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On January 19, 1979, a Chinese aviation technology import and export company called (referred to as China AVIC Export Company), was officially established. It is the first company in my country to focus on exporting national defense technology industry as its main business.
More than a month later, seven experts led by Liu Guomin, director of the Export Department of AVIC, brought US$5 to represent China to Egypt to promote military products.
After nearly two months of negotiations, the delegation signed an order worth US$167 million with the Egyptian military, and China's first military trade order was born.
Chairman Mao once said, "We are not an arms dealer." Why did my country begin to develop military export trade? How did Liu Guomin and others discuss this deal?
In December 1978, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee decided to implement reform and opening up . All aspects need development, and the country encourages the products produced by itself to go international.
If a country wants to develop, it must be inseparable from money. Although China was not poor or poor at that time, it was not much better.
, the third Ministry of Machinery Industry, in charge of aviation, also requires a lot of money to introduce advanced foreign technologies and products. But they couldn't afford to pay, so they could only ask Deng Xiaoping for instructions.
Deng Xiaoping has listened to reports from the aviation industry and military departments many times, knowing that they are indeed short of money to introduce technology.
Considering the reality, Deng Xiaoping made an important decision - asked them to start a company and sell military products, make money by themselves, and then use this money to develop their own strength.
As we all know, the United States is a typical country that makes a fortune by selling arms. The country has not been established for a long time, but its industry has developed very quickly. By the time World War I broke out, many arms dealers had emerged in the United States.
The US government implements "isolationism" and takes the attitude of "no matters to be high" and claims that it will not directly participate in affairs in the world. But arms dealers didn't think so. The outbreak of the war made them see money waving to them.
So, despite Germany's warning, they sold arms to " Allied Power ". When the huge benefits behind it were discovered, more and more American arms dealers joined in and became unstoppable.
Whether it is the invader or the invader, they will sell it to whoever needs arms. For those countries that are unable to pay for the goods, the United States tries every means to lure them to buy them with loans.
While Americans make a fortune, they also stimulate the country's military industry, with major military factories producing arms day and night.
In order to develop more powerful weapons and attract more customers, arms dealers are willing to spend high prices to hire experts, which indirectly drives the development of the US military field.
In addition, the productivity of old-fashioned kingdoms such as Britain has been severely damaged due to war. The United States seized the opportunity and became the world's number one industrial power, laying the foundation for it to become a superpower. After all, with money, you can do a lot.
When broke out in World War II, the United States used the same routine to sell arms and make a fortune in war. Selling arms has brought many benefits to the United States, giving Americans confidence to dominate the world.
The Soviet Union also relied on being an arms dealer to become a superpower and had the ability to compete with the United States.
China has always been peaceful and has no ambition to dominate the world. In the early 1950s, "56 key projects " was launched. my country gradually realized initial industrialization and the military industry also achieved certain development.
Since 1958, my country has provided free military assistance to 16 countries including North Korea, Vietnam, Egypt, Cambodia , and provided them with more than 1,100 aircraft, engines, missiles, , etc.
The reason why our country has free military assistance to these countries is because Chairman Mao said: "We are not an arms dealer.""
As a big country, it must have the responsibility of a big country, rather than taking advantage of the situation like the United States. This is the essential difference between China and the United States.
For example, in March 1970, a coup occurred in a neighboring Cambodia. Sihanouk , who was visiting abroad, was not only seized the power, but also deposed as the head of state. Because he had a close relationship with our country, he asked our country for help.
Chairman Mao and Sihanouk
To my friends, our country has always been generous and promised to provide military assistance to Sihanouk and help him get his own things. Sihanouk was very moved and asked Chairman Mao how to calculate the cost.
Chairman Mao replied with a smile: "We are not arms dealers. " In other words, our country provides free military aid to Sihanoukville.
Previously, our country still implemented free military aid in a difficult situation. In the past 20 years, the money our country spent on this is not a small amount.
Now, our country urgently needs a large amount of money to develop and has to suspend free military aid to these countries. On January 2, 1979, the central government announced that foreign military aid will be All the previous free ones were changed to free aid, bartering and collecting money.
The next day, the central government stated that the money earned by various departments' export products was the use of each department by themselves. The Ministry of Aviation Industry established the AVIC Export Company in accordance with the spirit conveyed by the central government.
Although Deng Gong said that money needed to be earned by himself, there were many problems in front of him. my country does not have any military export business, and they do not know what the foreign trade contract is like. Not to mention the formulation of contracts.
