Chapter 25 Fragmental Memories of Zhou Enlai's Thoughts on Foreign Trade on February 4th

When New China was founded, I was engaged in foreign trade work.I left the Ministry of Foreign Trade in 1978, a total of 28 years.The Ministry of Foreign Trade is one of the government departments that Premier Zhou intervenes the most and catches the most, so I often have working contacts with Premier Zhou.His guiding ideology of my country's foreign trade work has given us a deep education. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Premier Zhou has always been very concerned about and attached great importance to my country's foreign trade work.Whenever the Ministry of Foreign Trade negotiates and signs trade agreements or protocols with foreign countries, whether it is negotiating with socialist countries, or negotiating with independent countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, or with capitalist countries, Premier Zhou has personally intervened, and the draft agreements and related documents Always make the final revisions based on in-depth research and understanding.Premier Zhou attached great importance to this work because the effective development of foreign trade is not only an urgent need to promote the development of our national economy and support national construction, but also an important means for our country to develop foreign relations and pursue an independent and peaceful foreign policy.

Premier Zhou often said to us: foreign trade is very important.In order to promote and develop our country's national economic construction, we must think of ways, take positive measures, strive to develop foreign trade, strive to export more agricultural products and mineral products, and exchange as much machinery and equipment and advanced technology needed for national construction as possible.He also emphasized that foreign trade is very policy-oriented and realistic, and it is the basis for our peaceful diplomacy. It must be taken seriously and done well.We need to distinguish between different countries and different objects, and treat them differently.When conducting trade with national independent countries with relatively backward economies, we should refer to the international market price and consider the situation. The price can be appropriately higher when purchasing and lower when exporting.With regard to the imperialist countries that are hostile to our country, our policy is to subordinate the economic struggle to the political struggle.Trade can grow or stop when political struggles call for coordination.Therefore, the issues involved in trade negotiations, such as what to buy and what to sell, and the types and quantities of commodities to be bought and sold, are by no means a simple issue of the amount of money in trade.

Under the guidance of this basic idea, the work of foreign trade negotiations first requires us to find out the details of my country's export products, such as agricultural and sideline products (soybeans, bristles, edible oil) and strategic materials (rare metals and non-ferrous metals) available for export. ) how many.Then, based on the bilateral relations between countries or the foreign exchange we can obtain and what materials we need to buy urgently, we make decisions about what we export to each other, what we import, and how much we import and export. Premier Zhou not only listened to our reports on foreign negotiations, but also worked with us to revise the reports on the negotiations and the terms of the agreement.He took it seriously and corrected any misplaced punctuation himself. In 1950, when Premier Zhou was reviewing the report of the Ministry of Foreign Trade on Sino-Polish trade negotiations, he told me that your report was not for me, but for Chairman Mao and other leading comrades in the Central Committee who did not care about foreign trade. To make the report fully reflect the content of the negotiations, it is also necessary for them to understand, so that they can clearly understand the status of our foreign trade work.

In the most difficult period of our country's national economy, Premier Zhou still unswervingly regarded foreign trade as an important means of promoting the country's peaceful foreign policy. In 1960, due to natural disasters and human factors, my country decided to import wheat from abroad.At that time, food in the United States was very cheap, should we buy it?From the perspective of economic interests, it is of course good to buy American grain, but from political considerations, we cannot buy it.Because, at this time, the United States is still implementing a hostile policy of "isolation" and "containment" towards China, supporting the Kuomintang regime in Taiwan, creating "two Chinas" and preventing my country from entering the United Nations.It was also at this time that the Soviet government tore up contracts and withdrew experts, which aggravated my country's economic difficulties, worsened Sino-Soviet relations, and greatly reduced trade.However, under the guidance of Premier Zhou, my country has adopted a policy of differentiated treatment of trade with some Eastern European countries. For example, we have given consideration to the Democratic Germany and sold soybeans to it, which is also difficult for us to supply domestically.This is especially true for the Asian countries North Korea and Vietnam. We cut down on food and clothing and squeezed out supplies to support them.

After the deterioration of Sino-Soviet relations, the focus of my country's foreign trade began to shift to Western capitalist countries, and the mode of foreign trade had to be changed from account trade to spot foreign exchange trade. In order to alleviate the difficulty of domestic grain supply at that time, importing grain became a major task of the Ministry of Foreign Trade.At the same time, we also undertake the heavy burden of economic assistance to developing countries in Asia and Africa.At that time, my country's foreign aid methods mainly included: (1) providing complete sets of machinery and equipment to recipient countries. (2) Send engineering and technical personnel and skilled workers to recipient countries. (3) Provide needed construction materials to recipient countries, and some recipient countries must also provide cash assistance.Since some precision machinery and equipment cannot be manufactured in my country, and some raw materials such as special steel products cannot be produced in my country, they have to be purchased with foreign exchange and provided to recipient countries.

