On June 9, 1984, in the square in front of the Pentagon, American soldiers standing on both sides stood solemnly, and then the vocal music sounded, accompanied by a burst of salutes, and standing at the front of the line was a large number of senior American officers, which was the highest military salute used by the United States to welcome the military delegation led by general Zhang Aiping, then the Chinese defense minister.
At the time, it was China's first military mission to the United States. The two sides attach so much importance to the Sino-US talks, so this meeting should be an opportunity to strengthen Sino-US exchanges. However, a few days after the visit, the news of General Zhang Aiping's big fuss at the US State Department spread, and after returning to China, he submitted a resignation letter to Deng Gong, which made Deng Gong, who did not know the truth, cry and laugh for a while.
Zhang Aiping
Why did General Zhang Aiping make a fuss at the US State Department? Finally, will the exchanges and cooperation between the two sides be affected? What will Deng Gong, who knows the ins and outs of the matter, deal with Zhang Aiping? In this issue, we will talk about The beginning and end of General Zhang Aiping's big fuss at the US State Department.
General Zhang Aiping had a strong and persistent personality, and Chairman Mao said: "Good crime! Ye Jianying said, "The body is full of thorns!" Deng Gong even said in front of Zhang Aiping: "There are a few people in the army who can't afford to provoke, and you Zhang Aiping are just one of them!" ”
General Zhang Aiping's character is bold, intelligent, resolute and persistent, and this kind of personality charm has made Zhang Aiping make great contributions in the process of building and developing New China. Zhang Aiping, who is upright and bright, has made countless posterity admire him.
Zhang Aiping has a bold personality. At the age of fifteen, he was admitted to Daxian Middle School, influenced by progressive ideas, and actively fought against the local reactionary warlords under the guidance of the local underground party. In a demonstration, Zhang Aiping personally led a group of students to the warlord "Governor's Government" in front of the demonstration, when the marching students encountered the armed military police, Zhang Aiping did not panic, but calm and courageous, organized the students to disperse and evacuate, and went to the riverside to take a boat to the other side of the river. Zhang Aiping, on the other hand, carried a propaganda slogan alone, introduced the reactionary military and police into the fork in the street, and finally took the opportunity to shake off the pursuing soldiers, returning to the school without loss.
Deng Gong
Zhang Aiping has been intelligent since childhood, loves to learn, and has an extraordinary memory. When Zhang Aiping was in the fourth grade of primary school, she was not satisfied with the knowledge taught in the classroom, and looked around for extracurricular reading materials to enrich her knowledge, especially liked the novels such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin".
In 1929, Zhang Aiping, who accepted the task of the party organization, came to Shanghai, he organized underground propaganda activities during the day, and went to the night school to listen to classes at night. Once Zhang Aiping was on a mission, she was accidentally arrested and put into the concession patrol cell, where Zhang Aiping did not forget to read and write oil poems.
General Zhang Aiping was resolute and persistent, and was not afraid of hardships and dangers. Since joining the revolutionary ranks, General Zhang Aiping has been imprisoned three times, and in the face of the enemy's severe torture, Zhang Aiping has never yielded.
In 1929, Zhang Aiping came to Shanghai and actively carried out mass propaganda work in the local area according to the tasks of her superiors. During a demonstration, Zhang Aiping was intercepted by reactionary military police and finally sentenced to 20 days of detention and imprisoned in Shanghai Tilanqiao Prison. After being released from prison, he was detained by Kuomintang agents at the Longhua Detention Center in the Shanghai Garrison District for informing traitors, but Zhang Aiping was resourceful and was sentenced to only one month in prison.
In his life, when Zhang Aiping encountered difficulties, he did not fall into sorrow, but used his tenacious will to persist in fighting in the darkness, and he always let his spirit stand tall.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, General Zhang Aiping formed a love affair with the nuclear industry, put his energy on the research and development of weapons and equipment in China, and began to contact the atomic energy industry in 1961.
Graph source network
In 1961, when we were in the period of three years of natural disasters in our country and the national economic situation was difficult, at the Beidaihe Conference in August, everyone began to discuss the work arrangements for the development of sophisticated weapons (atomic bombs and missiles), and some comrades proposed that the development of sophisticated weapons should be carried out after the country's economy improved.
