Chapter 24 23 Recalling Premier Zhou's care and guidance on foreign trade work

In 1951, I was transferred to work in the Central Ministry of Foreign Trade.Since Premier Zhou attached great importance to foreign trade work, he personally grasped it very closely, which made me have more contacts with him. I have done some work under the direct leadership of Premier Zhou, and I deeply feel that my country's foreign trade work has condensed a lot of his hard work.His guiding ideology and work style for the development of foreign trade have left a deep impression on me and educated me deeply. In the early days of the founding of New China, the United States imposed a blockade and embargo on my country.At that time, Japan, which was under the occupation of the US military, and many Western countries under the influence or control of the US had almost no direct trade relationship with my country.In order to break the blockade and embargo policy of the United States and develop exchanges between our country and other countries in the world, Premier Zhou paid great attention to finding breakthroughs in trade. Through trade, especially trade with Western countries, he aroused public opinion in various countries and mobilized the enthusiasm of the business community, resulting in The trend of "promoting officials with the people" has prompted the governments of some western countries to relax trade restrictions, break the "blockade", and gradually develop towards the normalization of diplomatic relations.The trade activities with capitalist countries carried out by institutions such as the Ministry of Foreign Trade and the Council for the Promotion of International Trade in the 1950s were carried out under the direct leadership and care of Premier Zhou.Among them, opening the channel of non-governmental trade between China and Japan, after more than 20 years of unremitting efforts, finally led to the normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations, which can be said to be a typical example.Premier Zhou once devoted a lot of effort to this and made historic contributions.

In April 1952, in order to promote trade between the East and the West, the Soviet Union held an international economic conference in Moscow.Premier Zhou made deployments to the foreign trade department and actively participated in the preparations for this meeting. He believed that such an economic meeting would be a very important opportunity for me to open up Western trade relations and break the US blockade and embargo policy.So it was decided to send a large delegation headed by Comrade Nan Hanchen, Governor of the People's Bank of China, to attend the meeting.Zhang Naiqi (a famous economist who later served as Minister of Grain), Li Zhuchen (a well-known salt industry expert in Tianjin business circles and later served as Minister of Light Industry), and Wu Yunqi (a famous industrialist in Shanghai) were invited. , Chen Weiji and others participated.Premier Zhou personally researched and determined the list of members of the delegation, received the members of the delegation, and reviewed and revised the speeches of the delegation.Later, Premier Zhou appointed me as the deputy head of the delegation to attend the meeting.At that time, I was leading the Three Antis and Five Antis Movement in the Ministry of Foreign Trade.He said to me: It is a rare opportunity to participate in such an international economic conference, and we should not give it up.There, our exchanges with foreign delegations are wider and wider.What he meant was that in terms of foreign trade, we cannot all fall on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. We should deal with Western countries as long as possible.He said: You guys, go and try to open up our trade with Western countries.If Americans are willing to communicate with you, you should dare to communicate with him.During the meeting, our Chinese delegation had extensive contacts with people in the trade circles from more than 40 countries, exchanged opinions on trade development, and made many friends.According to the initiative of this meeting, some delegations from the participating countries set up non-governmental organizations to promote trade between the East and the West after returning home.The China Council for the Promotion of International Trade was established in May 1952, with Comrade Nan Hanchen as the chairman and Comrade Ji Chaoding as the secretary-general. Later, Li Zhuchen and I were added as vice-chairmen.

According to Premier Zhou's arrangement, Comrade Nan Hanchen sent letters and telegrams to some Japanese economic circles, such as Murata Shozo, Ishibashi Zhanshan, etc. before the meeting, informing them of the significance of the Moscow International Economic Conference and inviting them to attend the meeting to discuss and promote International trade plan.Murata and others wanted to attend, but they were blocked by the U.S. and Japanese authorities and did not make the trip. They just held a symposium in Tokyo and expressed their approval for the convening of the conference and its purpose.At that time, three members of the Japanese Diet were visiting Europe. After getting in touch with China and learning about their domestic intentions, they went to Moscow one after another.The three members are the Socialist Party Representative Kizuke, the Japanese Senate Green Wind Council member Gao Liangfu (female), and the Improvement Party Representative Miyakoshi Kisuke.Although the meeting was closed when Jizu and Miyako arrived in Moscow, we looked for an opportunity to talk with them and discuss the issue of opening the Sino-Japanese non-governmental trade channel.According to Premier Zhou's instructions, we invite these three congressmen and their secretaries to visit China.They accepted the invitation to visit China.Gao Liangfu and others became the first Japanese guests to visit China after the war and became good friends of the Chinese people.

