On the morning of September 11, 2001, the twin towers of the World Trade Center, an iconic building in New York, were hit by passenger planes one after another, and after the explosion caused a raging fire, the two buildings collapsed. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Defense Pentagon in Washington was in the same situation, with a flight crashing into the building without warning.
These two accidents later became known as the "9/11 incidents," and they caused immeasurable panic and grief to the American people. According to statistics, a total of 2,996 people lost their lives in the incident, and according to the United Nations report, the direct economic damage caused by the incident to the United States exceeded $200 billion.
Due to the special position of the United States in world finance and trade, the "911 incident" inevitably had a very large impact on the whole world, especially the temporary closure of the New York Stock Exchange, and even caused a world financial panic for a time. As China's most important foreign currency reserve, the impact of the dollar has also caused our country to suffer heavy losses. According to a report by Zhu Rongji, then premier of the State Council, at the government work conference, he said that on September 11 alone, China's foreign exchange reserves lost 4 billion US dollars due to the depreciation of the US dollar. (This is only the loss of foreign exchange reserves, and the losses in other aspects are also quite large, such as the Civil Aviation Administration estimating that the loss of the civil aviation industry is more than 2 billion, and the loss of foreign trade enterprises is difficult to estimate)
You know, under the world monetary system dominated by the US dollar, the financial impact brought about by the depreciation of the US dollar is definitely not as simple as the evaporation of foreign exchange, for our country, if we do not make effective prevention and response in time, then the impact of the us dollar depreciation will definitely cause more bad consequences. Therefore, shortly after the "911 incident" occurred, Premier Zhu Rongji immediately interrupted his trip to Russia (Premier Zhu was visiting Russia when the "911 incident" occurred), returned to China and presided over a meeting of the party group of the State Council to make policy responses to the possible impact of the incident.
Zhu Rongji analyzed that the impact of the "911 incident," in addition to the evaporation of China's foreign exchange caused by the depreciation of the US dollar, is the most important role in China's export trade. Through economic theory, it is not difficult to know that the dollar depreciates, the renminbi becomes more valuable, and the purchasing power increases, which is beneficial to imports and not to exports. Therefore, the depreciation of major currencies caused by the depreciation of the US dollar will inevitably have an adverse impact on China's export trade.
It should be known that after entering the 1990s, China's export trade has increased by a very large margin, especially in 2000, at the beginning of the new century, China's total export volume reached a historic 249.2 billion US dollars, equivalent to more than 2 trillion yuan. This value accounted for 22.4% of China's GDP that year. It can be said that export trade has brought great economic growth and development opportunities to Our country, and has provided enough jobs.
However, with the outbreak of the "911 incident", the economy of the United States, as the world's largest economy, is bound to be greatly affected, and its economy will slow down or even regress, and the biggest manifestation is the decline in purchasing power. This is clearly not good news for my country.
Fortunately, at that time, China's foreign exports were mainly high-quality and inexpensive necessities, so the overall trade volume would not fluctuate much. However, it is obviously unrealistic to further increase the volume of China's export trade and expand production, so it will be difficult to achieve China's expected targets in 2002.
"If exports fall by 10 percent a year, the economic development rate will be reduced by more than two percentage points that year, and more people will be unemployed. When talking about the economic pressures facing our country, Premier Zhu Rongji said bitterly.
Although the impact of the "911 Incident" had not yet arrived, Premier Zhu had already taken precautions, and the most worrying thing he had since he came to power was the people's livelihood problem, so when it came to the dilemma that the people might encounter, he had to be anxious.
"We must calmly observe and calmly deal with the new situations and changes in the international economic situation; at the same time, we must pay close attention to studying effective countermeasures!" This is his instruction to the government, and it is also his determination to be accountable to the people.
Since becoming vice premier of the State Council in 1993, Zhu Rongji has almost become the backbone of leading China's economic construction and development, and he has successively presided over the reform of the "tax-sharing system" and the reform of state-owned enterprises, which to a large extent has eased the financial pressure of the central government and effectively fed back to the people.
