Chapter 40 The handshake between the American oil tycoon and the "Little Oriental Man"——Deng Xiaoping and Hammer (1)

Let us look back to China in 1979 in the last century. At that time, China was in a state of waste. China's "New Long March" had just started, and the slogan "Reform and Opening Up" had just been posted on the bulletin boards on the wall. Most of the people in China did not have any electrical appliances or even It is also rare for someone to wear a watch.It can be said that China's economy, culture, science and education and other aspects are like a thin layer of frost left on the land that has just awakened in early spring.The newly implemented policy of opening up the foreign economy has not yet attracted the blue eyes of the other side of the ocean. Foreign economists, entrepreneurs, businessmen or politicians are still holding a wait-and-see attitude.

However, in May of this year, a private Boeing 727 plane crossed the vast blue waves, from the east coast of the Pacific Ocean, and slowly landed in Beijing like a spring swallow. The world-famous American oil giant, together with more than 20 experts, was the first to break the ice at the beginning of China's economic opening, entered a China full of infinite temptations and a bright future, and started the most important mission in his life. Way to China. He is Amon Hamer. In order to meet Deng Xiaoping, the well-known oil tycoon tricked the American secret agents into sneaking into the banquet.Hamer and Deng Xiaoping became good friends immediately, and it became an unexpected harvest of Deng Xiaoping's visit to the United States.

Hamer is the chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, a legendary figure in the world. He was born in New York in 1898, his father was a doctor.And when he graduated from Columbia University School of Medicine, he not only had an MD, but also a millionaire. The acquaintance between Hamer and Deng Xiaoping is quite dramatic. In "Deng Xiaoping and Carter" and "Deng Xiaoping and Bush" in this book, we already know that when Deng Xiaoping visited the United States in early 1979, he left Washington for a visit to Atlanta after having breakfast with Kissinger on the morning of February 1. There, I went to lay flowers at the grave of black leader Martin Luther King Jr. unexpectedly.Afterwards, on the morning of the 2nd, he left Atlanta to fly to Houston, Texas for a visit.

At that time, Texas was a city that was "developing so fast that it was almost crazy". Wealth made this western city a laboratory for skyscrapers, and 27 high-rise buildings soon stood up.Deng Xiaoping knew that Texas oil and wealth are famous in the United States.Bush, who once served as the director of the Liaison Office in China, made his fortune from oil exploration here.Before the visit, the Chinese side had obtained reliable information in advance, and it was estimated that anti-China forces would hold large-scale "demonstrations" in this city. After Deng Xiaoping visited the Lincoln Johnson Space Center in the United States and boarded the simulated cockpit of the space shuttle, he attended a grand barbecue banquet and a shepherd's bull taming rodeo in Simonton, a suburb of the city.This grand banquet and performance was specially organized for Deng Xiaoping by the oil giants in Texas.

As the chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Hamer is already a world celebrity.He often travels around the world in his own private jet.But he has also been keeping an eye on the vicissitudes of world politics.From 1972 when Nixon, Kissinger, and later Ford began to improve relations with China and introduced a series of policies toward China, until Carter invited Deng Xiaoping to visit the United States, China and the United States established normal diplomatic relations. Mo is happy for this, he knows the opportunity has come.The Soviet Union, the number one socialist country in the world, made him embark on the road of doing business and made him successful. Today, facing China, another big socialist country in the world, Hammer will naturally not give up.Like a shrewd eagle discovering new prey, he discovered that China had what he needed.He yearns for China.

However, to Hamer's embarrassment, the US government did not invite him to this banquet.For Hamer, this was a very unexpected but expected thing.Why do you say that?This has to start from the beginning. In 1921, after graduating from university, Hammer heard that infectious diseases such as spotted rash and typhoid fever were prevalent in the Ural region of the Soviet Union, so he decided to go to the Soviet Union to help cure the epidemic there.He spent money to buy field hospital equipment from the army supplies of World War I and shipped them there, hoping to learn more medical knowledge and gain practical experience before the real medical internship.Unexpectedly, what he didn't even think of was that since then he embarked on the road of doing business and became a rich man in the world.

While running a hospital in the Soviet Union, he soon discovered that what the Soviet Union urgently needed at that time was not medicine, but food.So he went to the local Soviet government and told them: "I can ship you grain, as long as you load the ship with goods that can be sold in the United States." This not-so-high condition was immediately agreed by local government officials.So he immediately shipped millions of bushels of wheat to the Soviet Union. That is, in this year, Lenin received the 23-year-old American youth and suggested that Hamer accept one or two national concessions.Thus, Hamer sprouted the idea of ​​doing business.He chose two trades including asbestos mining for the manufacture of pencils, established import and export agencies, and became the general representative of 38 first-class American companies in the Soviet Union at the same time.