They came to China this time to negotiate a non-governmental trade agreement.The negotiations were conducted under the direct leadership of Premier Zhou.The trade agreement was signed on June 1, 1952. This was the first non-governmental trade agreement between China and Japan, which immediately aroused great repercussions in Japan.After returning to China, Gao Liangfu and others held visit reports all over the country to introduce the situation of New China. The audience was tens of thousands, and the scene was very enthusiastic.As a result, the Japanese people set off a continuous mass movement to promote Japan-China trade and restore diplomatic relations.The Japanese government had to relax the "embargo" measures against China from 1953 and allowed Japanese people to visit China.With the recovery and development of Sino-Japanese non-governmental trade, Premier Zhou deployed other tasks such as repatriating Japanese nationals back home, releasing repentant Japanese war criminals, concluding a Sino-Japanese non-governmental fishery agreement, and carrying out friendly exchanges with people from all walks of life in Japan.Several comrades, mainly Comrade Liao Chengzhi, carried out fruitful work under the direct leadership of Premier Zhou, Comrades Chen Yun and Comrades Chen Yi.

After the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement in July 1953, Japan's trade promotion movement expanded day by day, mobilizing many members of the Diet and local councilors.In September of the same year, at the invitation of the Council for the Promotion of International Trade, a delegation composed of parliamentarians from various parties in Japan visited my country and participated in my country’s National Day ceremony. Premier Zhou seized this opportunity in time and once again instructed the Council for the Promotion of International Trade to negotiate and conclude the second Sino-Japanese trade agreement.Since this delegation included members of the ruling party, the momentum of "promoting officials with the people" was obviously strengthened in promoting Sino-Japanese trade.Premier Zhou met with Professor Oyama Ikuo, the leader of the Japanese peace movement, and delivered a long speech on Sino-Japanese relations, clarifying my country's basic position and policies.Premier Zhou emphasized that the trade relationship between China and Japan must be based on equality and mutual benefit.Some Japanese think that "China has industrialized, and there will be no future for Sino-Japanese trade." It must be pointed out that this is completely wrong.Only when China has industrialized can it completely change the imperialist and semi-colonial economic relationship of the so-called "industrial Japan and raw material China" in the past, and establish a trade relationship that is truly equal, mutually beneficial, and exchanging what is needed.As China gradually realizes industrialization, the production and needs of the country and the people of China will expand even more, and the need to develop international trade relations will increase.And Japan is China's close neighbor. On the basis of peaceful coexistence, the development of trade and economic exchanges between China and Japan has a bright future.

In order to show support for the second Sino-Japanese non-governmental trade agreement, Premier Zhou also invited Comrade Guo Moruo, as the chairman of the Chinese People's Committee for World Peace, to have a long discussion with the delegation of Japanese Diet members together with Liao Chengzhi and other comrades.Comrade Guo Moruo pointed out that if Japan breaks off its relationship with Taiwan, gets rid of its status as a vassal state and follower of American aggression, and becomes a peaceful and independent country, then not only can the normal relations between China and Japan be established and developed, but further cooperation can also be considered of.

During the Geneva meeting, the Chinese trade delegation visited the UK for the first time, which opened a hole in the US blockade and embargo.This has a great impact on other western countries, especially Japan.Some people of insight from the Japanese opposition parties, business circles, and the ruling party all demanded that the Japanese government should not fall behind Britain and other Western countries on the issue of Sino-Japanese trade.In September of this year, groups such as the Japan International Trade Promotion Association were established to strengthen the power to promote the Sino-Japanese trade movement. In November, Li Dequan and Liao Chengzhi led a delegation from the Red Cross Society of China to visit Japan and carried out a large number of friendly activities.This is the first delegation from New China to visit Japan, which has a great influence and is very good. In December, the Ichiro Hatoyama cabinet was established, expressing the intention to establish normal relations with China and the Soviet Union.The Japanese trade promotion movement then developed in the direction of the restoration of diplomatic relations, and established organizations such as the "National Conference for the Restoration of Japan-Soviet and Japan-China Diplomatic Relations" to connect forces from all walks of life.The Japanese Diet also passed resolutions on promoting Japan-China trade and inviting Chinese trade delegations to visit Japan.Premier Zhou paid close attention to the changes in the situation in Japan, and further deployed work with Japan. Among them, in terms of trade, he instructed us to sign a semi-official trade agreement with Japan, and to promote the cooperation between China and Japan by holding exhibitions and other activities between the two countries. Normalization of diplomatic relations.

