Chapter 43 3. Zhou Enlai's last major event before his death

On January 13, 1975, the first session of the Fourth National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China opened in Beijing.At the meeting, Zhou Enlai made the "Government Work Report" on behalf of the State Council. He reiterated the "two-step vision" proposed in the "Government Work Report" of the Third National People's Congress in 1964: "The first step takes 15 years, that is, before 1980, Build an independent and relatively complete industrial system and national economic system; the second step is to fully realize the modernization of agriculture, industry, national defense, and science and technology within this century, so that our national economy will be at the forefront of the world."

The realization of the "Four Modernizations" is the most striking part of the entire "Government Work Report", and it is also the essence of the "Report".Since he was a boy, Zhou Enlai has been determined to "rise" and "take off" China. During his more than 20 years as the prime minister of the Republic, he never forgot to realize the prosperity of the motherland.As early as 1954 at the National People's Congress, he proposed to build "modernized industry, modernized agriculture, modernized transportation and modernized national defense". After the Second National People's Congress in 1959, he called for speeding up the construction of a "powerful socialist country with modern industry, modern agriculture, modern science and culture, and modern national defense."Until the Third National People's Congress in 1964, Zhou Enlai fully proposed the goal of "four modernizations" and the strategic vision of "two steps".

In April 1966, the domestic situation was already "the rain is about to come and the building is full of wind".At this time, Zhou Enlai was still full of hope for the realization of the "four modernizations." He said: "No matter what storms we encounter, the industrious and brave Chinese people will surely be able to build China into a country with modern agriculture and modernization after 20 to 30 years of hard work. A socialist power with industry, modern national defense and modern science and technology.” Faced with the sudden storm of the “Cultural Revolution”, Zhou Enlai had to expend a lot of energy to deal with various complicated situations.Under extremely difficult conditions, he tried his best to maintain the work in agriculture, industry, national defense and science and technology, so that it would not suffer greater losses, or make progress in maintaining it.During this period, Zhou Enlai, who cared about the country and the people, was still thinking about China's modernization process.

Agriculture. During the "Cultural Revolution", although the crop harvest was mainly due to the steady growth of food production, the level of agricultural production in the whole country was still very low, and it was still unable to get rid of the backwardness of the natural economy; coupled with the long-standing "Left" guiding ideology The current policy cannot adapt to the reality of rural areas, thus restraining the production enthusiasm of the majority of farmers.While constantly focusing on rural economic work, Zhou Enlai always believed that as a large agricultural country, the conditions of the countryside determine the basic national conditions.He pointed out many times: China's national economic strength is calculated according to the proportion of population, which is worse than that of Japan and West Germany; we have not yet caught up with the world's advanced level, so we cannot be considered strong.If you do not understand this, you will be complacent, proud, and impractical.For this reason, he paid great attention to understanding and mastering the agricultural situation in developed countries, and asked relevant departments not to ignore the opportunity to learn from the "teachers who came to their door" (that is, agricultural groups from developed countries).Zhou Enlai's purpose was very clear: learn from and absorb foreign experience, change the backwardness of domestic rural areas as soon as possible, and gradually approach and catch up with the level of developed countries.

industrial aspect.Compared with agriculture, the impact and damage of the "Cultural Revolution" on industrial production was much more serious.Due to the "stop production and revolution", the output of major industrial products showed a downward trend in 1967 and 1968.In particular, railway transportation has become a "long-standing and difficult" department that affects the national industrial production.Under Zhou Enlai's efforts to maintain it, the overall industrial situation did not improve until after the Ninth National Congress in 1969.However, since 1970, there has been a sharp increase in work-related accidents and a general decline in product quality across the country.The reason is that, in addition to the influence of anarchism on enterprise leaders and employees, imperfect systems and chaotic management, obsolete equipment, low production capacity and technical level are also important factors that exist objectively. In the spring of 1972, Zhou Enlai personally dealt with the quality problems of daily industrial products and export products.In response to the repeated occurrence of unqualified products by domestic enterprises, he pointed out: Our economy is still very backward, and we are basically "poor and white". Therefore, we must dare to admit what is not good or not good.Also, it turns out that we can only be basically self-sufficient, how can we say that we are completely self-sufficient?What needs to be imported has to be imported!It was from this time that Zhou Enlai aimed at western developed countries, approved the introduction of a large number of complete sets of new production equipment, and determined the guideline of "one learning, two uses, three reforms, and four innovations" to introduce foreign advanced technology.

defense. National defense construction during the "Cultural Revolution" has always been Zhou Enlai's concern. In January 1969, when he learned that many places in East China and South-Central China were affected by icicles, and wired communications were blocked, and that underground cables were needed to solve this problem, he asked excitedly, "How many kilometers of cables are there in our country? Why are there so few? Why are they so backward? (After enumerating the communication status of relevant departments) Backward! Backward! The most important thing is to change this backwardness and make wired, wireless, including cable and microwave catch up." In February of the same year, Zhou Enlai continued Held a meeting of heads of national defense scientific research and military production departments to give instructions on the development of new naval ships, the production of air force fighters and bombers, and the improvement, layout and planning of anti-aircraft guns, radars, surface-to-air missiles and other defensive weapons.During the Ninth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Zhou Enlai also severely criticized some military enterprises for not daring to improve product quality and abolishing the inspection system. In December 1971, together with Ye Jianying, Li Xiannian and others, he listened to a report on product quality issues in the aviation industry, and asked the main leaders of various units in the aviation system to personally improve product quality, restore reasonable rules and regulations, and criticize extreme leftist trends.He said: It cannot be considered that all things in capitalist countries are bad, they are also created by working people.Don't think that we can do anything, but learn foreign things critically.