In order to clarify the current situation of the atomic energy industry, Chairman Mao entrusted the task of investigation to Zhang Aiping. After Zhang Aiping was given the task, she personally went to Hubei, Gansu, Qinghai and other regions to conduct a meticulous and in-depth investigation of the nuclear industry system. On November 14, Zhang Aiping reported her month-long investigation report to the leaders of the Central Military Commission.
In the report, Zhang Aiping pointed out that in 1964, China may have developed an atomic bomb. It was precisely with this report that Chairman Mao immediately gave instructions to the "two-year plan": Very well, do as you will, and vigorously coordinate this work. Subsequently, China's nuclear industry seized the historical opportunity, the atomic bomb and nuclear industry construction made great progress, and China has since broken the US nuclear threat.
Chairman Mao
In the 1980s, the Science and Technology Commission for National Defense put forward the principle of "protecting the army and turning the people" of the nuclear industry, and the development of the nuclear industry entered a critical moment in the turning point of history. However, in April 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident in the United States shocked the world, accompanied by a wave of "nuclear fear" ideas.
At that time in China, there were many "Do China want to build nuclear power plants?" "Does China have the capacity to build a nuclear power plant?" Controversy. At this critical moment, Zhang Aiping stood up and said: Nuclear energy is not terrible, science and technology control it, widely used, can benefit the people and revitalize China!
Subsequently, Zhang Aiping actively promoted the construction of Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant, for which he arrived at the scene three times, mobilized and organized various departments to coordinate with each other, and finally after Zhang Aiping poured a lot of effort, Qinshan Nuclear Power Station was finally completed in December 1991 to generate electricity. Zhang Aiping's resolute and persistent personality has enabled him to overcome difficulties along the way.
Zhang Aiping worked hard for the motherland, and he was a well-known "bad troublemaker" in the military, so when he visited the United States, how would he deal with the criticism of American officials?
So on June 9, 1984, a military delegation led by Zhang Aiping came to the United States, and Weinberg led a group of American officials to greet them, where Zhang Aiping and his party received the highest standard of reception. The next morning, the first day of talks between the U.S. and Chinese defense ministers began.
During the talks on this day, Zhang Aiping used her wisdom to argue with US officials on the basis of reason. An American general asked: "I heard that Your Excellency the Minister once commanded China's atomic bomb research and tests, and later led the development of missiles and satellites. ”
Zhang Aiping listened and replied, "I have participated in these tasks. ”
Suddenly, the US official raised his voice and said: "What is your intention in advocating the prohibition and destruction of nuclear weapons by the whole people while constantly conducting nuclear tests?" ”
Zhang Aiping replied: "This is a very simple question, we have an old saying in China, called 'attacking poison with poison', without nuclear weapons, there is no ability to eliminate nuclear weapons." If a country uses nuclear weapons against China, the Chinese government needs to be accountable to its own people. ”
Zhang Aiping then said: "The Chinese government has repeatedly explained that China conducts nuclear tests and develops nuclear weapons only for the purpose of achieving national defense and security. China advocates a total ban on the destruction of nuclear weapons, and if this idea is realized, China will not have to develop nuclear weapons. My Government will, as always, do its utmost to achieve the ambitious goal of banning and destroying nuclear weapons through international consultation and cooperation. Until that day comes, China will continue to develop its own nuclear weapons, because our nuclear weapons are not as advanced as yours and are not as many as yours. ”
After the talks, Deputy Regiment Commander Zhang Zhen couldn't help but sigh to Zhang Aiping: "You are really a hero of tongue fighting today!" Later, the US military distributed the Q&A records of this meeting to officers above the us school level, and this war of words left a deep impression on the US military.
Zhang Zhen
Suddenly, when Zhang Aiping and her party walked out of the talk hall, several burly people walked next to them. Weinberg, who was standing next to him, pointed to Zhang Aiping and said, "They've been waiting for you for a long time, look who they are!" ”
While the two were talking, the first of them had already walked up to Zhang Aiping, gave Zhang Aiping a military salute, hugged Zhang Aiping forward, and said excitedly: "Life-saving benefactor, can you still remember me?" ”
Hearing this, Zhang Aiping couldn't help but trace her memory back to forty-one years ago. On August 20, 1943, a B-29 bomber of the US 14th Air Force was on its way back from a military mission, and due to the failure of the aircraft, it lost control and crashed into Jinqiao Village, Jianyang Town, Hu County, Jiangsu Province, which belonged to the edge of the anti-Japanese activity area of Zhang Aiping's unit.
