Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

After the establishment of the Scientific Working Committee, the opportunities for communication among several people due to work reasons have increased a lot.

Wei Hongjun began by saying, "Comrade Bo Shuchun, Comrade Ye Zhupei's oxygen converter steelmaking is fortunate to have your support."

Although Wei Hongjun wasn't familiar with the steel industry's internal technology, he knew that the industry would eventually adopt the oxygen converter steelmaking route. In particular, in the 1990s, newspapers reported daily that steel mills nationwide were undergoing a technological reform known as "converter-type steelmaking."

So after hearing that Ye Zhupei's oxygen converter steelmaking was not only successful in the laboratory but also in Xuangang, Wei Hongjun immediately decided that some local steel mills should develop oxygen converter steelmaking.

The benefits of learning from the Soviet Union were obvious. The Soviet Union provided China with many hands-on instruction, rapidly building a foundation for Chinese industry. By 1960, China was able to manufacture machinery and equipment for many basic industries, albeit with relatively low technological sophistication.

The downside was that many Soviet industrial technologies saw limited development in the 1950s. While Western countries experienced rapid advancements in many industrial technologies during the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union experienced very slow technological development in many civilian industries, with the exception of some cutting-edge military sectors.

Not only was technological development slow, but the Soviet Union was also extremely stubborn, clinging to its own ideas and even letting politics dictate scientific development. The Soviet system also made it very difficult for them to accept new technologies.

Take the computer industry, for example. While the United States had already begun large-scale development of personal computers in the 1960s, the Soviet Union was still struggling with cumbersome vacuum tube computers. It wasn't until the late 1970s that the Soviet Union began to accept the reality of transistor computers completely replacing vacuum tube computers. By that time, transistor semiconductors and integrated circuit technology had advanced countless times in Europe and the United States, including Japan.

In the steel industry, European, American, and Japanese countries all began to switch to oxygen converter steelmaking, and the technology in this area became increasingly sophisticated. However, the Soviet Union was still struggling with open-hearth steelmaking technology, trying to improve its efficiency and scale.

It's unclear whether Soviet intelligence reported these industrial and technological developments in Western countries to the Soviet Union. In any case, during the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union stubbornly believed its technological path was correct, actively rejecting and even suppressing new approaches. Even though Western countries had already switched paths and achieved significant success, the Soviet Union turned a blind eye.

This Soviet approach directly impacted industrial development throughout the socialist camp in the 1950s and 1960s. Countries in the socialist camp were forced to follow the Soviet technological path. The Soviet Union was unhappy with any attempt to adopt a different technological path, urging them to start anew.

The same was true in China. Although some researchers, led by Ye Zhupei, believed that oxygen converter steelmaking was the future of the steel industry, a single statement from a Soviet expert led the Ministry of Heavy Industry, and later the Ministry of Metallurgical Industry, to directly adopt the open-hearth steelmaking route.

Historically, oxygen converter steelmaking was not a field of concern until Sino-Soviet relations deteriorated, and the Ministry of Metallurgical Industry began to pay serious attention to it. In 1958, Ye Zhupei began conducting a series of experiments.

It was not until December 1964 that a 12-ton industrial oxygen converter steelmaking workshop was built at Shougang and officially put into production.

After the Ministry of Metallurgical Industry inspected and tested this oxygen converter steelmaking plant, and after a period of operation, it was discovered that converter steelmaking had significant advantages. Consequently, the central government decided that all future steel mills would no longer use open-hearth furnaces. However, this was not until 1966.

Just as China was about to start technological transformation of the steel industry, it encountered a major movement, which had a significant impact on the promotion of new technologies in the Chinese steel industry. The Chinese steel industry did not really begin to use oxygen converters for steelmaking on a large scale until the 1970s.

As a result, after entering the 2000s, China's steel production quickly exceeded 3000 million tons and 4000 million tons. If it were not for the impact of political turmoil, China's steel production in the s would have easily exceeded million tons.

It can be seen that the development speed of China's steel industry suddenly accelerated at that time.

Wei Hongjun was previously mainly responsible for the energy industry, light industry, and agriculture in the State Council, and had never been in charge of the steel industry.

Therefore, Bo Shuchun made a great contribution to Ye Zhupei's ability to complete a series of oxygen converter steelmaking experiments so quickly.

Without Bo Shuchun's persistence, the steel industry would have had to wait many years before oxygen converter steelmaking could be implemented. Now, a series of demonstrations have been completed, and even Xuangang has achieved successful results.

So now all that's left is promotion. If those local steel mills are successfully transformed, it will undoubtedly bring a huge boost to China's steel industry.

