Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 440 Everyone Must Win!
Every country needs to learn from the best.

Soviet Russia needed it, and so did China.

The people of Eastern Europe could only feel the glory brought by the empire's powerful technology, and it was difficult for them to really identify with it.

But China can.

The chief designer of the N-1 rocket was Chinese.

In the past, Soviet Russia had never been able to handle it.

Once the Chinese joined, they helped you get the N-1 rocket sorted out.

At least a third of the credit for this space medal belongs to us, right?
Chinese media also promoted the great victory of Soviet-Russian spaceflight as a cause for celebration for the socialist camp, indirectly proving that the socialist camp is no different from the liberal camp in the field of science and technology.

At the same time, such propaganda also indirectly tells the public that our relations with Soviet Russia are easing.

However, China will emphasize the role played by Chinese researchers and Chinese technology in this process.

They would emphasize that China has worked diligently for many years, accumulating strength and making great strides. In the past, we couldn't even afford rockets, let alone basic firearms and artillery, and we had to rely on imports.

Now we can manufacture electronic products, and our electronic products are sold all over the world. Within the socialist camp, our electronic products account for 80% of the market share, while other countries combined only enjoy the remaining 20%.

We can build rockets, we have atomic bombs, we have satellites, and we have a complete industrial system.

If it were just a Chinese person serving as the chief engineer of the Soviet Union's lunar rocket, the public's reaction might not be so strong.

However, when China's propaganda is combined with the technological development and improvements in people's livelihoods over the past 21 years, the public's feelings become particularly strong.

Soviet propaganda was not ineffective or lacking in appeal.

How could a newspaper that claims to uphold the truth not be able to write good articles?

Their problem is that the public is indifferent.

No matter how powerful your airplanes and cannons are, or how advanced your aerospace technology is, the impact on the public is limited to that specific moment.

As time passes, memories quickly fade and feelings dissipate. If you continue to promote these messages in newspapers, on television, and on the radio, the public will only become increasingly indifferent.

So much so that, in the end, the question arose: what does this have to do with my monthly salary of three thousand?
The good thing about China is that its people can feel the progress it has made.

Radios were readily available, while televisions were snapped up in state-run stores. The best televisions went from being Soviet or East German products to being made in China.

This is somewhat similar to the underlying logic behind the propaganda that China's infrastructure boom is effective.

Although some say this was at the expense of livestock, and that the benefits brought by construction laborers were immense, the Chinese people also paid a huge price behind the scenes.

But the public approves because they have personally experienced the benefits that the infrastructure boom has brought to their lives.

Every year during the Spring Festival travel rush, train stations are packed with people, some even having to spend the night there. In the event of extreme weather, hundreds of thousands of people are stranded at train stations and unable to go home.

Nowadays, such incidents are becoming increasingly rare and have almost disappeared. Even during the Spring Festival travel rush, train scheduling is very easy, and going home for the New Year has become the norm.

The benefits of infrastructure development are tangible, including access to water, electricity, and the internet in every village, and the speed of disaster relief when natural disasters strike.

The Chinese people today, especially those who lived through the period before the founding of the People's Republic of China, feel this even more deeply.

Liu Guodong and Xiao Fang were employees of Shenhai State-owned Factory.

When China sold 9,000 units at the Leipzig Trade Fair for the first time, he thought of contacting Lao Xu from Shenhai Radio Factory.

See if you can ask around and see if there's any way to help him replace his Red Star badges with Panda badges that are exported overseas and boost his morale.

I went to see Lao Xu, but the matter wasn't settled. Instead, I heard that Lao Xu and his entire factory were going to move to the southwest, and I learned that the entire semiconductor-related industry in China was going to move to the southwest.

Liu Guodong thought at the time that moving was normal. In this era, moving around for work reasons is not the norm, but it is not uncommon.

Everyone can completely understand.

Since it involves high technology, there are definitely confidentiality requirements.

However, things didn't develop quite as Liu Guodong had anticipated.

That is, he never saw Lao Xu again after that.

Liu Guodong thought that going to the southwest was just a change of work location, and that he would still return to Shenhai every now and then.

He'll at least come back during the Chinese New Year, right?
The result was that it was gone forever.

He visited Lao Xu's parents and said that they had only made three phone calls in eight years and sent a letter back every year.