technology.What can make Zhou Enlai feel very gratified in the turbulent years is the achievements of the cutting-edge career that he has been holding on to. At the end of 1966, under the direct leadership and deployment of Zhou Enlai, scientific and technical personnel eliminated interference, worked hard together, and achieved the success of the first hydrogen bomb principle experiment.Zhou Enlai, who was listening to the report in the West Flower Hall, was very excited. He set up a family banquet to celebrate the victory with the person in charge of the research and development department.At this time, the voice of "down" from the rebels outside the Zhongnanhai Wall could be faintly heard.Zhou Enlai recited Mao Zedong's poem "Whether the wind blows and the waves beat, it is better than strolling in the garden", raised his glass and said, "Tonight, I will have more time. Have a drink!" The relief is beyond words.On the basis of the successful principle experiment, the researchers made persistent efforts and achieved a major victory in the successful test explosion of China's first hydrogen bomb in June of the following year, realizing the goals expected by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai ahead of schedule. In September 1969, China's first underground nuclear test under the personal guidance of Zhou Enlai was successful again. In the spring of 1970, relevant departments carried out the work guidelines and instructions put forward by Zhou Enlai, and successfully sent China's first artificial earth satellite "Dongfanghong-1" into space.Zhou Enlai took this as a "gift" and first announced it to the ongoing Supreme People's Meeting of Indochina to express his congratulations.Under the environment of the "Cultural Revolution", China's series of achievements in the field of cutting-edge technology made the international community have to look at China's capabilities and potential with admiration.

After entering the 1970s, Zhou Enlai, who was familiar with the national conditions, often watched the rapid development of the world economy, especially the rapid changes in science and technology in western developed countries, with an indescribable mood.In response to US President Nixon's statement that China was one of the "five major powers in the world", Zhou Enlai repeatedly stated that China is indeed a potential power, but not a real power.China's industrial level is far behind that of the United States, and it will struggle for decades.Be a little self-aware on this one.He also told French President Pompidou that people say that we are a big country, but I don't think so.It is a big country with a large area and a large population.But in terms of economic development, it is far behind.In terms of GDP per capita, France is more than ten times that of China.China needs decades of hard work, at least until the 21st century, to reach France's current level.Regarding the gap in science and technology, Zhou Enlai also made a specific comparison.Once, he told American physicist Li Zhengdao that China was 30 years behind Japan in terms of computer production.Now we don't understand the situation in this area, and it's a blank slate.This is related to the overall industrial level and technical level.Seeing the widening gap between China and the advanced international level, Zhou Enlai was really anxious. In August 1971, Zhou Enlai, who presided over the drafting of the "Government Work Report", outlined an outline of the "Report", which clearly stated "the modernization of agriculture, industry, national defense, and science and technology."At the same time, the outline also proposes short-term development goals for the vision of the "Fourth Five-Year Plan": "a solid agricultural foundation", "a relatively strong industry", "a relatively developed transportation network", "a city-rural exchange, internal and external exchanges" Business Network" and "A Relatively Advanced Scientific Technology and Scientific Theory".It can be seen from this that it is Zhou Enlai's sincere wish in his later years to face up to the national conditions, seek truth from facts, and gradually realize the long-term goal of "four modernizations".

In the winter of 1974, in view of Zhou Enlai's physical condition, Deng Xiaoping was entrusted by Mao Zedong to preside over the drafting of the "Government Work Report" of the Fourth National People's Congress on behalf of Zhou Enlai.Under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, the drafting team overcame resistance and finally included Zhou Enlai's long-standing thoughts on the "Four Modernizations" as the key points in the "Report".On December 20 of the same year, Zhou Enlai reviewed and approved the "Report" draft.This is another major victory achieved by the older generation of revolutionaries during the preparations for the Fourth National People's Congress.

The first meeting of the Fourth National People's Congress approved the "Government Work Report" made by Zhou Enlai, and produced the candidates for the State Council with Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping as the leadership core, which has very important practical and far-reaching historical significance.First of all, it proves that during the "Cultural Revolution", the Chinese Communist Party and the country and army led by it were not destroyed, but were able to maintain unity and carry out necessary work, and the foundation of the socialist system was still preserved.This was the basic condition for the party and people to overcome difficulties and defeat internal and external enemies at that time and later.Secondly, Zhou Enlai reiterated the goal of "four modernizations" and the "two-step" strategy, emphasizing and pointing out the direction of work in a certain period under specific historical conditions, which gave great confidence and hope to the whole party and the people of the whole country.In a broad sense, it is also the original conception of the grand blueprint of the "Three Steps" across the century under the leadership of the Communist Party of China today.Third, the State Council with Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping at its core gathered quite a number of revolutionaries and veteran cadres, most of whom were persecuted during the "Cultural Revolution".They resumed work and gained real power, which was not only beneficial to the country's economic construction at that time, but also provided a vital organizational guarantee for the party and the people to continue to struggle and finally crush the Jiang Qing counter-revolutionary clique, leading and promoting China's reform and opening up.

It is true that under the circumstances at that time, the Fourth National People's Congress still inevitably had many historical limitations, which were naturally beyond the expectation and detachment of Zhou Enlai and other older revolutionaries.However, after all, this meeting broke through many obstacles, defeated the main enemy, and achieved results that attracted worldwide attention.In this process, Zhou Enlai, together with Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and other leaders, played the greatest historical role and made indelible and outstanding contributions.As a foreign commentary said: "This People's Congress is the culmination of Zhou Enlai's lifelong struggle." Zhou Enlai, with all his faith, wisdom and loyalty, completed the last major event in his life.