Yang Zhenning’s 100-year-old speech: 50 years ago, I wanted to know whether China’s atomic bomb was made by the Chinese themselves

I am very grateful to Tsinghua University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Chinese Physical Society for co-organizing my 100th birthday. I didn't expect that you invited so many people and had many contacts with me at different times. I visited New China for the first time in 1971 exactly fifty years ago. That interview is a very, very important part of my life, because it gave me a little understanding of New China for the first time.And this knowledge will have a great impact on my life trajectory in the next 50 years.

During that visit, apart from seeing my father in hospital, I also saw many relatives and friends. The most important and closest friend is Deng Jiaxian. A letter he wrote to me in 1971 was recently published in a book. The story here is like this. After the Chinese atomic bomb exploded, American newspapers soon had all kinds of news.

One of the items I have noticed is that Deng Jiaxian is among the characters who designed the Chinese atomic bomb. Deng Jia was a close friend of my middle school, university, and in the United States. I think his relationship with me is not only academic, but also surpassing the relationship between brothers, so of course I pay much attention to this news.

Another news I have also noticed is that the American newspaper said that Chairman Mao sent a plane to northern Shaanxi to send the American physicist Hanchun to Beijing to help China build an atomic bomb. I know Hanchun because I have worked in the same laboratory as the University of Chicago for 20 months, and she wants me to teach her Chinese. She didn't tell me why. She told to all the teachers and students in the department of the University of Chicago in March 1948 that she was going to China to marry her boyfriend in northern Shaanxi.

Because of this, I have always wanted to know if the news is correct. I really want to know if the Chinese atomic bomb was made by the Chinese themselves without the help of foreigners. So during my four-week visit in 1971, I really wanted to ask these questions, asking if the story of Hanchun’s participation in China’s atomic bomb was true or false?

But this is a sensitive issue,So I dare not ask. Finally, after a few weeks in Beijing, I will go to Shanghai and fly back to the United States in a few days from Shanghai. When I left Beijing, but also when I went to the airport, Deng Jia sent me first. At that time, the airport in Beijing was very simple, so he accompanied me to the bottom of the flight stairs. I really couldn't hold back anymore, I asked him if Hanchun participated in the design of the Chinese atomic bomb? He said that he didn't think so, but he said he wanted to get certification with the organization and then told me.

so he went to contact the organization that day, and the organization told him that no foreigners participated in the manufacture of the Chinese atomic bomb, except for the slight assistance of some Soviets at the beginning, and then basically Chinese. self-made. He wrote a letter. This letter was sent to Shanghai the next day. When I arrived, I was in the Shanghai Building. The messenger sent this letter during dinner. This letter has now been published in me. Inside of a new book.

This letter is very interesting if you read it carefully, because it says that there is basically no foreigner participating in China’s atomic bomb, and of course there is no cold spring. There are a few paragraphs at the end of this letter that are very clear. He has seen me many times in those weeks, and he has something to say to me, so he can’t say what he wants to say. What do you want to tell me, but I don't know how to tell.

At the end of this letter, he gave me an expectation, "I hope people will last forever". He changed the "A Thousand Miles Together Chanjuan" to "A Thousand Miles of Common Journey". At that time, I saw I didn't understand this sentence after I wrote the letter. What does "a common journey of thousands of miles" mean? I thought about it later and knew that this was a deep meaning. After the publication of this letter recently, after reading it carefully, I think that fifty years from today, I can say to Deng Jiaxian: Jiaxian, I understand what you mean by "common way", and I can tell you with confidence. ,My next 50 years are in line with your "common path" expectations, and I believe you will also be satisfied. goodbye!