In January 1955, Murata Shozo, the first president of the Japan Association for the Promotion of International Trade, visited China and formally invited a Chinese trade delegation to visit Japan to discuss and sign a new trade agreement.Premier Zhou had a long conversation with Chairman Murata, discussing the international situation, clarifying my country's policy towards Japan, and explaining some questions raised by Murata.It turned out that when Murata came forward to engage in Japan-China trade work, he had obtained the understanding of Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida and others.The Yoshida cabinet adopts a policy of not recognizing China, but it also needs to establish a communication channel with China. Therefore, it once told Murata that it is difficult for the Japanese government to come forward to deal with the CCP, and Mr. Murata will be responsible for issues related to China.When Murata met with Premier Zhou, he pointed out that the most worrying thing about Japan’s dealings with China was that China and the Soviet Union would unite to overthrow the Japanese government, direct Japan’s co-revolution, change Japan’s social system, and thus dominate Japan.In response to this suspicion from the Japanese side, Premier Zhou patiently and repeatedly explained the truth that revolution cannot be exported, indicating that the Communist Parties of various countries can only choose their own social systems according to the wishes of their own people, and China abides by the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.China has never sent a single soldier to invade the territory of other countries. To say that China wants to invade Japan is not only malicious slander by the imperialists, but also a kind of smoke screen to cover up its own aggression.Murata once said with a sigh that the biggest purpose of his visit to China was to meet with Premier Zhou and directly listen to China's policies, and this time he achieved his goal.Murata has great admiration for Premier Zhou Enlai.

At that time, I was the executive vice minister of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and the vice chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, assisting Minister Ye Jizhuang and Chairman Nan Hanchen to carry out trade work with capitalist countries.As Chairman Nan Hanchen was ill and recuperating, according to Premier Zhou’s decision, in March 1955, I led a Chinese trade delegation to visit Japan in the dual capacity of Vice Minister of Foreign Trade and Vice Chairman of the Council for the Promotion of International Trade. In addition to negotiating with Japanese non-governmental organizations and business circles, they also took the initiative to do Japanese official work. The third Sino-Japanese non-governmental trade agreement signed in Tokyo in May specifically stipulates that the two sides should promote the negotiation and signing of an intergovernmental trade agreement between the two governments, the national banks of the two countries should sign a payment agreement, and realize the mutual establishment of permanent commercial institutions between the two sides.At that time, Prime Minister Hatoyama expressed his support and assistance for this agreement.We once managed to get the Japanese side to arrange for Prime Minister Hatoyama to meet the delegation. Later, due to pressure from the opposition, Hatoyama missed the appointment on the pretext of recuperating in other places.During the same period, when Premier Zhou led a delegation to attend the Bandung Conference, he took the initiative to meet with Tatsunosuke Takasaki, the head of the Japanese government delegation, and talked about China's foreign policy, which enhanced mutual understanding and made friends. In October 1960, he personally led a delegation to visit China and signed a memorandum with Liao Chengzhi, which promoted the further development of Japan-China relations.

According to the third Japan-China non-governmental trade agreement signed in Tokyo, the trade promotion organizations of the two sides held a commodity exhibition for the first time, which was a great success. In 1955, my country held exhibitions in Tokyo and Osaka.Before the exhibition, Premier Zhou personally reviewed the preview and gave clear and specific instructions on the exhibition work and the contents of the exhibits. In 1956, the Japan Exhibition opened in Beijing and Shanghai, and Premier Zhou personally inspected our work, and made a careful study of reception, exhibition, audience and small products.Premier Zhou also agreed to Murata's request to hang the Japanese national flag at the exhibition, and instructed that if the national flag of Japan is to be hung at the exhibition, people must be sent to protect it.It is understandable if some people in the country do not understand this and still feel hatred towards the Japanese militarists' invasion of China in the past, but we must do patient ideological education work with them, and distinguish the broad Japanese people from a small number of militarists Let them understand that doing a good job in Sino-Japanese friendship is of great significance to maintaining peace in the Far East and the world.Premier Zhou's far-sightedness and open-mindedness deeply moved and educated Japanese friends and people.Especially with the incident of insulting the Chinese flag in Japan in May 1958, it became a sharp contrast, and it showed the tall image of the Chinese people.

