The past is a tapestry depicting the future, and if you look closely, you will see a slight flicker of brilliance. Blowing the dust lightly, you will find everything in history.
Between 1959 and 1962, China's economy was in a serious recession and the national economy collapsed. The people's lives are very difficult, and the people blame all these reasons on three natural disasters and seven man-made disasters. Three natural disasters refer to the three years from 1959 to 1962, China's overall climate showed a bad trend. Among them, the seven man-made disasters refer to the "Soviet Union's debt-forcing" people's belief that the Soviet Union's debt-forcing directly led to the depression of the national economy. China and the Soviet Union generated a total of about 8.6 billion yuan in arms sales debt. So where did the "Soviet Union's debt" come from?
Debt is divided into three points:
1. Weapons provided by the Soviet Union to China during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. These weapons are not gratuitous, and most of them are weapons eliminated during World War II and sold to China at a low price; although the weapons are not advanced and sophisticated, they still helped China win victory in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea to a large extent. Stalin did not say what the price and time to pay off the debt were not said at the time, but as soon as the Korean War ended, the Soviet Union immediately approached China to settle its arms debt. According to the United Nations treaty, China should be provided with front-line combat troops to participate in the war, and the Soviet Union should provide war munitions, but we were still relatively weak at that time, and this money was even on our heads.
2. In the early days of the founding of New China, the Soviet Union vigorously supported China's national construction in order to win China over the United States, and heavy industry, weapons, and even nuclear weapons technology all had support and support with China. These certainly were not gratuitous either, and in the 1960s, the Soviet Union completely withdrew its experts from China and liquidated its debts with China.
3. Development loans, because China's economic conditions at that time were not sufficient, we had to reduce the pressure of development through loans.
Is the widely circulated Soviet Union's "forced debt" really, as people say, directly lead to the great crisis of China's national economy? In fact, we must be rational in dealing with any historical event, and the Soviet Union did not actually force debts. After repaying part of the debt, Khrushchev, taking into account the difficult problems of China's economic development, decided to give our country enough time to postpone the repayment of other debts for five years. This decision reflects that the Soviet Union did not force debts, but why is the word forced to debt so widely circulated that people now talk about this history and will tacitly believe that the Soviet Union forced debts to lead to a period of three years of hardship? Some have even risen to the issue of decision-making errors by national leaders. However, the data show that during the three-year period of hardship, the average annual debt repayment amount was about 1 billion yuan, and in 1962, the cost of China's financial foreign aid reached more than 6.9 billion yuan.
In 1961, the cost of foreign aid was also close to 2 billion yuan. Therefore, in difficult times, although China is repaying its debts to the Soviet Union, it is not true that it will rise to aggravate economic difficulties. So since the Soviet Union has clearly told us that we can postpone the repayment of the debt after five years, why should our country resolutely choose to pay it off? I would like to have the following points: After the 1960s, China and the Soviet Union were at odds, and if we have been in debt, then our position before the Soviet Union has always been low, because we owe them. In addition, Khrushchev is a very unprincipled person, it is easy to be angry, and it may be possible that after five years of what he said at the beginning, it is not certain that something will change, and if he suddenly exerts pressure on China and takes the opportunity to make many unreasonable demands, it will not be worth the loss.
2． As the Chinese saying goes: if you borrow and repay, it is not difficult to borrow again. Establishing credibility is very important for a person, and it is self-evident that he has risen to the state. On the one hand, this is our traditional virtue, which has a positive effect on young people and the building of national self-confidence; on the other hand, the establishment of integrity can enhance the status of the country and better base itself on the United Nations.
3. Show the world the ambition and integrity of our Chinese.
4. For long-term development. The Soviet Union proposed that China can pay off its debts with mineral resources, pay them off in 13 years, our country is rich in mineral resources, which are valuable strategic resources, at that time our mining technology was very backward, mining rare resources may require the help of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union provided technology, so it generated debts, resulting in a vicious cycle. Therefore, although China also uses mineral resources to pay off debts, it also surrenders a part of its resources, and does not vigorously exploit them in order to repay debts, resulting in an imbalance between supply and demand in its own country.
On the other hand, the essence of state debt is that it is not developed enough. Maybe China couldn't figure it out in the 1960s, and even the indomitable Soviet Union ended up in debt of $450 million to our country. In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, Russia, as the largest disintegrating country of the Soviet Union, bore the Soviet Union 96.6 billion US dollars in debt, including 450 million US dollars in China, the reason is that the development of the Soviet Union is unbalanced, after the end of World War II, the Soviet Union should have weighed the development between light and heavy industry, but it did not take long to start a cold war with the United States. It made its own light industry collapse. The vigorous development of heavy industry led to a serious shortage of basic daily necessities supply for the people, and at that time, China experienced many years of reform and opening up, and it was no longer the "little brother" in 1950. In order to help the former "Big Brother", China exported a large amount of food and daily necessities to the Soviet Union. Thus the Soviet Union owes our country a debt. We may wish to take the small view of the big and take the debt as the starting point to explore the development of the country. As a typical socialist country, our country may have established itself and grew stronger with the spirit of contract and integrity, and has now developed into one of the few largest countries in the world. Some countries, in the 50s and 70s of the last century, were much more developed than our country, and later they were constrained and contained by major countries due to various conditions. Just like after the Korean War, we knew that the military debt would not need to be repaid under the United Nations convention, but the Soviet Union demanded that we pay us back. We have to pay back, that is, we are too weak to have the right to speak. Leaving aside the current rules of national debt, in the past, one country taking on the debt of another country was tantamount to a kind of submission. Because he is not strong enough, he is often bullied. Today, China's increasing status in the international arena is largely blessed by the self-confidence and culture of our nation, of course, the rise of a great power is inseparable from decision-making and development.
Chinese people paid off their debts in a very difficult and difficult environment, but even though they were so difficult, they did not hesitate to lend a helping hand to the countries in the same socialist camp, dedicate themselves free of charge, and establish the image of a big country. After the war, we did not demand reimbursement of armaments from North Korea, which was weaker than ours, as the Soviet Union did. On the whole, our extremely valuable spirit is well worthy of development, and one day it will affect international rules on a large scale. I believe that more and more countries will join us for common development and harmonious development. Through the efforts of the people of the whole country, it took us four years to pay off all our debts. The whole country has worked together to tide over the difficulties, so that we have built up national self-confidence. The pace of the Chinese nation's progress is unstoppable, and even in the face of such a harsh environment, the integrity of our people cannot be lost. Debt repayment is not only for the sake of repayment, but also a meaning, a meaning to the country, society, and individuals. Indirectly, it has led to the increase in the productivity of our country. Accelerate social development and strengthen the socialist road. For individuals, it is necessary to remember the bittersweet and reflect on history. By seeking development because of lessons, through history we can appreciate the difficulties of our predecessors and devote ourselves more actively to socialist construction.
Facing history squarely is not an easy task, and we must admit our shortcomings. Do not over-interpret history, do not make something out of nothing, dignity is found, not spoken. The Soviet Union did not force debts, but we in China ourselves did not want to be debt slaves, did not want to bend over backwards to live, and at any time, recognize our own culture. The state is always with the people, no matter what it is. To stand "alive" in the world.