration.
Since he became a monk halfway through his studies, his understanding of computer knowledge at first was not even as good as that of ordinary teenagers in the United States.
But Liu Baicheng did not lose heart. He devoted himself to studying and studied computer languages seriously. When learning programming, he often stayed alone until one or two in the morning.
In everyone's selfless study, most of the 52 international students have made great achievements during their studies. This cannot help but make Americans admire and admire, and the wisdom and diligence of the Chinese people have also left a deep impression on Americans.
After their study period expired after two years, these 52 international students returned to China as scheduled, and none of them stayed in the United States. After returning to China, they shined in all walks of life and played a vital leading role.
As the leader of overseas students, Liu Baicheng promoted the performance research of high-strength alloys in my country through learning to combine computer technology with the foundry industry, and eventually became an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
In fact, studying abroad at public expense is undoubtedly a gamble, but we are betting on human nature, and we also believe that the carefully selected talents are all ambitious young people who truly care about the country.
And Mr. Deng also believed: Even if 10% of the people do not come back, we still have 90% of the people. Even if half of the people do not come back, there are still half of the people. As long as some people come back, we will not be compensated, because We did learn a lot of advanced technologies from the then advanced United States and received tangible benefits.
It seems now that Deng Gong’s decision was so bold at the time, but it was precisely because the great man had a strategic vision that was difficult for ordinary people to achieve that he could lead China to make great strides in development at that time and lay a solid foundation for the achievements we have achieved today!
Our ability to surpass or even lead the world in many fields today is inseparable from the efforts of our ancestors! Therefore, we can never forget their achievements!
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