Since then, Hammer lived in the Soviet Union for nine years, during which he was received by Lenin many times.And with the help and support of Lenin, Hamer gradually became a famous entrepreneur in the West.Hamer's business activities provided rare help to the difficult Soviet Union at that time. Since then, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev and other Soviet leaders have maintained an extremely friendly relationship with him. You must know that Deng Xiaoping visited the United States at this time in 1979, when China and the Soviet Union were in a period of confrontation, and bilateral relations were extremely tense.During Deng Xiaoping’s visit to the United States, whether he had talks with President Carter or in both houses of Congress, he repeatedly asked the United States not to sign treaties on arms limitation with the Soviet Union. Both China and the United States were responsible for the fact that the Soviet Union dominated the world.Moreover, Deng Xiaoping also publicly revealed to them that China would send troops to Vietnam, which was pulled into the hegemonic camp by the Soviet Union.

Under such circumstances, the relevant agencies of the U.S. government did not invite Hamer because he had very good business and personal relations with the Soviet Union and its leaders, and worried that Hamer would become a Chinese and Deng Xiaoping would not welcome Attend all major events related to Deng Xiaoping's visit to the United States.Naturally, this banquet is also included. According to Mr. Hammer later recalled: "When the relationship between China and the United States began to improve in the 1970s and a more open trade prospect emerged, I wanted to be one of the first batch of American businessmen to enter Beijing. What inspired me was not only the The allure of vast new markets and commercial opportunities, while also hoping to contribute to one of the most exciting economic and political changes of our century. The romanticism that led me to knock on the imperial gates of Beijing's Tiananmen Square The ideal is the ideal of peaceful coexistence and peaceful trade between East and West. Jimmy Carter for continuing and extending the rapprochement with China begun by Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and Gerald Ford should be greatly applauded. However, his government has not been active and enthusiastic in opening the door to China for me."

However, for Hamer, he must participate in the activities to welcome Deng Xiaoping, even if he is not in Washington.Most of the participants in the event arranged in Houston this time were Hammer's giants in the oil industry. Naturally, Hammer refused to give up. He "kept knocking on the closed door until his unremitting efforts gradually became until it becomes too embarrassing".Hammer's efforts finally had some results. After being dredged by a friend in the White House and the President's Special Trade Representative Bob Strauss, Hammer's Washington office got Strauss's last-minute cooperation. Notified by phone, the Hammers finally got tickets to attend the grand rally held for Deng Xiaoping in Texas.