In order to preside over the work of the Japanese exhibition, Murata Shozo once again visited China and expressed his gratitude to China for allowing the Japanese exhibition to hang the Japanese flag.Leaders such as Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou met with Murata and visited Nitten.Premier Zhou asked Chairman Murata to tell Prime Minister Hatoyama that the airport in Beijing is open for the Japanese Prime Minister at any time, and Prime Minister Hatoyama is welcome to visit China to discuss the relationship between the two countries.At that time, the Hatoyama cabinet had already established diplomatic relations between Japan and the Soviet Union. Before the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations could be resolved, Nobusuke Kishi took over to form the cabinet. Sino-Japanese relations encountered a major setback. In 1957, the heads of three Japanese trade associations formed a commercial mission to Beijing to negotiate and sign the fourth Sino-Japanese trade agreement with the CCPIT. The biggest obstacle was the mutual establishment of permanent commercial institutions.Since the Kishi government was hostile to China and set up numerous obstacles, the negotiations between the two sides lasted for more than a month and failed to reach an agreement.At that time, I was the head of the Chinese delegation. Premier Zhou was very concerned about the progress of the negotiations and instructed Liao Chengzhi and other comrades to help the Ministry of Foreign Trade and the Council for the Promotion of International Trade to study negotiation countermeasures.Finally, Premier Zhou analyzed the deadlock in the negotiations and instructed us to adopt a two-step approach.The first step is to include the terms that the two parties have agreed or are close to in the text of the agreement and pass it; the second step is to include the issues that the two parties still disagree on, that is, the political treatment of mutual establishment of commercial institutions, into the memorandum, which is an inseparable agreement. Part of this will prompt the Japanese side to further work with its government.After many rounds of negotiations, the fourth Sino-Japanese non-governmental trade agreement was signed in March 1958, and a memorandum of understanding was passed. In 1958, in order to open up trade channels with Japan, Premier Zhou instructed the Ministry of Foreign Trade to organize relevant companies to sign a five-year steel trade agreement with Yoshihiro Inayama, an authority in the Japanese steel industry, in February of this year. One hundred million pounds.At the time, this agreement was regarded as a large-scale transaction, which had a great impact on Japan and the world.Inayama Kabushiba received Tatsunosuke Takasaki's letter of introduction and called on Premier Zhou. The two sides had a long and candid conversation.Taking the overall situation into consideration, Premier Zhou resolved the dispute between the two parties on the price issue, and from the perspective of the development trend of the world situation, he focused on explaining to Inayama the relationship between the development of the steel industry and the maintenance of world peace.The conversation moved Inayama very much.After a lapse of more than ten years, when Inayama came forward to engage in Japan-China trade work again, he dug out the content of the conversation between Premier Zhou and him at that time from a small notebook, recited it line by line, and said with deep admiration: The development of the situation in the past few years is exactly as Premier Zhou said. The Fourth Trade Agreement was later sabotaged by Kishi's government.Nobusuke Kishi himself went to Taiwan, the United States and other places to openly attack our country many times, and even threatened to support Chiang Kai-shek in "counterattacking the mainland." In May 1958, at the "Chinese Stamp Paper-cutting Exhibition" held in Nagasaki, a serious political incident occurred in which Japanese thugs tore up the Chinese flag and insulted China, which caused the Sino-Japanese trade to be interrupted for a while. During the period of trade interruption, Premier Zhou still cared about the work with Japan. He learned from the leaders of the Japanese Socialist Party and the General Council that some small and medium-sized enterprises in Japan rely on Chinese products for a living, such as the lacquerware industry and retailers of fried chestnuts. Because they cannot import Chinese goods, their lives are very difficult, and they are eager for China to take care of them.Premier Zhou then instructed the All-China Federation of Trade Unions to come forward and provide an appropriate amount of supplies to Japanese small and medium-sized enterprises in the form of "caring for materials".This fully demonstrates Premier Zhou's strategy of "interrupted and continuous" trade with Japan. The Nobusuke Kishi government was strongly opposed by the Japanese people because it forcibly passed the Japan-US security treaty, and finally stepped down and was replaced by the Ikeda cabinet.According to the new situation at that time, Premier Zhou made an important speech in March 1960 and put forward the famous "Three Political Principles" and "Trade Principles" for Japan in consideration of the Japanese people's request to resume Japan-China trade and develop friendly exchanges between Japan and China. Three Principles" and "Principle of Indivisibility of Political Economy".This is a summary of Sino-Japanese relations in the 1950s, and laid a solid political foundation for the non-governmental trade with Japan in the 1960s.Under the protection and care of Premier Zhou, in the early stage of the "Cultural Revolution", Sino-Japanese friendly trade and