The above aspects require the state to spend a large amount of foreign exchange, but the country lacks foreign exchange, what should we do?Premier Zhou asked the comrades in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Trade to discuss a solution together.He told us: Japan is a small country, except for a little coal resources, other important resources are few, industrial production raw materials are imported, and it is the world's largest importer of resources; Britain has few resources, and many raw materials are imported; Some countries are also resource-poor.However, the foreign trade of these countries is very developed, why?A big reason is that they import raw materials and produce goods for export.Our country has raw materials for producing and exporting commodities, but some of them are yet to be exploited, which cannot solve the urgent need.The development of foreign trade depends entirely on our mining of raw materials and then production will be slower. We can also import some urgently needed raw materials, and then process the products for export.Premier Zhou said that if we adopt this method, we can not only develop foreign trade, obtain foreign exchange income, but also increase the level of domestic industrial production.

According to Premier Zhou's opinion, the Ministry of Foreign Trade imports some raw materials from abroad and processes products for export, so as to "bring in and out".In order to earn more foreign exchange, we also continuously supply a large number of live pigs to Hong Kong.In order to ensure the supply of live pigs and increase farmers' enthusiasm for raising pigs, we implement a policy of rewarding the sale of grain and chemical fertilizers to farmers who sell live pigs. In addition to the methods of earning foreign exchange I mentioned above, under the direct care and leadership of Premier Zhou, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and relevant departments have also taken some other effective measures, such as studying the exchange rate of freely convertible currencies, and denominating in currencies that are beneficial to me in trade. , is one of the clever ways.

In the 1950s, my country's foreign trade was "led to one side" by the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, accounting for 70% to 80% of my country's total foreign trade, a very large proportion.The formation of this situation is mainly due to the economic blockade and embargo policy imposed on our country by the imperialist countries.In the trade with the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, except for individual adjustments to commodity prices, the long-term unchanged policy was maintained.The exchange rate between RMB and foreign exchange has also remained stable for a long time.Since the RMB has no specified gold content, it does not circulate in the international market as a freely convertible currency.Among the currencies in international circulation, the pound sterling, the franc, and the mark often depreciate.These exchange rate changes have a certain degree of impact on the economic benefits of my country's foreign trade.In order to earn more foreign exchange and make good use of it in foreign trade, Premier Zhou asked Comrade Ye Jizhuang, the minister of foreign trade who had done economic work during the Red Army era, to be in charge of foreign exchange, and organized a group of people to conduct research to predict and grasp the changes in the exchange rates of various free currencies. .Since we attach great importance to various foreign exchange exchange rate changes, when signing the contract, whether the price is denominated in US dollars, British pounds, Marks, Swiss francs, etc., is all denominated in the currency that is most beneficial to me.Therefore, in several major currency changes, not only did we not suffer losses, but we also made a fortune in foreign exchange.

my country's foreign exchange reserves are very small. In order to exchange as much foreign exchange as possible for export goods and obtain the greatest purchasing power, Premier Zhou asked us to constantly calculate how to obtain the most favorable prices for import and export commodities.This is another important thought of Premier Zhou guiding foreign trade work. Carry out rigorous and thoughtful price calculations in advance. When my country began to import grain in 1960, Premier Zhou asked us to compare and calculate the international market prices of rice and wheat with us.At that time, the price of a ton of wheat was more than 60 US dollars, and the price of rice was more than 100 US dollars.That is to say, one ton of rice exported can be exchanged for at least one and a half tons of wheat. Although the amount of wheat imported in my country is greater than the amount of rice exported, but with the export of grain and oil products such as soybeans, the amount of export and import is almost the same. .

After several years of adjustment of the national economy, the grain production situation has improved significantly.Under such circumstances, does my country still need to import a large amount of grain?He believes that continuing to import food is good for our country.Because imported wheat is supplied to big cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Dalian, Guangzhou, etc., it is not only beneficial for farmers to recuperate, but also can reduce the transportation volume of grain from inland grain areas to big cities, ease the transportation tension, and save a lot of manpower and financial resources ; moreover, wheat is easy to store for urgent needs.At that time, the price of wheat in the international market was relatively low, and the sea freight was also cheap. On the contrary, the freight was relatively high when it was transported from the mainland of China to the big coastal cities by land.From here, we can see that Mr. Zhou's ideal question is quite thoughtful and far-reaching.He analyzed and dealt with this issue from a strategic perspective.