Liu Guodong asked his colleagues at the machinery factory, and they found that employees at the radio factory they knew were receiving similar treatment.

Only a few who were transferred to work in Yenching were able to return frequently.

Whenever someone goes to the southwest, it's like throwing a stone into the sea—there's no response.

This made Liu Guodong uneasy; the level of secrecy was even higher than what he had heard about distant relatives going to work on nuclear weapons research.

Later, considering the rapid development of China's semiconductor industry, Liu Guodong gained more understanding and respect.

In his view, it is precisely because of the efforts of people like Lao Xu that China's industries have developed so rapidly today.

Whether it's the products they use or the country's surplus foreign exchange reserves.

He boasted that compared to the radio industry, their machinery industry had made far less of a contribution.

"Chinese aerospace scientist Wang Xiji made outstanding contributions to the development of the Soviet N-1 rocket."

A documentary about Wang Xiji was playing on TV. Liu Guodong and his wife were watching TV and drinking some Shaoxing rice wine while eating smoked fish and edamame.

The child is already asleep.

It's the New Year, so we should be generous with our celebrations.

Moreover, they are a typical dual-income family, and their material resources are definitely abundant.

"Bang bang bang."

The door rang.

Liu Guodong got up and found a figure he hadn't seen in a long time outside.

"Old Xu?" Liu Guodong exclaimed.

The other person is much fairer-skinned than when they left.

Old Xu walked in with a wry smile and said, "It's me. It's been a really long time."

Liu Guodong's wife, Xiaofang, quickly stood up: "Come in, come in and sit down. Have you eaten? If not, I'll make you some hot dishes."

After Lao Xu walked in, he said, "I've eaten. It's not easy for me to come back here. I'll only stay for five days before I have to go back to work."

I thought I'd make a trip here, but I don't know when I'll be able to come back again. In the past eight years, Liu Guodong has had a child, bought a TV and a new radio, and is now saving money to buy a bigger house. He has been promoted to a team leader at the factory and is currently trying to find a way to get into a better school.

Old Xu nodded repeatedly in agreement.

"And you? I know how to keep secrets, just pick out what we can find out."

Old Xu was overwhelmed with thoughts and emotions:
"How should I put it, my life is actually quite boring."

Work, study, exams.

That's roughly it.

Speaking of this, our teacher once said something very interesting: Is there anyone in this world who can't learn calculus?
Yes, I took calculus, studied integrated circuits, circuit principles, and optics. In short, it was really boring there. Everyone had to undergo political study and some professional knowledge learning to some extent.

I feel like I've gone to university.

Work was not mentioned at all; Lao Xu could only pick out whatever he could mention.

Xiaofang doesn't quite understand what calculus is. She works in a textile factory and doesn't understand it very well either.

After all, artificial intelligence hasn't yet invaded textile factories, turned them into dark factories, or taken her job.

But Liu Guodong had been seeking further education, so he was completely dumbfounded.

"No, are you still hiring?" Liu Guodong asked blankly. There are people in this world who can't learn calculus? What kind of question is that?

Even the college students he knows from Fudan and Jiaotong Universities aren't this arrogant.

Old Xu picked up a soybean with his fingers, squeezed it into his mouth, chewed it, swallowed it, and said, "This is a walled city. People inside want to get out, and people outside want to get in."

Can you really bear to be away from Shanghai for the rest of your life? Not even a lifetime, but at least until retirement, spending most of your life away from your homeland?

After thinking for a moment, Liu Guodong said, "That's true. It's really hard to stand leaving Shanghai and going to the countryside."

However, what you're saying sounds a bit like the implementation of the 721 directive.

The reason I wanted to talk about going to school is because the machine tool factory next door recently started the 721 Workers' University, so it seems that our factory is also planning to do the same.

I feel that your model is a precursor to the July 21 Workers' University, after all, the electronics industry is one of the best-developed industries in our country.

Your model has been successful, so it has been expanded to our subsidiaries.

Old Xu certainly knew what the July 21 Directive was. It roughly meant that universities should recruit workers and farmers with more than two years of work experience, so that they could study at the university for a few years and then go back to continue their production work.

It's somewhat like having a question and then looking for the answer.

