In China around 1978, the tide of reform was budding.
This period of time was the reign of Hua Guofeng. Although China's diplomatic policy as a whole still inherits the revolutionary diplomatic line of the Mao Zedong era, many new changes have begun to appear: a more rational understanding of the development of the international situation, a more active development of friendly relations with other countries, a relatively small ideological color, and a pragmatic style of diplomacy.
These changes have been reflected in Hua Guofeng's overseas visits.
This year, party and state leaders have stepped out of the closed country, personally experienced the changes in the outside world, and felt the pulse of the development of the world economy. In 1978, vice-premiers and vice-chairmen and leaders above led 21 missions to 51 countries.
In addition to the leaders of the party and the state, the central authorities have also sent many inspection delegations to investigate the economic development and experience of some developed countries in the world in various aspects.
In May of that year, a Chinese government delegation led by Vice Premier Gu Mu of the State Council traveled to Western Europe and visited 15 cities in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, and West Germany. They have seen the high level of economic development in Western Europe, and have produced a strong sense of urgency and responsibility; they have also seen the common desire of Western countries to expand trade with China, and have found rare opportunities from them.
This year, Hua Guofeng asked to send more cadres out to see, "to see what good things are abroad, and to contact themselves as a reference."
After returning home, the delegation visiting Eastern European countries submitted to the Central Committee the "Report on the Investigation of the Yugoslav Plan." This means that the views of the CENTRAL Central Committee have changed on the issue of the diversity of socialist models.
This year, the State Council held a rare retreat of more than two months to study the issue of speeding up the realization of the four modernizations.
At the meeting, the leaders who returned from the visit introduced the international situation and the experience of economic development abroad; Yao Yilin, vice premier of the State Council, quoted Lenin's famous saying that "in the wolf pack we must learn to cry wolf", while Hua Guofeng, as the supreme leader, was absent only once or twice in the 23 meetings before and after.
At this meeting, the central authorities put forward the slogan of "combining the planned economy with the market economy" and clearly put forward the idea of reforming the economic system. The meeting stated: "We must not miss this very rare opportunity. Self-reliance is by no means a matter of being closed off and not learning advanced things from foreign countries. It's many times faster than groping from scratch behind closed doors. ”
These opinions were finally condensed into the great strategic decision made by the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in December 1978 to focus on economic construction, implement reform and opening up, and accelerate the process of socialist modernization. China has finally made great strides into the torrent of the world economy, kicking off the prelude to explosive growth.
The above is the background of Hua Guofeng's visit to North Korea in 1978.
In May 1978, Hua Guofeng, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, was invited by Kim Il Sung, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and Chairman of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, to leave Beijing by special train for an official goodwill visit to the DPRK.
At 11:50 a.m. on May 4, Hua Guofeng's special car slowly entered Pyongyang Station. The whole station was filled with joy, and the cheers of the North Korean people almost overshadowed the welcome music. Hua Guofeng stepped out of the carriage amid thunderous applause and cheers, and hugged Chairman Kim Il Sung, who greeted him.
Chairman Kim Il Sung held a grand welcoming ceremony for the visiting Chairman Hua Guofeng at the station platform. The DPRK military band played the national anthems of China and the DPRK and fired twenty-one salutes. Accompanied by Kim Il Sung, Hua Guofeng inspected the honor guard of the three armies of the Korean People's Army. After that, Hua Guofeng, accompanied by Kim Il Sung, boarded an open-top car and headed to the State Guesthouse where he was staying.
On this day, Pyongyang was completely surrounded by the friendship between the Chinese and North Korean peoples. Early in the morning, hundreds of thousands of students, masses, and commanders and fighters of the People's Army dressed in Korean national costumes and holding bouquets of flowers gathered next to the long street leading from the station to the State Guest House, constantly waving bouquets of flowers and chanting the slogan of long live the friendship between China and the DPRK to welcome the distinguished Chinese guests.
Almost all of the tall buildings in downtown Pyongyang have the flags of China and North Korea hanging, and on every street lamp and telephone pole on the road, huge colorful portraits of Kim Il Sung and Hua Guofeng hang side by side.
Every 100 meters, there is a red banner across the street, which reads "Long live the Communist Party of China!" in Korean and Chinese characters!" "Long live the unbreakable friendship and unity of the korean and Chinese peoples condensed in blood!" And "Warmly welcome Comrade Hua Guofeng!" " and other various slogans.
From the station on the ten-mile long street of the State Guest House, the station is full of people singing and dancing, waving bouquets, and the flowers in their hands form a splendid and colorful friendship corridor. Hua Guofeng's car drove very slowly, and during the march, from time to time some young women arranged by the master rushed from the crowd and presented flowers to Hua Guofeng, who was standing on the convertible car.
Just a few kilometers away, the convoy walked for nearly half an hour. Finally, the convoy stopped at the square in front of the Pyongyang Stadium. Hua Guofeng and Kim Il Sung got out of the car smiling and shook hands with Kang Hee-won, chairman of the Pyongyang City Administrative Committee, who was already waiting here.