memorandum of trade were carried out smoothly and developed.Through the long-term joint efforts of the people of the two countries, the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan was finally realized in September 1972. After the founding of New China, facing the imperialist blockade and embargo on our country, Premier Zhou guided us to develop foreign trade as an important link in the development of my country's foreign relations, and to develop equality and mutual benefit with countries with different social systems. As an important means of gradually breaking the imperialist policy of isolating our country, it has achieved great success. In April 1954, I accompanied Premier Zhou to Switzerland to attend the first Geneva Conference as the chief adviser of the Chinese government delegation.During the meeting, Premier Zhou attached great importance to my country's efforts to establish economic and trade relations with Western countries.In view of the friendly attitude of Eden, the head of the British delegation at the meeting, at that time the leader of the British Labor Party Wilson, the Conservative Party MP David Lera, and some people from the British business community were all in Geneva. Premier Zhou instructed me to find more contacts to contact them , with the United Kingdom as a breakthrough, breaking through the blockade and embargo policy imposed by the Paris Coordinating Committee on my country, and opening up the British market.Following the spirit of Prime Minister's instructions, I took the initiative to contact people in the British business community, expressing China's desire to do business with the UK, and explaining that as long as the British side invites me, I will send a delegation to visit the UK.Then, spearheaded by the British (Labor Party) Wilson, we were invited.We will organize a trade mission to visit the UK soon.This is the first trade mission sent by my country to Western Europe.This had a great impact on Western countries, especially Japan.Since then, my country has started economic and trade exchanges with Western countries. Under the circumstances that US imperialism and its followers are hostile to my country, Premier Zhou proposed to use trade as the tentacles to develop trade relations first and further develop diplomatic relations. In 1958, the Prime Minister sent me to visit Morocco and other countries in North Africa, which established trade relations first, and then established diplomatic relations.After we arrived in Morocco, we had extensive contacts with people in their trade circles. After several months of friendly negotiations, a trade agreement between the Chinese and Moroccan governments was signed. Then the Moroccan government agreed to the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between China and Morocco. An ambassadorial representative was sent and a communiqué was signed on this. In 1964, the central government decided to send Liao Chengzhi and Zhao Yimin to visit Italy and agreed with the Italian Socialist Party of the Republic to discuss the establishment of relations.Premier Zhou asked me to join this delegation, the purpose of which was to develop trade relations between the governments of the two countries through contacts with friends from the Italian trade circles, so as to promote the early establishment of diplomatic relations.After ten days of hard work, in the name of the vice chairman of the International Council for the Promotion of International Trade, I signed a permanent trade organization with the president of the Italian Chamber of Commerce with mutual diplomatic immunity.After the transition to November 1970, the embassy was officially established and ambassadors were sent to each other. In September and October of 1952, Premier Zhou directed the trade negotiations between the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and signed a long-term trade agreement of exchanging rice for rubber.Based on the principle of mutual benefit, Premier Zhou instructed us to sell rice sold to Ceylon at the international market price; import rubber from Ceylon to buy at a price 5 to 10 percent higher than the international market price.This not only broke the economic blockade and embargo imposed by imperialism on our country, but also enabled our country, the Soviet Union, and Eastern European countries to obtain urgently needed supplies. The ability to be self-reliant.Since then, China and tin have established a good trade relationship, which has exerted a great influence on Asian and African countries, making them all request to establish economic and trade relations with our country. In 1955, under the direct leadership of Premier Zhou, we signed a trade agreement with Egypt to solve the cotton export and grain import problems faced by Egypt. The two countries established commercial representative offices with diplomatic immunity.Soon, formal diplomatic relations were established and ambassadors were exchanged.In the past few years, my country has successively established economic and trade relations and diplomatic relations with a large number of Asian and African countries such as Nepal, Syria, the Arab Republic of Yemen, and Cambodia. At the beginning of 1956, in order to sum up the experience of my country's economic construction, the leading comrades of the central government spent more than a month listening to the reports of various industrial and economic departments of the State Council.The report of the Ministry of Foreign Trade was reported by Comrade Li Zheren and me because Minister Ye Jizhuang was negotiating in the Soviet Union.In the report, when it comes to the volume of foreign trade, a leading comrade said that our country's export trade should reach tens of billions of dollars (at that