In addition, major arms dealers such as the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom have basically monopolized the international market. Their military strength is stronger than our country, and other countries would rather spend more money to buy arms produced by these countries. Compared with them, our country has almost only price advantages. How can
open the market and make other countries recognize China's military products trouble China The owner of the Aviation Technology Export Company.
Just as everyone was worried, more than a month later, news came from Egypt: several aircraft assisted by China had malfunctioned, so China asked the Chinese side to send experts to help repair it. Liu Guomin thought that the opportunity had come, so it would be better to take this opportunity to sell military products.
In fact, shortly after the establishment of the AVIC Export Company, Egypt sent someone to China to secretly express his desire to buy aircraft from China. If there is no further information. Instead of waiting passively, it is better to take the initiative.
needs funds to go abroad, and the company has no money at all. They tried to borrow some money from other departments, but the other party said that "foreign exchange is tight and I can't help."
In desperation, a delegation of 7 people from Liu Guomin could only take the only $5 to Egypt to negotiate business. None of them understood foreign trade, but their determination was extremely firm: must be taken and This business in Egypt.
On March 15, the group arrived at Cairo . There was no grand welcome ceremony as imagined, and even the Egyptian government did not send anyone to greet him. Only Egyptian Civil Aviation arranged for people to take them to the hotel.
What the delegation did not expect was that the civil aviation president who invited them to visit other countries did not visit before leaving Egypt. Tell subordinates that there will be Chinese representatives to repair the aircraft.
That is to say, Egypt has no preparation for discussing how to repair the aircraft. The next day, Egyptian Civil Aviation sent a chief engineer to deal with it, but still did not negotiate with the Chinese delegation.
Liu Guomin could only tell the purpose of this trip to The Chinese Embassy in Egypt , and ask them to help contact the Egyptian Air Force Command and the Ministry of National Defense.
The Egyptian government learned that there was an important guest, so it quickly took the Chinese delegation to another place to live and arranged for people to connect with them.
The delegation finally met the Egyptian military representatives. Without negotiating, but they encountered many difficulties in the process.
Egypt was used to our country's free military aid and took it for granted. Not only did it not want to give money, it began to sell miserably.
They said in tears that Egyptian Air Force suffered heavy losses in Middle East War , had no money, and urgently needed China's free aid to protect themselves, so as to avoid being bullied by Israeli again.
In fact, Egypt is not without money. The country has "a money tree", which is the Suez Canal , which is the lifeline of Egypt's economy.
Suez Canal is located on the dividing line between Asia and Africa. It is the most direct waterway between Asia, Africa and Europe, and one of the most frequent routes in the world.
0% of the oil exported from the Middle East to Western Europe must pass here. In addition to oil transportation, there are also transportation of ores, metals, etc. must also pass through the Suez Canal.
It is precisely because the Suez Canal has important strategic value that France, Britain and other countries have successively snatched it from Egypt and sent troops to garrison it.
It was not until June 1956 that the British retreated their troops. On July 26 of the same year, Egypt announced that the Suez Canal was nationalized. Since then, Egypt has earned a lot of money by collecting "tolls" every year.
Relying on the Suez Canal, Egypt's annual foreign trade income exceeded US$1 billion, and its per capita GDP far exceeds China. Simply put, they just want to "eat for free".
As the head of the delegation, Liu Guomin and the Egyptian military argued with reason and presented evidence to prove that Egypt was rich. my country proposed that paid trade is based on "equality and mutual benefit" and did not deliberately make things difficult.
His heart-to-heart words left the Egyptian military speechless and no longer insisted on free aid from our country, and the negotiation atmosphere eased.
However, the biggest problem faced by Liu Guomin and others is that the Egyptian military looks down on the J-6 fighter developed by our country.
J-6 is a single-seat twin-engine supersonic jet fighter developed by Shenyang aircraft manufacturing industry. It began to imitate MiG-19 in 1958 and developed my country's first generation jet fighter, and it was only mass-produced two years later.
my country's military industry started much later than Western countries . At that time, it was relatively normal for lag behind the West in some performance of weapon research and development.
Egypt is the buyer, so it will naturally compare and compare. They think that although the fighter from the United States, the Soviet Union and other countries is expensive, it is more advanced and is more willing to buy the American one. Therefore, they suspended negotiations.
Liu Guomin and others did not give up, changed their strategy, stopped talking to the Egyptian military, and directly talked to the then Vice President of Egypt Mubarak .
This person graduated from the Egyptian Air Force Academy and knows about flight. He commanded the Egyptian Air Force to participate in the " Third Middle East War ". In 1974, he was awarded the rank of Air Force General.
