Chapter 27 8.1 Looking at the world

During the "Cultural Revolution", Chen Yun, like many veteran cadres, was hit and only retained his position as a member of the Central Committee. In October 1969, he was "decentralized" and went to a factory in Jiangxi to "squat". In April 1972, more than half a year after Lin Biao fell into the sand and fell into the sands of Undur Khan in Mongolia, Chen Yuncai was able to return to Beijing. On July 21, he sent a letter to Mao Zedong, requesting the central government to allocate work within its capacity, and Mao Zedong gave his approval the next day.Not long after, Chen Yun joined the State Council's business group and assisted Premier Zhou Enlai in considering some major principles and policy issues in the economy, especially in foreign trade. The "Cultural Revolution" caused great damage to economic work.Although after the Lin Biao incident, Zhou Enlai tried his best to correct the "Left" within the possible range, the ultra-left line still seriously restricted and interfered with economic work.Although since the end of the 1950s, especially during the "Cultural Revolution", Chen Yun has been hit repeatedly politically, but he does not take personal ups and downs to heart, but cherishes the opportunity to work again a hundredfold, to serve the party and the party. With a high sense of responsibility, the people devoted themselves to the work of resisting "Left" errors and opening up a new situation in foreign economic and trade.

Looking at the world, Chen Yun said bluntly that the general trend of dealing with capitalism is set, and one should not be bound by the old rules in doing work. In the 1960s, as the relationship between the two parties and the two countries in China and the Soviet Union turned hostile, the trade with the Soviet Union and the East, which accounted for more than 75% of China's foreign trade, was greatly affected.The Chinese people were not intimidated, and carried forward the spirit of independence and self-reliance. Not only did they successfully overcome three years of difficulties, but they also gritted their teeth and paid off the debts owed to the Soviet Union in advance, achieving neither domestic nor foreign debts.

That would have been a good thing.However, since the "Cultural Revolution", the policy of independence and self-reliance has been elevated to the height of the political line, and it has been opposed to the development of foreign economic exchanges and cooperation, and the foreign economic exchanges since the founding of the People's Republic of China have been demoted to nothing. In the 1970s, China's international environment has undergone tremendous changes. China revisited the United Nations in 1971, and US President Nixon's visit to China in 1972 opened the door to Sino-US exchanges. China's diplomacy has gradually stepped out of the extreme isolation since the "Cultural Revolution" and gained an excellent opportunity to go global.The breakthrough in diplomatic relations has brought new opportunities for foreign economic and trade cooperation.Moreover, Western developed countries were facing a serious economic crisis at that time, and the contradiction of overproduction forced them to rush to find a way out for their capital, products, equipment, and technology. Favorable conditions.

However, foreign economic and trade work is still severely constrained by the erroneous ultra-left political line, and there are even more concerns about economic exchanges with capitalist countries, and I am afraid of going too far.In this way, although they also recognized such opportunities and wanted to expand foreign economic exchanges, they struggled in actual work and were very passive. It was not possible at that time to correct the ultra-left errors in terms of line and policy.With his usual calmness and practical spirit, Chen Yun started from investigation and research, guided the cadres of foreign trade and other departments to release the shackles in their thinking and understanding, and looked for ways to open up the situation in their work.

Chen Yun carefully studied a large amount of materials.Due to the sharp shrinkage of the trade with the Soviet Union and the East and the development of trade with Western countries, China's exports to the capitalist market accounted for 75%, replacing the main position of the trade with the Soviet Union and the East.Chen Yun keenly noticed the major changes in the foreign trade structure and the opportunities and challenges it brought.He not only studies international economic issues by himself, but also urges relevant departments to study them as soon as possible. In order to understand the situation, in May and June of 1973, Chen Yun listened to a series of reports from relevant departments. On May 5, when he listened to the report of Vice Minister of Foreign Trade Zhou Huamin on foreign trade plans and prices, he asked the foreign trade department to study the price issues in the capitalist market.

On June 7, Chen Yun listened to the work report of the People's Bank of China.At the beginning, Chen Yun joked about his poor health, and said humorously, "I fish every day and post the nets one day. Today is the time for posting the nets. Let's just talk for half an hour, okay?" He said straight to the point that he wanted to learn more about international financial and monetary issues, and asked the bank to spend one week to 10 days to help him collect materials from 10 aspects for reference during research. Chen Yun suggested that banks should study capitalism well.When the bank said it was ready to restore the Institute of Finance, Chen Yun agreed.Say: Lenin said that in the era of communism, some public toilets will be built with gold.In my opinion, it is still far from that era.If we don't study capitalism, we will suffer.Without studying capitalism, we should not try to occupy our rightful place in the world market.