However, in this timeline, because Area 51 had tried it beforehand, this approach is more feasible.

Workers heading to Area 51 were taken out in batches for fresh air.

Old Xu was among those released in this batch.

"That's right, so you have to seize this opportunity. In our country, science and technology will only become more and more important." Old Xu pointed to the TV screen: "Look, ten years ago, who would have thought that we could guide the Soviets in launching rockets?"

Twenty years ago, who would have imagined that our products would be in high demand in Eastern Europe?

We're just taking the lead, but your machine factory, or any other industry, will eventually face the same day. What you need to do is push for that day to come. So I agree with your idea; striving for a better education is absolutely necessary!

Each country has an ambassador in China, and everything that happens here will be reported back to their home country.

America's ambassador, in particular, was exceptionally effective in intelligence gathering.

When the news reached America, Kissinger decisively pointed out at an emergency White House meeting: "The Soviet Union won face this time, but they lost substance."

They were forced to show the world that their core technologies needed to be saved by a country they were at odds with.

Our goal is not to deny the existence of Soviet Russians on the moon, but to make the world realize that the key to space exploration—the rockets themselves—depends on Chinese engineers and technology!

Soviet Russia had a massive propaganda machine, and so did America.

America's control over the media is even more subtle and pervasive.

Both involve manipulating the media, but during and after the Cold War, the liberal camp's methods of manipulation were far more sophisticated.

In American media reports, the Soviet Union's "great victory" was cleverly downplayed, while China's technological strength was thrust into the spotlight.

Unlike the Soviet Union, The New York Times did not glorify its victory on its front page. Instead, it published an in-depth analysis titled "The Silent Victory of Yenching: How Chinese Technology Saved the Beleaguered Soviet Moon Landing."

The report, citing reliable sources, pointed out:
"This lunar landing was less a victory for Soviet and Russian science and technology, and more an unexpected demonstration of the Sino-Soviet-Russian scientific and technological cooperation model."

It is believed that the Soviet Union's N-1 giant rocket was finally successful after multiple failures, thanks to the digital distributed control system developed under the leadership of Chinese scientist Wang Xiji.

This system utilizes China's advanced technology in solid-state semiconductors and integrated circuits, which has been a long-standing weakness of the Soviet Union.

Within Soviet Russia, Wang Xiji was also regarded as a new professor they had discovered from China.

The report further analyzed the differences in the media coverage of the two countries, all in an attempt to sow discord between them. They were masters of this tactic. Sixty years later, in 2020, American media was also trying to sow discord between Russia and China.

"In Moscow, the authorities went to great lengths to attribute the victory to the superiority of Vladimir's ideas, while avoiding any mention of the role played by Chinese researchers."

However, in Beijing, the media spared no effort in emphasizing the crucial role played by China.

This subtle difference in public opinion sends a clear signal to the world: cracks still exist within the alliance, and in technological high-level situations, China is no longer a simple follower of Soviet Russia.

At the official level, Nixon congratulated the Soviet Union in a televised address, emphasizing that America's exploration in space was for peace and science, not for geopolitical competition.

Whether the outside world believes it or not is another matter. After all, your GPS satellites have already been deployed in combat. Is this what peace looks like?
Privately, the massive media apparatus was doing its utmost to downplay the Soviet Union's achievements in the aerospace field.

Globally, pro-liberal media outlets adopted a unified narrative, interpreting the victory as a satire of Soviet Russia.

Western European media generally characterized the Soviet victory as an expensive, technologically supported political propaganda show.

The gist of the story is that Soviet Russia was forced to seek the most critical electronic technologies from China, which exposed serious deficiencies in its economic system in the field of high-precision and high-efficiency technology.

As for why China is able to achieve the same economic system, they remain silent.

The White House cleverly used this report to send a message to Beijing: We have seen your contributions, we understand the role you played, and we respect your capabilities.

This strategy aims to sow discord between the two sides and create a favorable public opinion environment for subsequent clandestine contacts and easing tensions between China and the United States.

The debate continues to rage in the public sphere.

This continued until the next round of negotiations.

In Singapore, Kissinger handed the letter in his hand to the middle-aged man sitting opposite him.

After opening the letter, the recipient looked thoughtfully at the signature on it.

(End of this chapter)