"How can you be like this, he is still a minor child, and you use him like a machine, you simply don't treat people like people!"
In 1956, Premier Zhou, who had always been mild-mannered, couldn't help but get angry with the director when he visited a factory in Pakistan.
The situation left everyone present feeling overwhelmed for a moment, and the reason premier Zhou was angry was because of a worker in the factory.
Premier Zhou
The worker was so skilled in operating the assembly line that his hands were as delicate as a precise machine, but when Premier Zhou spoke to him, he was expressionless and unresponsive.
At a time when relations between China and Pakistan were moving forward rapidly, Premier Zhou was invited to visit Pakistan and was welcomed by the whole country.
So what is wrong with the workers that Premier Zhou saw?
Why would Pakistan take Premier Zhou to visit a factory like that?
A friend of the Pakistan Railway asked Premier Zhou to see the factory
Pakistan is a country formed in a special historical background, so its international status has been in a special state for a long time.
Pakistan and India were british colonies, and after the end of World War II, with the rise of the world's national independence and liberation movement, British colonies also joined in.
Knowing that it could not stop this historical trend, Britain abandoned the repression of the people in the Indian colony, and India became independent.
But while acknowledging India's independence, Britain also carved up a place as another country, which was called Pakistan.
As a newly established country, Pakistan is not favored by Western countries, especially the United States, which has openly supported India in the many frictions and struggles that have occurred between India and Pakistan.
After the founding of New China, under the cold reception of Western countries led by the United States, the mainland also encountered similar diplomatic difficulties as Pakistan.
Even more serious than Pakistan is that many countries in the world have developed a hostile mentality toward the mainland under the propaganda of the United States, and third world countries, including many African countries, also have many misunderstandings about the mainland.
In this case, both China and Pakistan deeply understood the importance of solidarity and mutual assistance, and in 1950, the second year of the founding of New China, Pakistan took the initiative to throw an olive branch of friendship and chose to establish formal diplomatic relations with China.
In April 1955, in Bandung, Indonesia, leaders from more than twenty countries from Asia and Africa gathered to discuss various issues related to the development of Asia and Africa.
Bandung Conference
This is the first time since the founding of New China that the mainland has appeared in a large-scale international conference, because of the false propaganda in the Western world, many countries have many wrong views on New China.
Under these circumstances, Premier Zhou put forward the "Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence", which opened up a new situation in China's diplomacy through wonderful speeches and made the leaders of many countries present change their views on New China.
The following year, in order to expand China's diplomatic relations, Premier Zhou began to visit other countries abroad, and soon put the visit to Pakistan on the agenda.
Premier Zhou was scheduled to visit Pakistan on December 20, 1956, and before Premier Zhou Enlai's visit to Pakistan, Pakistani officials issued a statement to the whole country, calling on everyone to welcome the arrival of China's Premier Zhou Enlai.
The people of Pakistan responded to the call, and various textile factories rushed to make five-star red flags overnight, and in the streets that Premier Zhou may pass, people on both sides of the road cleared the roads and sorted out the appearance of the streets, making adequate preparations for the arrival of Premier Zhou.
This shows the importance that Pakistan attaches to China's leaders and the deep friendship between China and Pakistan.
On the afternoon of December 20, Premier Zhou's plane slowly landed at Karachi Airport in Pakistan, where Pakistani Prime Minister Surawady and various important government officials and thousands of people were already waiting.
All the people held high the five-star red flag in their hands, many banners wrote the words "Long live china-Pakistan friendship" and "Welcome to the Chinese premier" in Chinese, English and local Urdu of Pakistan.
After talks with the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Premier Zhou began to visit important facilities or institutions in various parts of the country under the arrangements of the Pakistani side.
When Premier Zhou came to another city, Lahar, he was once again solemnly welcomed, which is the second largest city in Pakistan, and Premier Zhou came to this city to understand the development of Pakistan from the side.
As soon as Premier Zhou got off the plane, he saw the governor, mayor and other officials who had been waiting at the airport for a long time, as well as a group of children with cute faces who presented a wreath of friendship and welcome to Premier Zhou.
On the entire journey from the airport to the governor's office, the Pakistani people can be described as a middle-of-the-road welcome, and everywhere they go, they can see the welcoming people crowded on both sides of the street, the five-star red flag hanging on the buildings, and banners with the words "Welcome to the Chinese Prime Minister" and "Long live the friendship between China and Pakistan".
The ferocity of Premier Zhou's welcome in Pakistan is the first time since the founding of Pakistan.
Premier Zhou's temper has always been gentle and elegant, kind to people, and in various diplomatic occasions, foreign guests from all over the world can always feel like a spring breeze and admiration, and few people have seen Premier Zhou angry at people, but during this visit to Pakistan, there were things that made Premier Zhou can't help but get angry.
"You don't treat people like people"
Later, accompanied by Pakistani officials, Premier Zhou visited a blade processing plant, which is a factory with good efficiency and is well-known throughout Pakistan, and the Pakistani government specially invited Premier Zhou to visit this factory, just to let Premier Zhou understand the economic development of Pakistan.
Premier Zhou
After entering the factory, Premier Zhou and his party, under the leadership of the factory director, successively visited the office building, production workshop, waste workshop and other places, and while carefully watching the work status of the workers, Premier Zhou listened to the interpreter relay the explanation of the factory director, and sometimes raised some questions, and praised the production status of the factory.
But what happened next diminished Premier Zhou's appreciation of the factory.