When the financial crisis broke out in Southeast Asia in 1997, it was also he who resisted the huge pressure to insist on not depreciating the renminbi, which made China's economy not much affected, and also effectively helped Southeast Asian countries to tide over the crisis as soon as possible. It can be said that Premier Zhu Rongji's vision and boldness are very unique, and this is inseparable from his single-minded desire to serve the country's economic development.
Therefore, the global economic crisis that may be triggered by the "911 incident" in the United States is something that Zhu Rongji does not want to see. He will never allow China's economy to stagnate because of a disaster. Therefore, in the anticipation of the public, Zhu Rongji made his response instructions -- expanding domestic demand.
This term is often heard in the government work reports of previous years, after all, the fate of commodities is nothing more than two ways out, domestic sales and export sales. Since it cannot be sold, it will be solved internally - looking at the world, only China has this potential and strength. However, compared with today, it was not a simple matter to expand domestic demand at that time, because at that time, the country's economy was still in a state of infancy, the income of the people was not much, and the effective demand would naturally not be too large.
In order to effectively solve this problem, Premier Zhu Rongji also mentioned a key point -- cultivating domestic demand. How to cultivate it? Of course, it increases the income of the people. Zhu Rongji said that there are two important targets for increasing income, namely, civil servants and peasants, because the salaries of civil servants are basically linked to the efficiency of enterprises, and when their wages rise, the efficiency of enterprises will naturally be high, and at the same time, consumer demand will also increase.
As for farmers, they have always been a low-income group, and only by helping them solve economic pressures will domestic demand really be raised. It should be known that around 2001, China's peasant population accounted for about 60 percent of the country's population, and the peasants were undoubtedly the new force for expanding domestic demand.
In the 2002 government work report, Premier Zhu Rongji first mentioned that the most important task was to expand and cultivate domestic demand, and one of the instructions he gave was very crucial: Adopt more effective measures, do everything possible to increase peasants' incomes, and effectively lighten peasants' burdens.
With the support of the government, the rural economic structure began to be effectively adjusted at that time, and the methods of agricultural transformation, overall planning and marketing, and the combination of agricultural enterprises appeared in a pilot manner, and achieved quite good results. After that, the government began to vigorously promote the reform of rural taxes and fees and the reform of the grain and cotton circulation system, which fully guaranteed the stability of rural infrastructure rates and grain and cotton markets, and effectively increased the income of peasants.
Of course, the most critical measure for the country to stabilize the economy is to adhere to a prudent monetary policy to ensure that the level of price increase is lower than the rate of inflation.
During that period, Zhu Rongji focused his work on this important point; in particular, after entering 2002, the Chinese Government still adhered to a prudent monetary policy in the face of almost all inflation in the world currency, which effectively ensured the stability of prices throughout the country.
Thanks to the efforts of Premier Zhu Rongji and the government, in the first quarter of 2002, China's economic growth rate not only did not stagnate due to the impact of the "911 incident," but on the contrary, it also surpassed the same period last year with a growth rate of 7.5 percent. It is worth mentioning that this year was also the first year of China's accession to the WTO (World Trade Organization), and the challenges faced by China at that time were very great. And under such pressure, we can still achieve quite good results, which is enough to prove the strength of our government.
"The rate of economic development will be reduced by more than two percentage points, and more people will be unemployed." Fortunately, this worry of Premier Zhu Rongji did not happen.
A year later, when Zhu Rongji's term of office expired, in an interview with reporters, he said: "I think that the current government has fulfilled the commitments made to the people of the whole country and the National People's Congress, and it can be said that we have a clear conscience. ”
His answer, the people of the whole country can testify, he and his government, fully deserve to be ashamed!