On this day (February 2, 1979) at 6 o'clock in the evening, when Deng Xiaoping went from the hotel where he was staying to the lobby on the first floor to go to the meeting by car, there was a near-miss incident.At that time, Chinese security personnel walked in front of and on both sides of Deng Xiaoping, followed by US security guard Kelly a few meters behind.According to Mr. Ling Yun, who was the vice minister of the Ministry of Public Security of China at the time, recalled in his memoir "I Visited the United States with Deng Xiaoping": "My seat was just behind Kelly. Suddenly, a person inserted in front of Kelly and ran towards Deng Xiaoping, only to see Kelly He hurried forward, knocked down the man with a wave of his arm, and the nearby guards swarmed up and caught him. Deng Xiaoping went out safely, got into the car and left under the protection of our guards.” Later, the US informed , The arrested person is a member of the Ku Klux Klan, the oldest terrorist organization in the United States, named Louis Beam.But what exactly they want to do, the US did not disclose. At the same time, when Hamer and his wife Francis drove to the arena, they found that there were security guards and agents everywhere, and the entry and exit were double-level checkpoint verification.At the first entrance, there is a female guard standing, checking the guest list. Hammer stepped forward and announced his name.Not too bad, the female guard actually knew his name, so she politely searched up and down the guest list.Knowing him as an oil tycoon, the female guard was very serious when searching.Finally, however, she said in a very concerned tone, "Well, I'm sorry, Dr. Hammer, but your name is not on the list." "Without my name?" Hamer looked a little embarrassed. He felt that this might be something done by Brzezinski, who had a tough attitude towards Su, so he said very calmly, "It's okay, it's obviously a mistake. The banquet itself Where will it be held?" "It's the club inside." The female guard replied. "Then my name must be on the list inside." Hammer said. The female guard thought for a while, and finally let him and his wife in. After passing the first checkpoint, they came to the gate of the club, where a burly agent was guarding.Hammer still politely announced his name, and then said with a smile: "My name was mistakenly omitted from the list at the gate. The girl at the gate said that it must be on the list inside the club." The agent looked at the silver-haired Hammers in their 80s and said, "You can go in and check the list, but if you don't have your names, you must leave here immediately." The Hammers made their way into the club without a hitch.The lady in charge who held the list for the banquet read it carefully, then shook her head disappointedly at Hammer and said, "Sorry, Dr. Hammer, your name is not on this list." Hamer said, "Then can I have a look at the list?" So the lady handed the list to Hamer.Hammer looked down the names on the list, and when he saw the name Robert McGee, Hammer exclaimed happily: "Ah! I understand what's going on." Hammer pointed to the name on the list. The name said, "Robert McGee, a senior deacon in our firm's Washington office, arranged with the White House for me to be here for the banquet. My ticket must have been issued in his name by mistake, too." "Oh," the lady also breathed a sigh of relief, "so that's what happened. Well, your seat is at table No. 5." Hammer cleverly played a trick and sneaked into the banquet hall.He walked towards table No. 5 with his wife.There were more and more people in the banquet hall, and soon it was full, and the real Mr. and Mrs. Robert McGee had been seated at table No. 5.Although they did not know each other, they introduced themselves. At this time, Mrs. Francis looked worried and said, "Amon, let's go out." "No, I'm not going out. There's nothing they can do to get me out of here now," Hamer said. The Hammers sat down at the table and chatted amicably with the McGees.Mr. McGee is the head of a major oil supply company and also does business with Hamer's Occidental Petroleum Company, and is familiar with Hamer's name.Gradually, the oil tycoons arrived one by one, and they were surprised when they saw Hamer. They were very surprised to find out why there was an uninvited guest from California at the gathering of the Texas oil tycoons? At this time, the host announced that everyone stood up and lined up to welcome Deng Xiaoping and the Chinese delegation.In this special queue, there were more than 50 general managers and their wives.When Deng Xiaoping led his delegation into the banquet hall with a happy face, there were applause.Hamer later recalled his first meeting with Deng Xiaoping in this way: He was short in stature and had a charming smile on his face all the time.An interpreter accompanied him, told him the names of each general manager in turn, and said a few words of introduction. When he came up to me, Deng said to the translator, "You don't need to introduce Dr. Hammer to me." Then he smiled at me, shook my hand and said, "We all know you. You are in the Soviet Union. The person who helped Lenin when he helped. Now you are going to China to help us." "I'd love to," I replied, "but as far as I know, you don't allow private jets into China, and I'm too old to fly commercially." "Oh," he said, waving his hand as if tossing the question aside, "that's easy. You just send me a telegram telling me when you want to come, and I can make all the necessary arrangements." After the welcoming ceremony, the Hammers returned to their "own" table 5.Because each table has a member of the Chinese delegation.Sitting at the same table with Hamer is Zhang Wenjin, the Chinese ambassador to Canada (later ambassador to the United States).Zhang Wenjin said: "Dr. Hammer, you shouldn't be sitting here, you should be sitting with Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping." So Zhang Wenjin took Hammer's hand and brought him to Deng Xiaoping's table.Deng Xiaoping asked Dr. Hammer to sit beside him.The Minister of Energy, James Schlesinger, who was sitting at the same table, had no choice but to cast a cold glance at Hammer.But Hammer didn't care. He knew that in front of Deng Xiaoping, a distinguished guest from China, no one could drive him out, who could trick the secret agents into sneaking in. And the president's special trade representative, Bob Strauss, who was late for a while, sat at a table not far away, looked at Hamer with a teasing expression, and secretly smiled. According to Hamer’s later recollection, at that dinner party, Deng Xiaoping had a very pleasant conversation with him, which left a deep impression on him: Deng has been talking to me through an interpreter.He wanted to know everything about my meeting with Lenin and how I felt about Lenin's NEP. He was very sharp, very wise, and, as I later found out, he had a great memory—every time I saw him he remembered exactly what had been said the previous time.He never had to take notes or ask his assistants, he always knew everything. Finally Deng led me to his box and let me sit beside him to watch the special performance held for him.We get along very well.At the end of the evening, he reaffirmed his invitation once again with absolute certainty.I told him I would meet him in Beijing once I had some solid proposals and a management team in place. Contacted by letters many times.Only two short months later, Dr. Hammer landed in Beijing in his private jet. Deng Xiaoping and Hamer shook hands on Chinese soil.After serious talks with many parties, this time Hamer signed a preliminary agreement with the Chinese side covering oil exploration, coal mining, hybrid rice seeds and chemical fertilizers, and started an economic cooperation plan with China.