"It's all thanks to everyone, especially Comrade Ye Zhupei's persistence."

Bo Shuchun expressed this very modestly.

Wei Hongjun shook his head and said, "With the Soviet experts opposing this, it's not easy to make this decision."

Bo Shuchun's determination was more difficult than Wei Hongjun's original determination to improve seeds.

"Although our industrial base is weak and our overall industry lags far behind that of the Soviet Union, our scientific researchers are no less capable than theirs in this area."

Bo Shuchun expressed his thoughts.

Many of China's top researchers are exceptional. More importantly, they have studied abroad in Europe and the United States and are therefore familiar with their technological approaches.

Wei Hongjun nodded and said, "While learning from the Soviet Union, we should also listen more to the opinions of our own researchers and not blindly follow the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union can't be right about everything, especially when it comes to industrial technology."

"The National Science and Technology Commission should maintain close contact with the Ministry of Foreign Trade and the Central United Front Work Department. They all have direct access to Europe and the United States and are aware of their industrial development. We must comprehensively consider the technologies of the Soviet Union, Europe and the United States to plan the direction of our scientific research and development. We should not blindly believe in either Soviet or European and American technology. We should learn from whichever technology is beneficial to our industrial and scientific development."

"it is good."

Wei Hongjun continued, "The National Science and Technology Commission is responsible for the overall planning of science and technology in my country. There is one area where I believe the Commission needs to come up with a specific, appropriate plan: how to manage talent across all industries."

"I'd like to focus on three main issues. The first is the use of technology after it's invented. Although my country has issued the 'Interim Regulations on Protecting Invention Rights and Patent Rights,' the use of invention rights and patent rights is still very vague. This is only a temporary policy issued by the government."

"In the past, these were all state-owned enterprises and national research institutes, so although the regulations were somewhat vague, there weren't any serious problems. But now, my country has enterprises of all kinds of ownership, and the ambiguity around invention rights and patent rights is directly impacting everyone's enthusiasm. The State Science and Technology Commission needs to do more to clarify the use of invention rights and patent rights, so that they better suit our socialist economy and stimulate everyone's enthusiasm."

China now implements a dual-track system of invention rights and patent rights, which was learned from the Soviet Union after liberation.

The "Provisional Regulations on the Protection of Invention Rights and Patent Rights," promulgated after the founding of the People's Republic of China, stipulate that inventors can choose between invention rights and patent rights. If they choose invention rights, the rights become public, the state confers appropriate honors and material rewards on the inventor, and any domestic organization or individual can use them free of charge.

If you choose a patent, it will be privately owned, giving you exclusive rights to implement your product for a certain period of time, typically between three and fifteen years. Once you have a patent, you can use it to open a factory to produce your product, or you can license it to others for production.

The first invention certificate issued in New China was the "Hou's Alkali Production Method."

However, although New China stipulated that invention rights and patent rights run in parallel, because the socialist transformation of industry and commerce was carried out after the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, New China's inventions mainly appeared in factories and research institutes.

They are all state-owned enterprises or large collective-owned enterprises, so the patent rights are equivalent to nothing and are virtual. After the founding of New China, the main issue is invention rights.

It's often said that patents are opposed and non-existent in socialist countries. While this isn't entirely wrong, it's also not entirely true. The reason for this is that the socialist economy, with either state-owned or collectively owned enterprises, renders patent regulations meaningless.

But things are different now. China's socialist economy is now overwhelmed by diverse economic entities. For example, how should the invention and patent rights of Sino-foreign joint ventures be protected? And how should the invention and patent rights of small collectively owned enterprises, such as county and township rural cooperatives, be protected?

How should the country arrange their invention rights and patent rights?

These issues need to be resolved. Otherwise, there will inevitably be all kinds of trouble in the future. Even conflicts will arise between state-owned enterprises.

"This issue has been reported. There's a rural cooperative in Sichuan that has developed a new type of feed that's very effective for raising chickens and pigs. It's much better than the current methods used in ordinary rural areas."

"They used this feed to build a feed mill, and their business was booming. As a result, a large state-owned factory learned the feed formula and started using it nationwide."

"From a broader perspective, large-scale development of this type of feed is very beneficial to my country's animal husbandry. However, in the long run, this practice directly undermines invention rights and patents. If this happens too often, it will directly affect people's enthusiasm for invention."

"The current situation is that people are completely unfamiliar with the national regulations regarding invention rights and patent rights. Many people have no concept of this. Only major inventions that impact national economy and people's livelihood are eligible for invention rights and patents. Some minor inventions have no invention rights or patents at all, and anyone can use them if they want."