However, studying capitalism and dealing with capitalism is always frightening in the ultra-left era.Chen Yun encouraged everyone.When he learned that Qiao Peixin, who worked with him in the Northwest Finance and Economics Office in the Yan'an era, was also 61 years old, he said by the way: You are so old, and you are considered old!You can live another 20 years, I can't, but dealing with capitalism is a certainty. The bank reported that they could get more than 1 billion U.S. dollars or even more foreign exchange funds, but they encountered two problems in China: one is the policy issue, which is not in line with Chairman Mao's self-reliance policy and the party's line, but in line with It does not conform to the spirit of having neither domestic debt nor foreign debt; the second is the method problem, and domestic rules need to be changed.If these problems are not resolved, it will not work.

It is hard for people today to imagine such a good thing being stumped by such a problem.But in the era when "politics is in command" and "class struggle is the key link", this is a big issue related to the political direction of Yu. Chen Yun cleverly avoided such a trap, did not get entangled in political disputes, but guided everyone to concentrate on practice.He said: "As you said, one is the issue of whether it is legal or not, and the other is the issue of rules and regulations. In my opinion, we must first find out whether it is a good thing. As long as it is a good thing, you can find a way—a workaround for everyone to discuss To establish a new method, some boundaries must be clearly drawn, for example, the policy of self-reliance should not be opposed to the use of capitalist credit. It must be orderly, and it will not conflict with the country. In short, as long as it is a good thing to admit, you can Find out the reason. Make the big truth clear. Everything that exists has a reason. Whether it is legal or not is another matter. We should not be bound by those old rules in our work. Of course, mistakes may be made. But who doesn't make mistakes?"

Chen Yun also reminded everyone to pay attention to the changes in the actual situation: "In the past, there was no problem with 75% of capitalist countries. Now the situation has changed. Some comrades have not seen it, so we have to explain these things to them... In short, good things are not good. Do it. The rules and regulations need to be changed. The reason is that 75% of foreign trade is with capitalist countries.” Chen Yun's instructions, requirements and personal performance on the need to study capitalism well played an important role in breaking through the shackles of "Left" ideas in the field of foreign trade at that time, relieved some comrades' concerns, and strongly promoted the development of my country's foreign trade. field of study of capitalism.It has accumulated experience and cultivated talents for the opening up after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee. In July 1974, Chen Yun also wrote down the experience of in-depth and systematic research on the capitalist economy in the past year into notes such as "Comparison between the current economic crisis and the crisis in 1929" and "Views on the current world economic crisis".

Chen Yun's research on capitalism quickly created great practical benefits for the country.Due to the decoupling of the U.S. dollar from gold and passing on the risk of inflation to countries around the world, the international financial market experienced severe turmoil.Under such circumstances, how to avoid exchange rate risks and maintain and increase the value of foreign exchange reserves in hand is a problem that every country has to consider. Although the U.S. dollar has been decoupled from gold, the function of gold as a world currency has not been lost. Chen Yun is very optimistic about the appreciation potential of gold.In May of this year, after analysis, Chen Yun judged that the current world gold production averages 22 million taels per year, worth 3.5 billion U.S. dollars.The world's gross national product is calculated at an annual growth rate of 1%, which is 30 billion U.S. dollars.Of course, money also has turnover times.However, according to the ratio of 1:8 between our currency issuance and commodity circulation, the current gold production cannot keep up with the growth of commodities, not to mention that gold still has its industrial uses.

At that time, China had a batch of foreign exchange deposits in Swiss banks.Chen Yun believes that it should be used to buy gold to preserve value.In July of this year, when he listened to the report of Ng Fung Hong Kong, he explained his judgment: the price of gold will continue to rise in the future, and the dollar will continue to "rot".We have a lot of foreign exchange reserves, and the deposit bank will suffer. In addition to importing some materials needed for production, we can consider buying gold.Please ask the People's Bank of China, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Foreign Trade to hold a meeting to study and calculate how much interest there is on foreign exchange deposits abroad, and how much storage fees are charged for depositing gold, to see if it is worthwhile.Although the U.S. dollar is weak, it will remain the main international currency for a long time to come, and no other currency can replace it. The reason is that U.S. productivity is still the largest in the world. Buying gold while the price of gold is rising does have risks.When the price of gold rose to US$80 per ounce, Chen Yun clearly suggested that banks use foreign exchange to buy gold to preserve its value.But the bank thinks that the interest loss is large and uneconomical. With his rich experience and sophisticated calculations, Chen Yun did not give up his opinion easily.He suggested to Li Xiannian that instead of depositing foreign exchange in the bank to depreciate every day, it is better to buy a batch of gold to maintain and increase the value.In response to doubts that buying and selling gold may be speculative, Chen Yun argued that if he needs to pay in the future, he will sell gold and exchange it for foreign exchange.Buying and selling gold for the purpose of actual payment in this way is not considered reselling.Li Xiannian accepted this suggestion.The purchase of gold this time increased the country's gold reserves, which not only ensured the safety of foreign exchange reserves amid the sharp drop in the dollar, but also provided reliable support for future opening up.