Just imagine, if Premier Zhu Rongji had not turned the tide and accomplished the arduous task of carrying forward and upgrading China's economy, no one dares to imagine where China's development would go. Perhaps, without his words, after the "911 incident", our losses will be far more than the evaporation of 4 billion foreign exchange, and the economic downturn of more than two percentage points may not be realized.
In addition to being a huge challenge to our country, the occurrence of the "9/11 Incident" was a considerable opportunity for our country to the surprise of most people at that time. Moreover, to put it bluntly, the "911 Incident" is the "Divine Comedy" between China and the United States, which not only sings the national fortunes of the United States, but also sings the song of China's rejuvenation.
First, let's look at Sino-US relations before the 9/11 incident.
Since Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping's visit to the United States in 1979, China and the United States have ushered in a long "honeymoon period." This period was the most harmonious period for Sino-US relations, and the two countries even formed a strategic cooperative partnership and exchanged closely with each other.
However, after entering the 1990s, the hegemonic ambitions of the United States have become increasingly large, especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the United States has become the only superpower, which has become even more invincible. For example, the "humiliation of the crotch" suffered by our country - the "Galaxy Incident" that occurred in 1993 and the "Bombing of the Federal Embassy of Yugoslavia" in 1999 are all examples of the United States wantonly provoking our country.
However, in view of the world situation and objective conditions at that time, China chose to be patient in these matters and wholeheartedly engaged in its own development. Therefore, during this period, although various frictions continued, China and the United States maintained friendly relations on the surface.
However, China's repeated and surprising calmness has made the United States feel a wordless threat, and for a time in the United States, the voices about the China threat theory have quietly risen, and the vision of the American think tank has also begun to be put on China. They understand that China is not Japan, and it is easy to strike and difficult to control. Therefore, they began to attack our country one after another.
An important manifestation of the United States' desire to strike at China's development is to do everything possible to obstruct China's accession to the WTO.
Since the formal establishment of the WTO in 1995, China has become an observer member of the organization, and in order to smoothly "join the WTO," China has also taken the initiative to lower tariffs on many occasions to show sincerity. However, the fundamental economic differences between the United States and Our country became the reason for them to obstruct China's "WTO accession," and after several years of continuous negotiations, some differences between the two countries were finally eliminated.
However, although the differences have been resolved, the United States will still engage in some moths as soon as the relevant talks are about to make progress, such as the "Galaxy Incident" in the process of "resuming customs" ("General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade", the predecessor of the WTO) in 1993. When progress was made again in 1999, there was another bombing of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Around 2000, when the future US President George W. Bush delivered his campaign speech, he pointed out that China is not a strategic partner of the United States, but a competitor. From this, it is not difficult for us to see that the United States has reached the point of hostility in its attitude toward China.
Therefore, in those years, China's situation could be described as rather unhappy; in addition to the setbacks suffered on the road to "WTO accession," even the right to bid for the 2000 Olympic Games, which was firmly in a position to win, was cut off and directly postponed for eight years before the dream was realized. It cannot be said that all this is caused by the United States, but it is not necessary to think about it and understand that they must not have obstructed it.
On April 1, 2001, the United States created the "South China Sea Plane Collision Incident" in China's territorial airspace, resulting in the heroic sacrifice of The Guardian of the Sea and Air Force, Wang Wei. This incident has once again ignited the hatred of our people, and the relations between the two countries have once again fallen into a freezing point.
But there is still nothing we can do but condemnation and unbridled forbearance.
At that time, the gap between us and the United States was really too big.
However, what our people did not expect was that just five months after the "Plane Collision Incident in the South China Sea," the indispensable Americans suffered for the first time. In an instant, the popularity of the "911 incident" attracted global attention.
I believe that readers who have experienced that incident can feel the same way, the first time they learned of the "911 incident", the first thought that occupied their hearts was to be happy, which is simply the present world newspaper! Of course, this mentality is wrong, out of humanitarianism, we should maintain respect for the victims, after all, there are some Chinese among the victims.