Li Shiping replied.

As the secretary-general of the Scientific Working Committee, Li Shiping handles daily affairs, so he has dealt with too many things in this regard.

What is invention right? What is patent right? In the minds of many cadres, so-called inventions are state-owned and collective. They don't care about so-called invention rights and patent rights at all, or they themselves don't know what invention rights and patent rights are.

Therefore, some technological changes have emerged and everyone uses them casually.

When large state-owned enterprises make technological innovations, they apply for invention rights, and the state awards these entities and individuals with rewards. However, small businesses simply don't have this concept.

"That's it. We must attach importance to invention rights and patent rights and have more detailed regulations on invention rights and patent rights."

"If the inventor and the organization choose to retain the invention rights, to whom should these rights belong? Will they belong to the state, or to all the people? If they belong to all the people, should the technology be disclosed directly?"

"As for this invention right, are only state-owned enterprises eligible for free use, or can both large and small collectively owned enterprises use it free of charge? Or can Sino-foreign joint ventures also use it free of charge? If Sino-foreign joint ventures can use it free of charge, can foreign companies also use it free of charge?"

With the development of China's economy, many things that were once simple have become complicated, the most typical of which is the ownership and use rights of technological inventions.

Previously, it was only stipulated that the inventor and the company could choose the invention rights, and then all enterprises in the country could use them free of charge. But now there are so many enterprises with different ownership structures in the country. Do they all have to use them free of charge?

Of course not. If all enterprises in the country were state-owned, there would be no problem. But why should you use it for free for those small collectively owned enterprises and Sino-foreign joint ventures?

"There are many problems with the ownership and use of inventions, and the situation with patents is even more serious. Because there is no concept of patents in my country right now, many people simply don't respect the technological achievements of others."

"Even if someone obtains a patent, it's useless because others won't abide by the patent regulations. So a clearer scheme for invention rights and patent rights must be established."

Bo Shuchun nodded. In fact, Bo Shuchun also had some feelings about this.

The current regulations on invention rights and patent rights implemented in New China are also a form of "egalitarianism." Although this "egalitarianism" is not as obvious as the distribution of materials, it is a kind of "egalitarianism" with respect to intellectual property rights.

If it is a communist society, it is based on "distribution according to need" and there is no problem of "egalitarianism".

However, China is currently in the primary stage of socialism, far from reaching the point of "distribution according to need." Absolute egalitarianism is even more unacceptable. Absolute egalitarianism directly undermines motivation and productivity.

So Bo Shuchun immediately said, "We'll discuss this. We'll exchange ideas with other departments and see if we can formulate clearer regulations on invention rights and patent rights."

"We've also been communicating with the Political and Legal Affairs Commission and the Legal Affairs Commission of the National People's Congress. Invention rights and patents involve economic interests, so it's not just about formulating policies, but also laws and regulations."

"it is good."

Wei Hongjun continued, "We also need to know how to protect our own technology. Western countries, after hundreds of years of capitalist development, have a comprehensive set of laws and regulations for intellectual property protection, but my country is almost blank in this regard."

"my country's overall industrial technology is currently lagging behind, but that doesn't mean we won't develop world-leading technologies in certain industries. We can't allow certain technologies to leak out openly and eventually be registered by Western countries just because we lack intellectual property protection laws."

When it comes to intellectual property issues, China is still a kindergarten student, while Western countries are already college students.

If China does not make some changes and improvements on the issue of intellectual property rights, it will be directly manipulated by Western countries.

"The second issue is the bureaucratization of scientific researchers. I've recently noticed a trend where many of our scientists are gradually becoming administrative cadres. This is of course inseparable from the fact that today's industrialization requires collaboration. Therefore, many researchers need to be able to mobilize all parties to complete certain research and engineering tasks."

"But this is not a good trend. Once our researchers develop into administrative cadres, they will gradually withdraw from the front lines of scientific research. However, they will still consider themselves researchers and control our scientific research, which will cause great chaos."

There was no way around it for scientific researchers to become cadres in the early days of New China.

Just like Qian Sanqiang, he was the overall planner of the nuclear industry in New China. His role determined that he could not focus on frontline research. The country needed him to formulate detailed plans for the nuclear industry.

But if this situation continues to develop in this way, the end result will be that all the academicians of the Academy of Sciences will be a group of administrative cadres.

"Administrative cadres are administrative cadres, and scientific research cadres are scientific research cadres. There should be a distinction between them. Let me talk about the Missile Research Institute. Comrade Qian Xuesen first became the director of the Missile Research Institute. As a result, he had to deal with a large amount of administrative work every day. Just signing various documents took hours. This was a waste of our scientific research personnel's time and energy."

