Chapter 29 8.3 Be a "foreign slave" once

After the First Five-Year Plan, another large-scale introduction of complete sets of industrial equipment was obstructed by the extreme left forces in every possible way. Chen Yun is not afraid of criticism: If someone criticizes this as a "foreign slave", then be a "foreign slave". Some big moves have also been taken in the introduction of large foreign equipment. On January 2, 1973, the State Planning Commission submitted the "Report on Increasing Equipment Imports and Expanding Economic Exchanges" to the State Council, formally proposing the "Fourth and Three Plans", suggesting that they should take advantage of the deepening economic crisis of Western capitalism and rush to find markets and funds There is a favorable opportunity for the way out, and a batch of complete sets of equipment and stand-alone machines will be introduced within three to five years, and a plan for the introduction of 4.3 billion US dollars will be initially proposed, so as to strive to fully play its role during the fifth five-year plan.These imported projects include 13 sets of large chemical fertilizer equipment, 4 sets of large chemical fiber equipment, 3 sets of petrochemical equipment, 1 alkyl benzene plant equipment, 43 sets of comprehensive coal mining units, 3 large power stations, WISCO's 1.7-meter rolling mill and transparent Flat compressors, Spey engines, gas turbines, industrial steam turbines, etc.These items, together with those added later, total planned imports of US$5.18 billion.my country has built 26 large-scale projects with a total investment of more than 20 billion yuan using these equipments and through self-reliance production and technological transformation. In 1979, the contract was fulfilled, spending 3.96 billion US dollars, and by 1982 these projects were all put into production.

Such an introduction scale is very bold.In 1972, before this plan was determined, the total import and export volume of the country was only 4.84 billion US dollars, of which the import was only 2.2 billion US dollars.And the initial import scale of this plan is twice the import volume of the previous year! The "Fourth Three Plan" is a major measure of my country's expansion of foreign economic exchanges in the process of correcting the ultra-left ideological trend of the "Cultural Revolution". It is also a bold attempt by my country's economic departments to open the closed country and go to the world. socialist economic construction is of great significance.

However, under the political interference of the ultra-left trend of thought during the "Cultural Revolution", this introduction was destined to encounter a lot of resistance and criticism from the very beginning. "Violation of the self-reliance policy", "import style", "foreign slave philosophy", "worshiping foreigners and fawning on foreigners", all kinds of hats fly from some dark corners from time to time. On October 3, 1973, after consulting Zhou Enlai, Chen Yunjing left Beijing for Guangzhou to inspect the autumn Canton Fair.The Export Commodities Fair held in Guangzhou every spring and autumn has always been an important window for the foreign trade of New China, which was blocked by foreign countries, especially during the period of the "Cultural Revolution".

But the Canton Fair cannot escape the impact of extreme leftist trends. In the Autumn Fair of 1972 and the Spring Fair of 1973, under the background of rising commodity prices in the capitalist market, foreign businessmen snatched up goods, and the commodities of the Canton Fair also soared.Can the Autumn Fair still be like this?Some people want to set high prices subjectively, and even say that raising prices is Marxism and lowering prices is revisionism. Chen Yun does not agree with this method of pricing based on "politics".He has long asked the foreign trade department to pay attention to the study of price issues from a practical perspective.In July and August, he had three discussions with the person in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and the members of the price group of the Ministry, asking the Ministry of Foreign Trade to manage the fluctuation of commodity prices and be a good manager of the country's foreign trade.Commodity prices must adapt to the international market. If they are high, they should be lowered, and if they are low, they can be raised.

As soon as Chen Yun arrived in Guangzhou on October 7, he immediately listened to the report from the person in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Trade.When talking about how high commodity pricing will affect the transaction, he said: Commodity pricing should not be based on subjective wishes, but should be based on market conditions.If the price is set low, we will suffer; if the price is set high, foreign businessmen will not buy it, and the goods will be kept there, and we will lose foreign markets, and we will also suffer. On October 12 and 16, after Chen Yun listened to the report on the situation of the Canton Fair by the person in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Chen Yun pointed out that criticizing the idea of ​​price stabilization does not mean that raising prices is Marxism.It is wrong to stabilize the price and sell more, but it is also wrong to make the price so high that it cannot be sold.

Others believe that the export of imported cotton and processed cotton cloth depends on foreign countries, rather than insisting on self-reliance.Chen Yun pointed out that this view is wrong.We must insist on self-reliance.However, there is not enough cotton in the country at present, and it may take a long time to completely use our own cotton to process cotton cloth for export if we want to be more than self-sufficient.We are going to take advantage of this time to import cotton and process cotton cloth for export, and we would be fools not to do so.It is easy to reason that it is necessary to use the abundant domestic labor force to produce finished products for export.

He still had the issue of importing the 1.7-meter rolling mill in mind, and said: "The set of steel rolling equipment worth more than 300 million dollars that is being ordered will be imported together with the relevant accessories. After this equipment is put into operation, it can produce 3 million tons of steel plates per year. Two years is 6 million tons. If there is a shortage of spare parts and the domestic solution cannot be solved, the start of production will be delayed, and the production of 3 million tons of steel plates will be lost after a year of delay. It is very uneconomical. If someone criticizes this as a "foreign slave", then Be a 'foreign slave' once."

On November 30, Chen Yun sent a letter to Zhou Enlai, saying: I have no knowledge of trade work in capitalist countries, or know very little. If I plan to study for a few years, I can always learn something. However, the "Gang of Four" could no longer restrain themselves in order to seize power. At the beginning of 1974, they manipulated the "Criticize Lin Biao and Confucius" campaign, targeting Zhou Enlai and the veteran cadres who had just returned to work, causing new turmoil on all fronts and deteriorating the situation that had just improved. On February 10, 1974, Jiang Qing went to the Fourth Ministry of Machinery to give a speech. He said that Corning Corporation of the United States gave the Chinese color picture tube equipment introduction inspection team a gift—a glass shell snail. He scolded the State Council for engaging in "traitorism" and "foreign slave philosophy". In October 1974, the "Fengqing ship incident" was provoked, which brought a strong impact on the introduction of equipment and foreign trade work and came to a standstill.

But Chen Yun's research and thinking did not stop.He has set his sights very far and long.The precious experience gained in guiding foreign trade work during this period will play a greater role in the upcoming larger-scale opening to the outside world.