On behalf of the people of Pyongyang, Jiang Xiyuan presented Chairman Hua Guofeng with a statue of korean and Chinese fighters standing shoulder to shoulder, and told Hua Guofeng that the name of the statue was "Blood Makes Comrades-in-Arms":
"We gave this statue to Comrade Hua Guofeng, the leader of the Chinese people and a close friend of the Korean people. The statue is a symbol of the revolutionary friendship forged with blood by the peoples of the DPRK and China in the past against the common enemy fighting in a trench, and it is also a symbol of the determination of the two peoples to continue to fight side by side in the future. ”
Hua Guofeng happily accepted this special gift and waved to the crowd in the square. The crowd erupted in cheers like a tsunami.
On the afternoon of the 5th, Hua Guofeng came to the Jinxiu Mountain Council Hall and held cordial and friendly talks with Chairman Kim Il Sung. In his welcome speech, Kim Il Sung said: "Comrade Hua Guofeng's current visit is another major event in the history of DPRK-China friendship. I believe that it will certainly become an epoch-making turning point for the traditional friendship and unity between the two parties and the two peoples of the DPRK and China. ”
Hua Guofeng said in his speech: "We will, as always, make every effort for the eternal friendship and unbreakable unity between the Chinese and DPRK peoples!" ”
In the evening, the DPRK party and government held a grand welcome banquet for the visiting Hua Guofeng. At the banquet, Hua Guofeng told Kim Il Sung that he wanted to go around North Korea and take a look.
Kim Il Sung replied happily: "We have already arranged for Chairman Hua to visit tomorrow, and the first stop is the Sino-DPRK Friendship and Cooperation Farm, which was built with the help of the Chinese government in the house in the Shun'an district in northwest Pyongyang." ”
"China-DPRK Friendship and Cooperation Farm", also known as "Zhai'an Farm", Hua Guofeng visited here on the afternoon of May 6, 1978.
The head of the farm, Park Yoon-kun, introduced the development history of the farm to Hua Guofeng: Zhao'an Farm is a model farm in North Korea, and its goal is to strive to build a prosperous and livable socialist new countryside, so that the farmers on the farm will live a prosperous life, agricultural harvest and mechanization, and every farmer will enjoy the welfare they deserve.
As early as 1958, China's Premier Zhou Enlai visited the farm. On October 1, 1959, the farm was honorably named "Ota-An North Korea-China Friendship and Cooperation Farm", which became a gift from the Korean people to the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Park Yoon-kun told Hua Guofeng that since the 1950s, the Sino-DPRK Friendship and Cooperation Farm has established a good exchange relationship with China. A few years ago, he himself was invited by China to visit the Beijing Red Star Sino-DPRK Friendship Commune.
Occasional exchanges between farms and communes in the two countries are held to exchange rice, wheat and vegetable seeds. After listening to the introduction, Hua Guofeng said happily: It is necessary to exchange experiences with each other and learn from each other's strong points, so that we can move forward together!
During the visit on the same day, Hua Guofeng visited the farm's agricultural science and technology publicity exhibition and mechanization demonstration operation with great interest, and then came to the farm's field to run a kindergarten and visited the children of the farm cadres and workers. The innocent and lively children were not afraid of the stage at all, and gathered around Hua Guofeng to perform Korean dances and sing Korean children's songs for Hua Guofeng.
Hua Guofeng picked up a child with a smile on his face, took the child's hand and clapped it together, and encouraged them to study hard and build a new socialist countryside in North Korea when they grew up.
During this visit to the DPRK, the DPRK side arranged a major play for Hua Guofeng and his entourage, that is, to visit The Mankyeongdae, the hometown of Chairman Kim Il Sung.
Mankeidai is the birthplace of Kim Il Sung, the leader of the North Korean people. Located 20 kilometers southwest of Pyongyang on the banks of the Taedong River surrounded by mountains, it is named after the ancient beacon tower on the mountain that overlooks the mountain and the river.
Kim Il Sung's former home was an ordinary thatched house. Inside there were some old and faded wardrobes, braziers, and an A-shaped luggage rack. Kim Il Sung's family has lived in this thatched hut since his great-grandfather.
The wrestling and learning fields where Kim Il Sung exercised as a teenager, as well as revolutionary cultural relics such as ash willows planted by himself, have always been preserved here, which is a sacred place in the hearts of the Korean people, a seeding machine of the Korean revolution and a source of strength for the Korean people, and is the hometown and temple in the hearts of all Korean people.
In general, North Korea rarely arranges for visiting foreign leaders to visit the Mankeidai, but the exception is For Hua Guofeng. On May 7, Hua Guofeng, accompanied by Premier Li Zhongyu and other leaders, ascended to the Wanjing Pavilion at the top of Wanjing Peak, only to see a picturesque scenery under the stage, a cluster of flowers blooming, rows of pines and cypresses, and the Datong River rushing west and heading straight for the sea.
