Qian Xuesen is a world-famous scientist, aerodynamicist, the founder of China's manned space industry, and is known as the "father of China's scientific system" and the "king of rockets".
In 1934, Qian Xuesen graduated from the National Jiaotong University (now Shanghai Jiaotong University and Xi'an Jiaotong University) and was admitted to the Seventh Gengjian University of Tsinghua University in June of that year. In August, Qian Xuesen went to National Central University to take the Tsinghua University Examination for PublicLy Funded Students studying in the United States, and in October, he became one of the 20 public students studying in the United States.
In September 1935, Qian Xuesen was admitted to the Department of Aeronautics of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a famous american university, and obtained a master's degree in aeronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in September of the following year. Subsequently, Qian Xuesen entered the Department of Aeronautics at the California Institute of Technology and became the most proud student of the world-famous scientist von Carmen.
During his study in the United States, under the careful guidance of Professor Von Carmen, Qian Xuesen accepted the most professional and systematic study in the field of aviation in the world at that time, successively obtained a master's degree in aeronautical engineering and a doctorate degree in aeronautics and mathematics, and engaged in research in the fields of aerodynamics, solid mechanics and rockets, missiles, etc., and jointly completed high-end topics such as high-speed aerodynamic problem research with Von Carmen, and founded the famous "Carmen-Qian Xuesen" formula, which became a world-renowned aerodynamicist at that time. At the age of twenty-eight, he was a young man.
In 1943, Qian Xuesen was appointed assistant professor at the California Institute of Technology; in 1945, he was appointed associate professor at the California Institute of Technology; and in 1947, he was appointed professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In 1953, Qian Xuesen formally proposed the concept of physical mechanics, advocating that the macroscopic mechanical characteristics of matter be determined from the microscopic laws of matter, opening up a new field of high temperature and high pressure, and becoming a hot high-end field expert in the world at that time.
von Carmen
In 1949, when New China was founded, Qian Xuesen was very excited and decided to return to China immediately to serve the country.
However, the United States of the 1950s was a time of "Red Panic," when a small group of people, led by McCarthy, pursued a comprehensive investigation of communists around the world and strictly forbade them from serving the U.S. government.
In 1950, McCarthy accused Qian Xuesen of being a communist without cause and secretly investigated him. Coincidentally, just as McCarthy was frantically investigating Qian Xuesen, the FBI somehow got a 1938 Communist Party document that included Qian Xuesen's name.
Therefore, Qian Xuesen was even more "difficult to argue" and was revoked by the US authorities from participating in all classified research. Qian Xuesen was very angry and even more determined to return to China to serve.
That summer, Qian Xuesen and his wife, Ms. Jiang Ying, packed their luggage, including 800 kilograms of books and notebooks, loaded the US "President Wilson" sea ship, and prepared to check it into Hong Kong, while he and his wife were also preparing to return to China on a Canadian Pacific Company plane.
Qian Xuesen and Jiang Ying
However, as a world-renowned scientist, Qian Xuesen studied in the United States for many years and participated in high-end research fields, the US government is not willing to see a world-class rocket expert with great military value return to the "red" new China, how can Qian Xuesen easily return to China?
In accordance with the secret instructions of the Pentagon (US Department of Defense), the US Customs confiscated all of Qian Xuesen's luggage and books on the grounds that they carried "top secret" documents related to the US national defense.
On September 9 of that year, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) secretly arrested Qian Xuesen and held him in a detention center on the Atlantic island of Termina.
After being detained for two weeks, Qian Xuesen's alma mater, the California Institute of Technology, paid $15,000 in bail to the U.S. government, releasing Qian Xuesen from prison on bail, but still not allowing him to return to China.
Although he was freed, the U.S. government was not at ease with Qian Xuesen, and FBI agents often broke into Qian Xuesen's office and home for no reason to conduct unwarranted investigations and surveillance.
