In the 1980s, the Middle East was still full of smoke and flames. The Iran-Iraq war is raging, and the lebanese war is coming. Anyway, there is no most chaos, only more chaos.
The Middle East is like a huge cornucopia, rich in oil. Therefore, the countries of the Middle East have a characteristic, that is, they are all rich and oily. The abundance of oil resources has led to them becoming the object of contention of major countries, bringing them endless trepidation and uneasiness. Among them, Saudi Arabia is particularly prominent, with a large land area, but most of it is desert, the country only develops the oil industry, and there is a serious lack of weapons manufacturing. Countries lack military power and are often invaded by other countries.
At that time, Saudi Arabia was facing Israeli warplanes occupying its airspace, Iran's navy occasionally plundered oil tankers at sea, and Iraq came to "extort money" from time to time, which made the Saudi kingdom feel unprecedented pressure. I have been "harassed" for a long time, and my heart is very tired and weak. The Saudi king realized that if he wanted to get out of this predicament, he could only develop his own military power first. "We need a weapon with deterrent power that can act as a deterrent to our enemies and improve the morale of the mainland's military forces and people," the Saudi king said. ”
After many considerations, the Saudi king believed that buying missiles from other countries to arm himself was the quickest and most effective way. Anyway, it is not bad money, and the things that can be solved with money are not big things. At that time, the countries that had missiles in the world were the United States, the Soviet Union and China.
This has given Saudi Arabia a small problem. At that time, Israel was the agent of the United States in the Middle East, and their relationship was certainly greater than the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States. In the past, every time Saudi Arabia wanted to seek help from the United States and Western countries, Israel would come to block it, so it was a little difficult to buy missiles from the United States. As for the Soviet side? Not to mention, Saudi Arabia as an ally of the United States, and saudi arabia also deliberately depressed oil prices, resulting in heavy economic losses in the Soviet Union, after these things how can the Soviet Union sell it.
But Saudi Arabia still wants to try to ask the United States for help. In 1985, Saudi Arabia informed the United States that it wanted to buy missiles with a range of 200 kilometers from it, and that the United States did not want to sell them to Saudi Arabia because of its Israeli relations, and also moved the INF Treaty out to say something. The way it was bought from the United States also failed.
Saudi Arabia has set its sights on China's side, but Saudi Arabia voted against China's return to the permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council and did not establish diplomatic relations with China, and the relationship between the two countries can only be said to be lukewarm. The Saudi king felt in his heart that now he went to China to buy missiles, could China agree? Thinking that this is a very slim and difficult thing to accomplish. But in order to buy missiles, the Saudi king still hardened his scalp and went directly to China.
At that time, China was still in the early stage of reform and opening up, and it was also the period of transformation from heavy industry to light industry, which was the time when there was a shortage of money. When Saudi Arabia raised this demand with the last glimmer of hope, China naturally agreed and asked the Saudi king to send someone to China for negotiations. In 1986, the King of Saudi Arabia sent Prince Sultan to China, traveling from various places to China in order to travel secretly.
The Saudi king has his eye on China's "DF-3 missile", which has a range of more than 2500 kilometers, can cover almost the entire Middle East region, and its deterrent power is far greater than that of the 200-kilometer range missile of the United States. If you can buy this missile back, it is really like "fixing the sea god needle". It was also during this period that the two countries traded arms, completely taking what they needed. China was short of money, Saudi Arabia had money, and immediately agreed to sell the missiles to Saudi Arabia.
China has been a hospitable country since ancient times, after the establishment of good deals and cooperation. In order to show the sincerity of this cooperation, China also brought the Saudi Prince and others to the missile base, showing a series of processes such as how the missiles were launched into the reservoir and then entering the silo, which is enough to show the importance China attaches to this transaction. The Prince of Saudi Arabia was not only amazed after reading it, but also extremely shocked. After the buyer and seller finish reading the goods, it is followed by the negotiation link.
In fact, neither side seems to know the bottom line, China does not know how rich Saudi Arabia really is, and Saudi Arabia does not know how short of money China was at that time. But the "stumbling block" that Saudi Arabia gave to China before also made them feel ready to be slaughtered. But in order to seek self-preservation in the Middle East, the Saudi Prince also knows that this negotiation must only succeed, not fail. At the same time, China actually does not know what price of the "Dongfeng-3" missile is more appropriate, and it cannot scare the other party away with a "lion's big mouth" and cannot let itself suffer losses, which is also caught in a dilemma.
In folk folklore, it is mentioned that at the beginning China had no bottom in mind, and after discussion, it was ready to sell ten million DOLLARs a piece. During the negotiations, the Chinese personnel put up a finger to the Saudi side, which means ten million US dollars, and before the Chinese personnel could speak, the Saudis conveniently and happily asked: "Is it 100 million pieces?" Then we buy 35 pieces. "At that moment, the Chinese personnel felt happy and very excited, and this cooperation can be described as a great joy for everyone." According to sources, the amount of this cooperation is cash, directly loaded in containers and shipped to China. That's $3.5 billion. At that time, China's foreign exchange reserves were only two billion US dollars. Soon, the Chinese side secretly transported these "DF-3" missiles to Saudi Arabia, of course, the Chinese side also secretly helped establish a missile storage base and launch base.
After knowing this news, many countries believe that Saudi Arabia and China have suffered a big loss in this transaction, not only spent a lot of money, but after 36 years, this batch of missiles has not been issued, is Saudi Arabia's 3.5 billion really worth it? In fact, it wasn't long before saudi arabia understood how cost-effective the deal was. Just after the Official Operation of the Saudi-purchased Dongfeng Missile Base in 1990, Saudi Arabia's neighbor Kuwait was violently attacked by Iraq, and the army captured Kuwait in less than 24 hours, and their army will continue to approach eastward. At this time, Saudi Arabia issued a message that it already had missiles and ordered the missiles to be pulled out of the base for display. Saddam Hussein also understood how powerful the missiles were, and weighed the pros and cons and announced his withdrawal from eastern Saudi Arabia. So far, saudi arabia has escaped this fate.
Saudi Arabia spent 3.5 billion yuan to ensure more than 30 years of peace in the country. It also sought time for the development of its own military power and military research. The deal is simply worth it for Saudi Arabia! (Liu Xin)