After visiting the workshop, the factory director asked Premier Zhou to meet a worker with very outstanding work ability, and after the group walked up to the worker, Premier Zhou found that it was a boy who was only thirteen or fourteen years old.
The boy seemed to have known in advance that China's prime minister would come to see him, but he just looked up at Premier Zhou and his party, and then quickly bowed his head and continued to do things.
At that time, the assembly line that the boy was responsible for continued to run, and the boy's job was to package a bunch of freshly produced blades into small packages, and then wrap the small packages in a large package.
This kind of work requires people to be highly skillful and highly focused, otherwise in the process of operation, a careless hand may be scratched by a blade.
The little boy threw himself into his work, and it was difficult for everyone to divert his attention from his words and deeds, and Premier Zhou and his party stood around the boy, and the factory director pointed to the little boy who was working and the blade in his hand while explaining to Premier Zhou many of the details.
After saying that, he looked at Premier Zhou with a smile and waited for Premier Zhou's response, he thought that Premier Zhou would recognize and appreciate what he said, and everyone's eyes were focused on Premier Zhou.
Premier Zhou
At this time, Premier Zhou's attention was completely on the little boy himself, and Premier Zhou said angrily to the factory director after a moment of thought:
"How can you be like this, he is still an underage child, you use him like a machine, you simply don't treat people like people." 」
The director of the factory did not know what to do for a moment, and panicked and hurriedly responded briefly to what Premier Zhou had said: "Yes, what you said is that we will definitely strive to improve."
At that time, many people accompanied them, and everyone knew that Premier Zhou was a good prime minister who cared about the well-being of the people, but everyone did not expect that Premier Zhou would consider the well-being of the underage workers in front of them so meticulously, and most of them stood there feeling overwhelmed, and the scene was once embarrassed and serious.
The reason why Premier Zhou was angry was because the underage boy's hard work suddenly stung his heart.
When Premier Zhou was a teenager, he also used to work to support himself while going to school because his family was poor, and at that time he was in the old society, many families were desperate, and their children also went out to earn a living.
The reason why Premier Zhou and his comrades later firmly threw themselves into the revolution was to enable millions of ordinary people to no longer suffer from poverty, so that underage children could no longer have to run and work for their livelihood, but could sit in spacious and bright classrooms and receive education.
After several decades of ups and downs in the course of revolution, the people of Chinese finally ushered in the founding of New China, with a peaceful and stable life, the revolutionary ideals of Premier Zhou and his comrades were realized, and there was no longer a phenomenon of capitalists hiring child labor for the sake of profit.
Premier Zhou
In the factory in Pakistan this time, the little boy that Premier Zhou saw reminded him of the days when he worked in the capitalist factory to support himself, and felt that the Pakistani factory was still using child labor for the sake of profit, so he felt angry and angry.
"This is for you, I hope you are all right in the future"
In terms of the development situation in Pakistan at that time, the use of child labor was a common social undesirable phenomenon, because at that time Pakistan was too backward, the development of productive forces required a large number of labor, and the young and middle-aged labor force was very short, so many children who did not have enough to eat also went to work in factories.
Although these helplessnesses are facts, in such a solemn social situation, the factory director is still a little difficult to say, or in panic, he does not know where to start, but in any case, illegal child labor is contrary to the humanistic spirit of the modern world and the universal values of focusing on human happiness.
In order to change the somewhat tense atmosphere, the director of the factory hurriedly brought a tray to bring a gift prepared for Premier Zhou in advance, which was a package of fine blades that had just been produced in the factory, and there was a big red flower on the package.
Although this gift is just a pack of ordinary blades, it symbolizes the blessing of friendship between China and Pakistan.
As a general rule, Premier Zhou Enlai would have gladly accepted the gift as a sign of enthusiastic recognition of his Pakistani friends.
Premier Zhou
But this time Premier Zhou personally picked up the package of blades, walked over to the boy boy, handed him a full bag of blades, and smiled at him and said:
"I'm here for you, and I hope you'll be all right in the future."
The boy had probably been working on the assembly line for too long, and had long been accustomed to the expressionless mechanical working state, and after hearing the words of Premier Zhou relayed by the interpreter, he just looked at Premier Zhou and did not react at all.
Or maybe the boy knew that the person in front of him was a senior leader, so he was too restrained in his heart, and then the premier asked the boy a few questions kindly, such as how many brothers and sisters there were in the family, but the boy did not respond.
After the visit, Premier Zhou also discussed the use of child labor with Pakistani officials, and discussed a lot of things in order to solve the gap between economic development and children's growth.
After visiting the factory, Premier Zhou focused on various infrastructures.
At that time, Pakistan was building an important water conservancy project, the Wasak Dam, and whether the dam could be successfully built was related to whether hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis could have river water to irrigate their farms and whether they could drink clean and hygienic tap water.
Premier Zhou Enlai attached great importance to the construction status of this project, and asked to go to the dam under construction to have a look, when he was inspecting the situation and seriously inquiring about the specific construction details, many workers involved in the construction gathered at the scene, warmly welcomed the arrival of Premier Zhou, and watched premier Zhou's visit process throughout the whole process.
On December 30, Premier Zhou Enlai concluded a 10-day visit to Pakistan, which opened a new chapter in friendly cooperation between China and Pakistan, and China often gave various assistance to Pakistan's economic construction.
In recent years, driven by China's "Belt and Road", Pakistan's economic development has ushered in a new take-off, and the phenomenon of child labor that Premier Zhou was angry about has gradually disappeared.