After Zhang Aiping received the report, she immediately organized troops to rescue the US military plane, rescued the injured pilot, and removed all the parts that could be removed from the plane. Just as the group was preparing to leave, they met with more than a hundred troops of the Japanese puppet army who had come to learn of the crash of the US military.
After four hours of fierce fighting, the Japanese puppet army was finally successfully attacked and retreated. After the battle, Zhang Aiping sent 5 US military pilots to the anti-Japanese base center and looked for doctors to see these pilots, although there was a shortage of materials in the base area at that time, Zhang Aiping still arranged bedrooms, bathrooms, and dining rooms for the five US military pilots. Seven days later, Zhang Aiping personally sent these US pilots away, and on the occasion of parting, Zhang Aiping said to them: "You have traveled thousands of miles to China to participate in the War of Resistance, and we thank you Chinese people and the Chinese army!" ”
It turned out that a few days ago, these people were very excited to learn that Zhang Aiping was going to visit China, and they wanted to express their gratitude to Zhang Aiping in person. So far, Zhang Aiping's visit to the United States has been relatively smooth, but in the next period of time, a deliberate plot by the US State Department is quietly approaching him.
U.S. Department of State
What kind of criticism did Zhang Aiping encounter that made him make a big fuss about the US State Department, and will sino-US exchanges continue after this matter is over? After returning to China, after making Deng Gong cry and laugh without knowing the truth, why did he praise Zhang Aiping?
On June 12, Zhang Aiping was invited by the US State Department to visit and exchange. After Zhang Aiping arrived, after a brief conversation, the Intentions of the U.S. State Department were finally revealed. Only to see a U.S. State Department official, took out a statement, said: "We found Chinese in the uranium processing plant in Pakistan, you have violated the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, please sign the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons." ”
Zhang Aiping is a famous "unworthy" in our army, and the rogue of the US State Department can be regarded as finding the wrong person. Zhang Aiping immediately scolded the US officials: "If you really find the footprints of Chinese there, just arrest them, don't tell me now that some of them are not!" China will not violate the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, so I will not sign the statement. ”
When the US official heard this, he said in a nonchalant manner: "General Zhang, only when you sign this statement can the cooperation between China and the United States continue." Zhang Aiping listened, directly threw the US official's statement materials directly on the table, and then directly strode away from the venue. Afterwards, the US media who learned the news hyped up about the incident, writing in a prominent position in the newspaper: "The Chinese Department of Defense has grown up to make trouble with the US State Department!" ”
However, Zhang Aiping's actions did not affect his next visit to the United States, and the original negotiations with the US military made the US military admire Zhang Aiping very much and express dissatisfaction with the US State Department's restraining behavior, so after the fact, US military officials apologized to the Chinese delegation.
However, when the visit to the United States gradually went smoothly, a letter of complaint was sent to Deng Gong, saying that Zhang Aiping had violated the central government's "non-alignment policy." It turned out that China and the United States held a joint meeting, and non-military personnel could not participate, and an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the United States thought that the United States was discriminating against and asked Zhang Aiping to refuse to attend the meeting, but Zhang Aiping decided to go for the sake of the overall situation, so this person sued Zhang Aiping in order to vent his personal anger.
After Deng Gong saw the letter, he handed it over to Zhang Aiping, and after Zhang Aiping saw it, he resigned directly to the central authorities after returning to China. After Deng Gong learned the truth of the matter, he not only did not approve Zhang Aiping's resignation, but also praised him.
After General Zhang Aiping's current visit to the United States, a military cooperation agreement was reached between the two countries, and China obtained some US military technology and promoted the development of China's military technology.
General Zhang Aiping has made contributions to the development and construction of the country throughout his life; he has used his shoulders to provoke the beams of national defense science and technology and military construction; he has been a "good offender" and "not a good troublemaker." He has been a clean and honest official all his life, placing himself in the forefront of the country's scientific and technological development, and making contributions to the country and the people with his life.