[放眼天下]Qian more powerful than five divisions
"Father of China's Space Navigation Qian Xuesen died of illness", "Chinese King of Rocketry Qian Xuesen passed away"... these were some of the headlines for the splash stories about Qian's death, together with sidebars about his life and achievements, in major newspapers and the electronic media in Hong Kong. And, without exception, all these reports were serious and positive, showing great respect for the late scientist. In this regard, the Hong Kong media acted in unison which is really very rarely seen as they are well known for their differing approaches and views.
In the first place, this rarely-seen unanimity of the Hong Kong media is no doubt due to the matchless contributions of Qian Xuesen in his lifetime as founder of China's space science and technology. Without the successes years ago in research and development to produce missiles, rockets and the "two （nuclear and hydrogen） bombs and one star （satellite）", there could not possibly have been a new China that is fully independent and self-reliant. It would have been even more impossible for China to launch reforms and opening up to become one of the leading countries in today's world, with its comprehensive national strength. All this is inseparable from the name of Qian Xuesen. All Chinese people including Hong Kong citizens are reasonable and fair. People may have various different views on many great persons including historical figures and those who are still alive. Only to one kind of persons, namely scholars and scientists like Qian Xuesen who were willing to give up personal fame and interests and even risk their lives to return to China and make great contributions to helping the country become prosperous and strong, that people's respect are most unreserved, sincere and thorough. People will never forget anyone who has done something good and made some great contribution in helping our nation become strong. Making our nation powerful and loving of our country is the dream of generations of Chinese people, and Qian Xuesen was one of the pillars in leading China to make its dream of becoming powerful come true.
From yesterday, the media began to carry all sorts of reports about Qian Xuesen. Among others, the episode about how he broke the US blockade to return to China in the mid-1950s is especially vivid and exciting. In the 1940s Qian was not only a professor of the California Institute of Technology （Caltech） – one of the top universities in the United States – and chaired a rocket research laboratory, but he also participated in the US top secret military nuclear project – the "Manhattan Project" – with the rank of colonel. Because of this, after the New China was founded in 1949, when Qian planned to travel back to visit his relatives in his Motherland, US authorities immediately detained him on the pretext that military information was found in his luggage. And he was detained for five years. At that time, a US navy officer （Under-Secretary of the Navy Dan Kimball） said Qian equaled five divisions wherever he went and he'd rather shoot Qian dead than let him go back to China.
This US navy officer indeed had foresight. Upon returning to his country, Qian led a group of Chinese scientists who had never previously seen a rocket, and starting from scratch, to successfully develop the Dongfeng-series of missiles for China. As such he was certainly more powerful than "five divisions". And based on this, China later developed the "two bombs and one star", built up its own nuclear industry and the whole space navigation endeavour, whose value and importance are far beyond several divisions.
However, that US navy officer was still short and narrow sighted as he saw Qian's capabilities only in terms of rocket-missile science and technology. He did not and could not see that Qian's greater power lay in convincingly demonstrating, through his actions, the Chinese intellectuals' lofty ideal of loving the Motherland and willing to be the first to suffer and their noble morality of never bowing to the superior for personal interests. Years ago, inspired by Qian's return, a great number of Chinese intellectuals, outstanding scientists and youths sacrificed all personal interests and went afar to work incognito in the Gobi Desert or even died there and buried in the desert, to successfully test the "two bombs and one star". Others devoted their enthusiasm and efforts to working across the country in industries, agriculture, science and technology, culture and other fields. Eventually they helped turn a poor, backward, semi-feudal and semi-colonial old China into a modernized, preliminarily prosperous and powerful country, making the lofty ideal come true to which numerous Chinese men and women have devoted their efforts. This is the real power of Qian Xuesen which equals 50 divisions, 500 divisions...
Throughout his life, Qian Xuesen was a patriot, and a firm and unshakable one. Besides his research on rockets and missiles, Qian was also very fond of traditional Chinese culture and arts such as painting and poetry. He was a great scientist but even more a great patriotic intellectual. He will be remembered forever.
02 November 2009
