In the past few days, the two giant pandas in the United States have attracted worldwide attention, especially touching the hearts of countless Chinese.
The two giant pandas that China gave to the United States, Lele has unfortunately passed away, Yaya's health is also very bad, hair is sparse, skinny, so that countless Chinese are very distressed, and even many people are accusing the mainland of "panda diplomacy".
In fact, letting the giant panda act as a friendly messenger is a diplomatic initiative proposed by Premier Zhou that year, and the huge role of "panda diplomacy" cannot be erased because of the irresponsibility of the Americans this time.
In fact, in the process of establishing friendly relations between China and the United States, pandas have indeed played a very good role, below, we will introduce how China gave two giant pandas to the United States after the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States.
During the Spring Festival in 1979, Deng Xiaoping paid a state visit to the United States, at that time, Deng Xiaoping had planned to introduce foreign capital and science and technology to promote China's reform and opening up, so he visited many cities in the United States, among which Houston, Texas was the third stop of Deng Xiaoping's visit to the United States.
Texas is known for its oil and energy industries, and the mainland also needs to vigorously revitalize our energy industry, so Deng Xiaoping attached great importance to his visit to Texas.
So Texas' oil barons held a grand banquet to receive Deng Xiaoping.
There is an American oil baron who is more looking forward to meeting with the Chinese leader than all American bosses: the world-famous "Western oil company" boss Almond Hamer.
Born in 1898 in New York to a wealthy family, Hammer received his medical doctor as a young man and later inherited the family business and became a young capitalist.
At that time, the Soviet Union had just been established, not only suffered from the armed intervention of the United States and other Western powers, but also suffered large-scale economic sanctions, coupled with natural disasters, the newborn Soviet Union encountered a great famine that had not been seen in a century.
Young Hammer saw photos of children starving to death on the streets of the Soviet Union in the newspaper, and was very sad in his heart, so he ignored the obstruction and threats of the US government and resolutely went to the Soviet Union, hoping to donate a hospital to the Soviet Union free of charge.
However, after arriving in the Soviet Union, Hammer found that a hospital could not solve any problems at all, the Soviet Union needed a lot of food, and food was the material of US sanctions, and Hammer could only do something on his own.
Soviet leader Lenin heard about Hammer's deeds and personally met with the 23-year-old Hammer and proposed that Hammer cooperate in the form of trade, with Hammer bringing wheat flour into the United States, and the Soviet Union providing luxury goods such as vodka and caviar for barter.
So, under Hamer's operation, the Soviet Union introduced a lot of grain, saved the lives of countless Soviet people, and he himself made a lot of money.
Subsequently, Hammer lived in the Soviet Union for 9 years and assisted the Soviet Union in setting up many "Soviet-American joint ventures", producing daily necessities, and Hammer was also known as the "red capitalist".
At that time, Deng Xiaoping was studying in the Soviet Union, and he also knew Hammer's deeds, and he must have had a deep impression of Hammer, who was full of humanitarian spirit.
Therefore, when he saw Hammer in the United States this time, Deng Xiaoping's eyes lit up, and without waiting for introduction, he said happily: "I know you, you are the Dr. Hammer who helped Lenin!" Long time to look up! ”
Deng Xiaoping also took the initiative to shake hands with Hammer and said: "You helped the Soviet Union, and now we in China also welcome foreign enterprises to start businesses in China, why don't you come?" ”
Hammer did not expect that Deng Xiaoping would know him, and he was very happy, and quickly said: "I have long wanted to go to China, but I am old and inconvenient to travel, so I can only take our company's special plane, I am afraid that your country will not allow permission." ”
Deng Xiaoping immediately said: "This is completely okay, when you are ready, you can come!" ”
Sure enough, three months later, Hammer brought 16 managers from his company's oil, natural gas, coal, chemical, agriculture, scientific research and other departments to Beijing and was warmly received by Deng Xiaoping.
At Deng Xiaoping's direction, China signed contracts with Hammer's Western oil company for oil exploration, coal mining, hybrid rice seeds, chemical fertilizers, and so on.
Among them, the largest project is the Antaibao open-pit coal mine in Shuozhou, Shanxi, originally, according to the mainland's own strength, it would take 10 years to build a coal mine with an annual output of 8 million tons, but after cooperating with Hamer, it can reach 12 million tons in two years and 15 million tons in four years, greatly increasing coal output.
In 1982, when Hammer came to Beijing again, Deng Xiaoping received him like an old friend, and praised him: "You are so old, and you still look so good!" ”
Hammer also replied humorously: "I believe that when you reach my age, you will look better than me!" ”
At that time, the Chinese government had decided to send a huge sports delegation to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, the first time Chinese mainland participated in the Olympic Games since 1952, so the world was very concerned.
At this time, Hammer put forward a suggestion, hoping that China can send two giant pandas as "special ambassadors of friendship" to participate in the Olympic Games with athletes, which will definitely add a lot of joy and peace to the Olympic Games and greatly enhance Sino-US friendly exchanges.
After hearing this, Deng Xiaoping agreed very much and agreed.
In 1984, on the eve of the opening of the Los Angeles Olympics, China's two giant pandas welcomed new students and Yongyong, and came to the United States with athletes, and Hammer personally held a grand welcome party for the giant pandas, which became a hot news in the United States at that time and set off a "panda fever".
As for the two giant pandas Lele and Yaya, who are now in the United States, they were sent to the United States in April 2003, and the two countries originally agreed to return to China after 10 years, but later renewed the contract for another 10 years and returned to China in April 2023.
However, on the eve of returning to China, one of the pandas Lele unfortunately died, and the other panda Yaya was also malnourished, and her hair began to fall out, which made people feel very distressed.
Now, China has sent experts to the United States to investigate the cause of Lele's death and prepare to take Yaya back to China, let's wait and see.
(References: "Deng Xiaoping and World Figures", "Party History Wenyuan")