"So we later appointed Comrade Wang Bingzhang as Director of the Missile Research Institute, responsible for administrative affairs. Comrade Qian Xuesen was appointed Deputy Director, responsible for the overall technical planning of missile research. The two individuals, each fulfilling their respective responsibilities and working in harmony, have led to the current promising development of my country's missile research."

"So my suggestion is that in the future, all our scientific research units should have this distinction. Scientific research cadres should be responsible for scientific research, while administrative cadres should be responsible for administrative affairs. The two should not be confused. If a scientific research cadre is transferred to an administrative cadre, then he should not interfere in scientific research."

"Of course, more specific details require a more detailed plan."

Administrative cadres doing scientific research, and scientific research cadres doing administrative work, this is simply a mess. But if we don't address this issue now, this will be the situation in many scientific research institutions and universities in China in the future.

After a while, Bo Shuchun nodded and said, "The National Science and Technology Commission should hold a special meeting to discuss this issue. Let's see how administrative and scientific research cadres can divide the work and cooperate with each other."

"Finally, there's the issue of how to treat talented individuals in various industries. We shouldn't shy away from this. We are all Marxists and materialists. So we have to acknowledge the objective fact that people are born different. Some are intelligent, some are strong, some are dexterous, and some are born weak and sickly. These innate differences exist objectively. And among them, some are naturally intelligent and have strong learning abilities, becoming pillars of various industries."

"Some time ago, I heard some officials in Guangdong talk about this. Many of the factories run by rural cooperatives in Guangdong were originally very small, with only a few or a dozen people. But some talented individuals were able to lead these factories to rise, and within a few years, they became medium-sized factories with hundreds or even thousands of workers."

"However, with this rapid development, many problems have also emerged. The talented individuals who led everyone to prosperity now complain that their rewards are not commensurate with their contributions. This situation is especially evident when we see the salaries and benefits offered to foreign and Chinese businesses. Therefore, we must take this issue seriously."

"Our country cannot offer high material rewards like capitalist countries. Therefore, we must find other ways to allow our talented people from all walks of life to work with peace of mind."

"I think this requires both internal and external aspects. Internally, the socialist talents we want to cultivate must be willing to contribute to socialist construction and to seek benefits for the broad masses of the people. They must be able to consciously align their own interests with those of the nation and become the backbone of our country's socialist construction."

"From an external perspective, we need to protect the livelihoods of these talented individuals from all walks of life, and our society needs to foster an atmosphere of protecting and respecting talent."

"Human society is prone to the sentiment that inequality is more important than scarcity. We are a socialist country, and we must reform these backward mindsets. We must foster a national public opinion that respects and protects outstanding individuals who have made contributions in all walks of life, and does not envy them."

"That is, talented people themselves must have the mindset of serving the country and the people. Similarly, our people must also have the mindset of respecting and protecting talented people. Only through interaction between the two sides can more socialist talents emerge from among the people."

How to discover and utilize talents is a huge topic.

As cooperation between China and the world grows, the talent problem will inevitably become more serious. Simply put, talented individuals tend to prefer places with fewer constraints, as they thrive there. Currently, the Western world, and especially the United States, touts itself as the "Big Brother" of the free world. Talent favors the American system.

Therefore, how to treat talents and how to allow them to settle down and fully display their talents is an important task of the Science Working Committee in the future.

The three issues that Wei Hongjun discussed with Bo Shuchun and Li Shiping are all serious problems that exist in China's current scientific research, industrial and even grassroots fields in all walks of life.

There is no permanent solution to this problem. We need to gradually formulate more rules and make adjustments according to changing circumstances.

After finishing the conversation with Bo Shuchun, Li Shiping and others, Wei Hongjun made an appointment to talk with Guo Moruo, Deng He, Yang Xiufeng and Duan Chengwei.

"Comrades, don't think this is a trivial matter. Li Desheng's thought is not the Bible, and the Chairman is not God or Bodhisattva. To treat the Chairman as God or Bodhisattva, and Li Desheng's thought as the Bible, is to vulgarize Li Desheng's thought. It is to treat our revolution with the ideas of ancient feudal dynasties, and to treat our revolutionary leaders with the same attitude as feudal emperors and generals."

"Our country has thousands of years of feudal dynasty history, so feudal thinking is deeply rooted in the hearts of many people. Many of our cadres, including some who participated in the revolution during the war years, have not completely gotten rid of this feudal imperial mentality."