In trade negotiations, you must know yourself and your enemy.At that time, Japanese products were generally more expensive.If we buy similar products from Western European countries, although the FOB price is lower, it is not cost-effective to add the long-distance shipping fee.There is a difference in shipping costs here.He instructed us not only to allow Japan to earn the price difference, but also to allow us to buy commodities at lower prices in the competition between Japan and Western Europe. In the early 1960s, when the Ministry of Foreign Trade was negotiating with a businessman from a certain country to buy wheat, Premier Zhou instructed us in time not to let the other party know our bottom line.In this way, when we are negotiating with the other party, it is not easy for them to ask for prices. my country is a socialist country. It is our unshirkable internationalist duty to trade with Asian, African and Latin American countries on the basis of the principle of equality and mutual benefit while helping them develop their national economies.So, how should aid these countries?Premier Zhou not only instructed the Ministry of Foreign Trade to implement the principle of independence in foreign trade and develop our national economy, but also asked us to help Asian, African and Latin American countries.He said that our economic assistance to them is not to make them depend on us, but to promote and facilitate their self-reliance.Only when the economies of these countries develop can they develop foreign trade.The more the economy develops, the more their foreign trade develops.Based on this idea, when Premier Zhou visited African countries from the end of 1963 to the beginning of 1964, he announced the eight principles of the Chinese government’s foreign economic aid that fully reflected this idea, and publicly stated that the purpose of the Chinese government’s foreign aid is not Instead of causing the recipient countries to rely on China, it helps the recipient countries to gradually embark on the road of self-reliance and independent economic development. When Premier Zhou saw that Mali and other countries in Africa needed to import tea from China and other daily necessities were in short supply, he did not ask the Ministry of Foreign Trade to sell tea and other commodities to these countries from the standpoint of making money, but instructed us to send experts to help Mali Plant tea, make tea, and help it build match factories, textile factories, sugar factories, etc. at the same time.After gaining some experience in aiding Mali, he continued to help Guinea, Zambia, Tanzania and other countries to build industrial enterprises. In 1962, I led a trade mission to Pakistan to discuss bilateral trade and aid.Before the trip, Premier Zhou told me that we can give Pakistan a loan without interest.If the debt is not repaid after maturity, it can be extended.After arriving in Pakistan, I called on Prime Minister Muhammad Ali and explained to him the intention of the Chinese government.Ali was very surprised. Since it is a loan, how can there be no interest?After I clarified our country's foreign aid policy, he believed it.Later, when Pakistani President Ayub Khan visited our country, he accepted the loan provided by our country and signed an agreement on trade and economic and technological cooperation with our country. Premier Zhou has many important thoughts and unique insights on how to develop my country's foreign trade.For example, Premier Zhou's guiding ideology impressed us deeply on the issue of whether we should sell gold in the face of foreign exchange shortage. In 1960, my country's fiscal deficit was as high as 8 billion yuan, but in order to meet the minimum needs of the national economy and the people's livelihood, a large amount of wheat had to be imported from abroad.In the face of a serious crisis, it is not impossible for our country to sell gold in the international market to solve the problem of foreign exchange shortage, but Premier Zhou does not approve of this.He said, gold cannot be sold!We're going to back it up with gold.He emphasized that in the use of foreign exchange, we must seriously consider every dollar spent!We are deeply moved by Premier Zhou's lofty ideological quality of wholeheartedly thinking about the interests of the country and the people.After so many years, whenever I think of his two concise and powerful words, I am still filled with emotion.Under Premier Zhou's direct interrogation, not only did we not sell gold, but we also took advantage of the relatively cheap gold price to buy hundreds of thousands of taels of gold every year.I bought it every year until 1970.The gold was transported back to China by special plane. Premier Zhou has very strict requirements on cadres. Sometimes he criticizes people very harshly, but his style is very democratic.Therefore, we feel that his strictness is a kind of spur and urging to us, and it is a great concern and help to us.In order to clarify an unfamiliar issue, he always seeks out our comrades who are doing specific work and talks face to face.Let us put the situation on the table and talk about the problem.If your point of view is reasonable, and he thinks it is correct, he will support it and affirm it; if the point of view is wrong, he will explain to you the reason why it is wrong and point out what to do.Under the influence of Premier Zhou's serious and meticulous work style, when we do our work and report to him, we always have to find out the situation first, verify the relevant figures and facts, and dare not be a little sloppy.Only when the situation is clear can we make up our minds!Otherwise, it is wrong to make up your mind.this point is very important.These lofty qualities and work style of Premier Zhou have had a great influence on our comrades in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Trade.It can be said that it is an extremely valuable ideological wealth left to our foreign trade work.