time, my country's export trade including Hong Kong was only 14.5 billion dollars).After the report, Premier Zhou repeatedly told us that the instruction to expand exports is a very important strategic idea. You must work hard to do it, and at the same time, you must seek truth from facts and do what you can!This incident shows that Premier Zhou puts the most emphasis on practicality and seeking truth from facts.He knows how many billions of dollars the foreign trade export volume can get. During the "Great Leap Forward" in 1958, everyone's brains were swollen and hot. Premier Zhou reminded us in time: don't get hot.Be cautious when signing a contract. Once signed, it must be fulfilled.This is not only a matter of the credibility of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, but also the credibility of the country. In July, the Ministry of Foreign Trade held a national foreign trade work conference in Shanghai, which coincided with Premier Zhou's inspection work in Shanghai.At this time, the "Great Leap Forward" craze had been set off across the country, and all regions and departments were blindly pursuing high speed and high targets.Among the leaders of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, some were also influenced by the "Great Leap Forward" thought.Premier Zhou was very worried about the troubles in the foreign trade work, and proposed to talk about the foreign trade work to all the comrades who participated in the National Foreign Trade Work Conference.In this talk, Premier Zhou emphasized that foreign trade must "seek truth from facts and act according to one's ability", emphasizing the need to "honor contracts and keep promises".At that time, Kunqu Opera "Fifteen Guan" was being performed in Shanghai. Taking the story of Kuang Zhong, a character in the play who is seeking truth from facts and focusing on investigation and research, as an example, in view of the poor implementation rate of my country's foreign trade contracts, he emphasized: Your ministers, all provinces and municipalities Bureau chiefs, department chiefs, and managers must be like Kuang Zhong, who write with a lot of weight, and can't just sign a contract with a big pen.Once the contract is signed, it is necessary to guarantee the performance of the contract.Because Premier Zhou once again emphasized the policy of "respecting contracts and keeping promises", it prevented the foreign countries from signing contracts rashly under the influence of the "Great Leap Forward" atmosphere regardless of domestic actual conditions and foreign exchange payment capabilities.Premier Zhou sounded the alarm to us in time, so that the work of the Ministry of Foreign Trade did not cause trouble. Due to the consequences of the three-year "Great Leap Forward", in 1960 there was an extremely difficult situation in the country's food supply, and the grain stocks in major cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Shenyang were only enough for a few days.Some cities even issued an emergency, and the citizens only had one day's food.In the face of this situation, upon the suggestion of Premier Zhou and Comrade Chen Yun, the Party Central Committee decided to import a certain amount of grain to overcome the crisis.At the end of December of this year, I went to Myanmar with Premier Zhou for a visit. Before the trip, at the airport, Premier Zhou, Chen Yun, and Comrade Ye Jizhuang were still discussing how much grain to import.The amount of imported grain determined at that time was 1.5 million tons.After we arrived in Kunming, the Ministry of Foreign Trade called me and said that the central government had decided to import 2.5 million tons.I immediately reported the situation to the prime minister, and he said, I don't know about it.Afterwards, Premier Zhou immediately called to ask Comrade Chen Yun. Comrade Chen Yun said that the food supply was too tight, and so much had to be imported to tide over the difficulties.Premier Zhou knew that Comrade Chen Yun, who has always been meticulous and prudent, advocated increasing the amount of food imports, which is enough to show the degree of food shortage in the country. He was very anxious and did not speak for a long time.During his visit to Myanmar, he also studied the issue of imported grain many times.The day before the end of the visit, Premier Zhou said to me that after the end of the visit, you should not go back to Beijing, but go directly to Hong Kong. You should really find out three questions: First, can you buy food?Second, can the transportation problem be solved?Third, can the Bank of China solve the foreign exchange payment problem?Because the situation in the Taiwan Strait was relatively tense at that time, the United States and Chiang Kai-shek imposed a naval blockade on me.In this way, transportation and funds are particularly important.I went to Hong Kong to convene China Resources Corporation, Bank of China and other units to understand the situation and conduct research, and agreed that the problems of supply, transportation, and foreign exchange can be solved. After returning to Beijing, after I reported the above situation to Premier Zhou, the Premier expressed joy and doubt, and asked me many negative questions. After answering, he seemed to feel at ease. After the supply of goods, transportation, and foreign exchange issues were basically resolved, we immediately started to purchase grain and transport.With the food supply situation in big cities still deteriorating, Premier Zhou put in a lot of effort to solve the food problem. He called me every night to report to him on the ordering of food, the delivery of goods, the situation of ships sailing, and so on.Premier Zhou worked hard day and night to solve the problem of imported grain.