Chapter 43 The handshake between the American oil tycoon and the "Little Eastern Man"——Deng Xiaoping and Hamer (4)

For the first time ever, the giant panda, a national treasure of China, boarded a Boeing 747 plane and crossed the Pacific Ocean to the United States on the other side of the world. As an American entrepreneur who met Lenin, Hamer met Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping 60 years later, which seems to have a lot to study in some respects. In February 1972, Hamer did everything possible to find Deng Xiaoping. When they met for the first time in the United States, Deng Xiaoping sent out an invitation "You are the one who helped Lenin when the Soviet Union needed help. Now you want to come to China to help us" , the two can be said to hit it off.When Deng Xiaoping and Hammer met several times before, Deng Xiaoping was very concerned and asked Hammer many times about the specific issues and details of the cooperation with Lenin.As Hammer later said: "China's modernization policy is similar to Lenin's New Economic Policy. At that time, the Soviet Union would not develop without the implementation of the New Economic Policy. Every time I come to China, I see great progress."

But what Hammer said, although in terms of absorbing foreign capital and developing international economic exchanges, Deng Xiaoping’s policy of opening up to the outside world does have some similarities with the Soviet Union at that time, but the national conditions of the Soviet Union and China today are different from each other. The actual tasks are quite different.Back then, Hamer was received by Lenin many times in the Soviet Union. Lenin still wrote to Stalin: "Fully support these people and their enterprises. This is our shortcut to the American business community, and we must try to use this channel as much as possible. There is no doubt that Hamer's career success was achieved through Lenin's support.

In China, Hamer met Deng Xiaoping.Hamer was equally successful. What moved Hamer even more was that Deng Xiaoping asked him to bring China's "national treasure" giant panda to the United States.This is the first time that giant pandas have gone abroad to another country on earth. On March 26, 1982, Hammer held an exhibition of his personal art collection in Beijing.During this exhibition, Deng Xiaoping received him again.During the meeting, Hammer proposed for the first time the idea of ​​bringing the national treasure giant panda to the United States to participate in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.

"The presence of giant pandas in Los Angeles alongside Communist China's first-ever Olympic sports team will certainly delight the people of Los Angeles and be a boon to the friendly relationship between the United States and China," Hamer said. According to the laws of China at that time, the giant panda, which is a national treasure of China, was forbidden to be exported abroad.And before Hammer, various American delegations or committees came to China to discuss this matter, put forward many conditions for a deal, and asked China to agree to send giant pandas to the Olympic Games. The answer is "NO!".Because giant pandas are indeed a rare animal, the number of them was extremely small when the scientific feeding conditions were not mature at that time.

And when Hamer brought up this matter to Deng Xiaoping again, Deng Xiaoping saw the value behind the giant panda.After thinking about it, he agreed to his request and instructed relevant parties to agree to let the giant panda go abroad. Under Deng Xiaoping's personal intervention, the giant panda was sent from Beijing to Los Angeles, California by a Chinese Boeing 747 plane together with its breeders, and received a reception even more grand than that of the head of state.Before the opening of the Olympic Games, Hammer personally took the lead in holding a grand reception for giant pandas to go to the United States.

When the giant panda flew to Los Angeles, it became a hot spot in American public opinion for a while, adding to the splendor of the Olympic Games. At the same time, it also showed the Chinese people's spirit of loving peace and uniting people all over the world, so that more people in the world will pay attention to giant pandas and love giant pandas And care about the protection of giant pandas.The giant panda has thus become a symbol of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples. In June 1985, the Pingshuo Antaibao Open-pit Coal Mine, which Hammer cooperated with China, started construction.Hammer braved the scorching sun, set foot on the land of China again, and met with Deng Xiaoping again in Beijing.During the meeting, Hamer gave a detailed introduction to Deng Xiaoping about his first meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.Deng Xiaoping expressed his sincere congratulations to Hamer on the commencement of the first phase of the Pingshuo Coal Mine.The hands of a western oil tycoon and an oriental great man are firmly held together again, and they are both 87 and 81 years old.

In the association of these two old people with legendary life experiences, Deng Xiaoping left a deep impression on Hamer with his oriental charm.Hammer once said in his memoirs: "He impressed me as a shrewd, most intelligent and wise statesman, unswervingly following the line in the best interest of his country...a man with such full enthusiasm Dealing with one's own problems, and busily engaged in improving the lives of one's own people, dares to defy those dry economic figures and people's predictions. China will overcome difficulties and achieve success, and I have no doubt about it."

In the 1980s, Hamer also commented on Deng Xiaoping in this way: "Deng is an outstanding person, and he will go down in history as a great man born in this century. Deng will lead the Chinese nation to the road of prosperity, and will Build China into a great republic." The friendship between Deng Xiaoping and Hamer is not so much the luck of Hamer, but the luck of the Chinese people. The Chinese people are lucky because they have a son who "loves her motherland and people deeply."