Then again, the blow dealt to the United States by the 9/11 incident was devastating. Not to mention the economic losses and casualties that can be seen intuitively, the impact of this incident alone is far from what Americans can bear.
What is the United States? A forbidden place for terrorism! But now the real disaster in front of us has made the American people wonder whether the safety of their lives and property can be guaranteed.
At the same time, the U.S. government's already exhausted economy has also been torn open by the "911 incident", the dollar has depreciated, the stock market has plummeted, and a financial storm seems to be brewing.
People's hearts are unstable, the economy is collapsing, and the government's ability is in question. George W. Bush could not have imagined that he had just taken office and was facing such a mess.
In order to resolve the crisis, George W. Bush adopted the usual method of the Us president, that is, to launch a war to attract the attention of the people. So, just a month after the 9/11 incident, George W. Bush formally signed a presidential decree declaring war in Afghanistan.
Although it is not clear whether bin Laden was the mastermind and implementer of the "9/11 incident", none of that mattered to George W. Bush. He ordered the overthrow of the Afghan Taliban regime and the eradication of al-Qaida forces in order to give an account to the American people, of course, for the votes in the hands of the people.
But what is Afghanistan? That's an imperialist graveyard! Therefore, Bush Jr.'s move actually sent the United States to a road of no return.
Then we learned that the United States had been operating in Afghanistan for nearly 20 years and had not gained much more than spending huge military dollars on the place. In addition, in 2003, the United States launched the Iraq War, which made the Attention of the United States focus on the Middle East for a long time to come, and it did not have the heart to care about China at all.
It is worth mentioning that after the US economy was damaged, Bush Jr. also changed his previous attitude of viewing China as a competitor and began to play the Sino-US sentiment card. Just a few days after the announcement of the launch of the war in Afghanistan, he even personally went to Shanghai to attend the informal meeting of the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, held friendly meetings with the leaders of China, and left behind American talks on establishing "constructive cooperative relations" with China.
As George W. Bush began to play the "China card," the originally tense Sino-US relations have finally eased, and China's cause of "joining the WTO" has also made qualitative progress. On December 11, 2001, China officially announced the success of "WTO accession," and China's economy entered a brand-new era of development.
In the following time, the attention of the United States was mostly focused on the Middle East and "counter-terrorism", while China was still concentrating on the potential to develop its own economy. From then until 2008, when the Wall Street storm almost overturned the US economy, and two years later, China's economy officially surpassed Japan to become the world's second largest economy. At this moment, the United States reacted, and what has happened to both sides in the past decade.
The tortoise and the rabbit race, and then came to the top.
Therefore, after the "911 incident", although China was briefly affected by many adverse effects such as foreign exchange evaporation and export difficulties, from the perspective of the benefits obtained later, the losses suffered can still be borne.
Moreover, under the leadership of Premier Zhu Rongji, China's economy has not been too much affected by the "911 incident." Especially in the weak global economic environment, we are still able to achieve quite good economic results, which is a miracle in itself.
It can only be said that there are extraordinary nations in extraordinary times, and there are extraordinary people in extraordinary countries. The combination of various factors has achieved China's long-term development and economic take-off, which is the fortune of the country and the omen of prosperity.
Today, after a series of major events such as the trade war and the new crown epidemic, the national fortunes of China and the United States have shown a completely different scene. After the United States has experienced one political farce after another, the credibility of the government has been seriously damaged, and the severe economic situation is tearing the fragile nerves of the United States step by step.
In the case of covid-19, for example, a country's president has been reduced to the fact that he can only exchange people's understanding by constantly pouring dirty water on China, and the epidemic has been uncontrolled after spending a lot of materials and money. What will convince the people of such a government?
Looking back at our country, the people have faith, the government has strength, everyone is rolling up their sleeves and working hard, and they have the same goal and direction of progress -- to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. If such a country and nation are asked, why should they worry about the great cause and fail to achieve it?