In addition to serving as the vice president of Egypt, Mubarak also serves as the Director of the Egyptian Military Industry Agency and a member of the Supreme Committee of Atomic Energy, and is friendly to China.
In other words, Mubarak is the one who finally made the decision. As long as the Chinese delegation can convince him, the order will be a success.
So, Liu Guomin handed over the performance data of the J-6 fighter to Mubarak to see, so that he could understand that this fighter was not that weak. He also gave examples to prove that he did not exaggerate.
In May 1972, Vietnam War was not over yet. On the Vietnam battlefield, the J-6 fighter jet shot down seven US fighter jets, and it was unscathed.
You should know that the US military's fighter performance ranks among the forefront of the world. China's J-6 fighter can shoot it down and it has not received any damage itself, which is enough to show how powerful the J-6 is.
J-6 fighter has multiple models, which can meet the different needs of the Egyptian Air Force. It is not expensive, and it can be said that it is of good quality and low price.
If China and Egypt can reach a deal, Egypt does not need to wait and receive the goods immediately. Mubarak was moved and immediately said that he would order the Air Force to resume negotiations.
solved a problem, and the Egyptian military created a new problem - requiring the purchase of the research and development technology of the J-6 fighter.
Liu Guomin and others are not stupid. If they sell the R&D technology to the Egyptians, they will definitely make it themselves and will not buy it from China again.It is even possible to make money with the things that our country has worked hard to develop, mass-produce fighter jets and sell them to other countries.
Besides, the research and development technology of fighter jets is a core secret, and no country will sell such important things. After some twists and turns, the two sides finally reached a cooperation intention.
Some people are puzzled about this: Egypt and the Soviet Union have a close relationship, so why don’t they buy more advanced fighter jets from the Soviet Union but China’s J-6?
It is true that Egypt and the Soviet Union have good relations, but it is limited to before 1973. That year, Egypt and Israel broke out with " October War ".
The United States, which has always worn a pair of pants with Israel, began to stand up and be a "good person" and mediate from it, which led to the signing of a ceasefire agreement between Egypt and Israel.
Of course, the United States is not so kind-hearted. This move is just to win over Egypt, thereby expanding the United States' influence in the Middle East and weakening the Soviet Union's influence in the region.
Egyptians did not see the true face of the United States clearly and were very grateful for its "help", so the relationship between the United States and Egypt heated up rapidly. In February 1974, the two countries resumed diplomatic relations that had been cut off for seven years.
Egypt has had good relationships with the United States, the Soviet Union is unhappy, the relationship between Egypt and the Soviet Union deteriorates, and the Soviet Union withdrew its aid to Egypt. The United States took advantage of the situation and provided Egypt with more than $1 billion in economic aid every year, making Egypt seriously dependent on the United States and gradually became its important ally in the Middle East.
And China and the United States have also resumed diplomatic relations. Egypt does not have to worry that the arms trade with China will anger the United States and cause itself to lose US aid. Egypt can spend less money, so I am naturally very happy to buy fighter jets of very good quality.
On May 2, 1979, Liu Guomin signed a contract with the Egyptian Air Force. China exported 6 J-6 aircraft, 44 J-6 fighter jets, 220 turbojet 6 engines, etc. to Egypt, and the total value of these military products is US$167 million.
After signing the contract, the big stone in the hearts of the 7 people fell and lived up to the expectations of the country and the company. After more than a month, they finally won the arms order and returned to the country with great excitement.
.167 billion US dollars is not much now, but in that era, my country's total foreign trade volume was only a few billion US dollars. More importantly, it marks that my country's military products have gone abroad and gone to the world, which is of great significance.
In July 1979, Egypt paid more than US$27 million in advance. my country attaches great importance to this order and completed the transaction with quality and quantity.
Egypt saw our country's sincerity and signed an arms order worth more than 200 million US dollars with our country in April 1980 to purchase J-7 fighter jets and related accessories.
my country's military products have high cost-effectiveness and good reputation, which has gradually attracted many countries to discuss transactions, such as Saudi Arabia , Iran , Iraq , etc. The arms sold have also expanded from fighter jets to tank , Dongfeng missiles, bomber , etc., breaking the current situation of being monopolized by Western countries in this field.
Today, China has arms transactions with more than 100 countries and regions, and has a place in the international military trade market. These achievements are inseparable from the efforts of Liu Guomin and others, and even more so from the hard work of a large number of scientific researchers. Pay tribute to them!