Even so, he did not dispel Qian Xuesen's idea of returning to China, and he packed important items in 3 light boxes and placed them in an inconspicuous corner of his home so that he could leave for China at any time.
Qian Xuesen was waiting for an opportunity.
In 1955, Qian Xuesen suddenly saw a familiar photo of a person in the newspaper, Chen Shutong. Chen Shutong was a good friend of Qian Xuesen's father, Qian Junfu, a famous patriot and expert on new Chinese literature and history, and was then vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.
Qian Xuesen had a whim, thinking that the opportunity he had been waiting for for many years had finally come—he decided to write a letter to his father's good friend for help.
Because his every word and deed was monitored by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in order to deliver the letter to Chen Shutong's hands in a timely and safe manner, Qian Xuesen did not dare to send the letter himself, but was ready to clip the letter in his wife Jiang Ying's cigarette paper letter to his sister living in Belgium, which was forwarded by his sister to his father Qian Junfu, and then transferred by his father to Chen Shutong.
In order to be foolproof and evade the inspection of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Jiang Ying also played a little trick - imitating the handwriting of children to write letters to her sister.
Everything is ready, only the east wind is owed.
Chen Shutong
One day in June 1955, Qian Xuesen and his wife Jiang Ying pretended to be indifferent, both walked out of their homes and "wandered" on the street. Unsurprisingly, just as they took the first step out of the house together, two FBI agents appeared in the shadows and followed them unhurriedly.
Qian Xuesen and his wife walked into a café, ordered two cups of coffee, slowly tasted, and chatted casually, talking about nothing more than family chores. Two FBI agents also entered the café and chose to sit down at the adjacent table, not shying away from Qian Xuesen and his wife.
After tasting the coffee, Qian Xuesen deliberately said loudly to Jiang Ying, go to the bathroom, and then slowly stood up and walked to the bathroom behind him.
The FBI agents had been listening to their conversations, and without finding any hint of it, they gradually let down their vigilance and saw that Qian Xuesen just went to the bathroom, did not get up to follow, but sat in his seat and continued to taste coffee.
Maybe the Americans were keen to drink coffee, or maybe they saw Qian Xuesen's wife Jiang Ying still in their sight, and neither of the two agents even stared at Qian Xuesen with their eyes. In other words, Qian Xuesen disappeared from the sight of the two agents for a short time.
The opportunity is rare, and this short period of time is enough.
When he walked to the door of the bathroom, Qian Xuesen peeked and saw that the two agents did not stare at themselves, quietly walked out of the café through the other door, and quickly threw the letter sent to his sister into the mailbox at the door of the café.
Subsequently, Qian Xuesen immediately turned around and entered the café and walked into the bathroom...
The letter was quickly forwarded to Premier Zhou Enlai.
On August 1, 1955, China and the United States held ambassadorial-level talks in Geneva, Switzerland, and the Chinese side demanded that the United States no longer obstruct Qian Xuesen and other Chinese personnel studying in the United States from returning to China on the condition of releasing 11 American pilots and prisoners of war. In the end, the US government had to agree to release Qian Xuesen to return to China.
On September 17, 1955, Qian Xuesen took his wife Jiang Ying, son Qian Yonggang, and daughter Qian Yongzhen from San Francisco to return to China by ship.
It is precisely because Qian Xuesen insisted on returning to China to serve that the development of China's missiles and atomic bombs has advanced for at least 20 years.
In 1985, the U.S. government invited Qian Xuesen to visit the United States and prepared to award him a "National Medal" in recognition of his outstanding contributions.
However, Qian Xuesen made it clear: "When I left the United States, I was deported, and according to US law, I can no longer go to the United States." If the U.S. government does not publicly rehabilitate me, I will never set foot on American soil again in this life and in this life. ”
At 8:06 a.m. on October 31, 2009, Qian Xuesen died in Beijing at the age of 98.
[Adhere to the original, do not forget the original heart, remember the history, taste life, welcome attention, common progress】