After overlooking the beautiful scenery of the Wanjingtai, Hua Guofeng came to Kim Il Sung's former residence, listened to the narrator's introduction, and carefully looked at the items used by Kim Il Sung and asked about the origin and function of these items.
The narrator proudly introduced hua Guofeng: Three generations of Chairman Kim Il Sung's family are revolutionaries, and this is where they grew up and fought.
At the beginning of 1925, the 13-year-old Kim Il-sung left his hometown from here and embarked on a journey to liberate the people.
On the road under Wanjing Peak, there is a fork in the road. Hua Guofeng heard Kim Il Sung talk about this fork. In April 1975, when Hua Guofeng accompanied Kim Il Sung, who was visiting China, to watch a performance by Chinese literary and art workers, one of the programs was when Chinese actors sang the Korean folk song "Sing, Wanjingdae Fork".
While admiring, Kim Il Sung introduced to Hua Guofeng the story of coming to this fork in the road after the victory of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and looking at the open firewood door of his former residence, and his heart was full of excitement. Hua Guofeng was deeply impressed by this. He stopped at this fork in the road and hummed the song "Sing, Wanjingtai Fork", which drew applause from the North Korean entourage.
Many of the DPRK's entourage members were very surprised that Hua Guofeng knew about this song "Sing, Wanjingtai Fork," and they sincerely sighed: Chinese people's leader visits the hometown of the great leader of the Korean people, the fighting friendship between the korean and Chinese peoples will shine even more brilliantly!
On the morning of May 8, Hua Guofeng, accompanied by Kim Il Sung, drove to the "2.8" Vinylon Factory in Xianxing City for a visit. On the same day, the citizens of Xianxing went out of the city and warmly welcomed Hua Guofeng and his party. All the streets are newly decorated, countless loudspeakers, and chinese and Korean songs are played at the same time, and the whole city is immersed in a sea of joy.
The "2.8" Vinylon Factory in Hamheung City is a large textile enterprise built by the North Korean people on their own under the care of Kim Il Sung. The vinylon they produced was a very popular synthetic fiber of the year, with good adhesion, water resistance, oil resistance, acid resistance, alkali resistance, electrical insulation, and cotton blending can be made into a variety of linings, called "victoria cotton".
Its outstanding advantages are good moisture absorption and low price; The main disadvantage is poor elasticity and easy wrinkle of the fabric. However, because of the cortical structure, it is not easy to dye into bright colors, and the shrinkage in hot water is also large. In the environment at that time, its emergence solved the problem of clothing for ordinary people in North Korea.
Hua Guofeng visited some workshops of the "Second And Eighth" Vinylon Factory, watched the production process of Vinylon, inquired in detail about the technological innovation of the factory, and asked xu Zaihong, the director of the factory, what aspects of this enterprise in the DPRK are more advanced than China's, and what are China's deficiencies, and I hope that Xu Zaihong will bring it forward.
At the end of the visit, Hua Guofeng, on behalf of the CPC Central Committee, presented the "Ii.8" Vinylon Factory with the inscription "Long live the fighting friendship between the Chinese and DPRK peoples!" The pennant with the words on it, the opposite side gave Hua Guofeng a sample of vinylon and seven raw materials of vinyllon in a refined box.
Coming out of the "Two-Eight" Vinylon Factory, Hua Guofeng visited a certain artillery unit of the Korean People's Army and was also warmly welcomed by the officers and men.
Hua Guofeng visited the soldiers' dormitories, watched the coastal artillery operation performance, praised the skilled skills and courageous and agile movements of the Korean People's Army soldiers, praised the Korean People's Army as a heroic army, and hoped that they would inherit the glorious traditions of the older generation and fight for the defense and reunification of the motherland.
On the morning of May 10, Hua Guofeng successfully concluded his official friendly visit to the DPRK and left Pyongyang to return to China. Kim Il Sung personally delivered to the station, and tens of thousands of Pyongyang people and young students gathered outside the station to bid farewell to President Hua.
Before getting on the bus, Hua Guofeng shook hands with Chairman Kim Il Sung and once again warmly embraced. With this hug, the platform erupted into a spring thunderous cheer.
With the sincere revolutionary friendship and valuable experience of the Korean people, Hua Guofeng ended his official friendly visit to the DPRK and returned to Beijing.
Hua Guofeng was very excited about this visit. Some people recalled that after returning to China, Hua Guofeng once sent him to a long talk all night, where he talked for more than 9 hours, talking about his experience in this visit to the DPRK and also talking about many information brought back by other leaders' visits to Japan and Western Europe. Hua Guofeng repeatedly asked: Can we enlarge our steps a bit so that our country can quickly become rich, strong, and prosperous?
At the end of the conversation, Hua Guofeng put forward two opinions: "We must go abroad to investigate more, not only ministers, vice chairmen, vice premiers, provincial party secretaries, but also some factory directors. Second, we must call on senior cadres to learn a little about the economic laws of the socialist period. ”
Five months after Hua Guofeng's visit, Li Xiannian said in his summary report at the Central Committee's "retreat" on September 9, 1978: "We must not miss this very rare opportunity. ”