1) Those Years: The Germans and Their Things That Entered China

On May 2, 1945, at 7:00 AM, General Weidling, commander of Berlin's city defense, arrived at Chuikov's forward command post and signed the instrument of surrender. By noon, the remaining approximately 150,000 Berlin garrison troops had all surrendered. Thus ended the Battle of Berlin — the final decisive battle of the Soviet-German war and the last major battle of the Second World War. Seven days later, on May 9, 1945, at the request of Hitler's successor Dönitz, representatives of the German High Command — Field Marshal Keitel, General Stumpff, and Admiral von Friedeburg — formally submitted Germany's unconditional surrender to the Allied, Chinese, and Soviet delegations in the cafeteria hall of the Berlin Military Engineering Academy. The Second World War ended in the Allies' victory.

Postwar Berlin had been reduced to scorched earth; virtually no building remained intact. For this final bastion, the Soviet and German sides combined had committed over 3.35 million soldiers (2.5 million Soviet, 850,000 German), 8,550 armored vehicles (6,250 Soviet, 2,300 German), 10,500 aircraft (7,500 Soviet, 3,000 German), and 51,600 artillery pieces (41,600 Soviet, 10,000 German).

To take this fortress city, the Soviet side fired more explosives by weight than the Allied bombers had dropped. The Chinese-supplied PF40 rocket launchers alone destroyed nearly 800 armored vehicles and demolished countless buildings. The savagery of the urban fighting was no less than that at Stalingrad. Soviet casualties exceeded 90,000 killed (30,000 to 35,000 within the city), with 400,000 wounded. German total casualties reached 400,000 (including civilians, wounded, and missing).

After the war, Soviet forces began their occupation of Berlin. Subsequently, the Western Allies and the Chinese Expeditionary Force moved in as per the prior agreement. The Allies and the Sino-Soviet side each took half, and within the Sino-Soviet zone, China requested only enough space to accommodate three divisions.

Starting the day after Berlin's garrison surrendered on May 9, the Chinese Expeditionary Force notified the Allied Command and the Soviet General Staff that China was beginning to collect its share of German assets. After receiving approval from both headquarters — already overwhelmed by the chaos caused by massive numbers of Allied and Soviet soldiers flooding into Berlin — the Expeditionary Force commenced its collection. The following day, the Allies and Soviets followed suit.

After obtaining Berlin's records and interrogating relevant prisoners, China took only key technical materials related to rocketry and similar fields. Through public outreach in Berlin, they recruited a significant number of German scientists, engineers, and other technical talent. The Allies and Soviets, by contrast — "plunder" would be the most vivid and accurate description. Factory equipment — seized. Consumer goods — seized. Gold and silver — seized. Scientific documents — seized. Useful personnel — seized. Many Germans who had been moved by the Chinese propaganda campaign and had planned to relocate their entire families to China were ultimately blocked at their own front doors by the two sides.

In the end, the Expeditionary Force loaded the materials onto seven Y-5 transports (the transport variant of the H-5) and shipped them back to China. The various recruited personnel were escorted by the 1st Marine Division's 2nd Regiment to Italy and transported home by sea.

2) Chinese Goods in the Spotlight (1)

The Second World War's reach was so vast and its destruction so enormous that it far surpassed any previous conflict. Every major theater had been reduced to rubble. Among the belligerents, only China and America had emerged with their light and heavy industries intact. At the height of the war, American shipbuilding speed was nothing short of insane — the Casablanca-class escort carrier at peak production reached one ship every 33 days! Truly an "American speed"!

China, however, never entered such a frenzied phase. According to gradually declassified postwar materials, Chairman Chen Ke had maintained control over China's trajectory throughout the war — from the Sino-British conflict to the conquest of Australia, from joining the Allies to the Expeditionary Force's withdrawal from Europe. This vast land was the stage upon which he exercised his genius. Insiders who later edited his encyclopedia entry online provoked waves of astonishment from netizens, who exclaimed "A prodigy has entered the world!" and "A once-in-five-centuries king!"

Under Chairman Chen Ke's direction, China never treated the war as its paramount concern. After occupying Australia, developing Australia became the top priority: immigration, mineral exploration, city construction, mining, factory building, and later counterinsurgency operations — all of these outranked China's entry into the war.

Of course, this is not to say Chairman Chen Ke was indifferent to the Great War. On the contrary, his attention to it was second only to the domestic revolution he launched before his death. The series of plans he crafted for the war and the several technology research programs he forcibly pushed through during wartime demonstrated his intensity of focus.

But for China, war — from 1943 onward — had always remained distant. Peace seemed to have accompanied China ever since.

Wartime Chinese exports overseas were not substantial. Foreign markets consisted mainly of the Japanese Socialist Republic and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, with a 40/60 split between light and heavy goods. China at this time focused more on its own development. Having gained South Asia and Australia, China's territory was unprecedentedly vast, its resources unprecedentedly rich, and its population — once considered a burden — had become a scarce resource. The massive talent pool accumulated over twenty years of development was consumed almost instantly, deployed across South Asia and Australia. Navigation and aviation industries also experienced rapid growth during this period.

By the war's end in May 1945, China had preliminarily completed the construction of several key coastal cities in Australia. Several key prospecting areas had been explored and preliminary extraction had begun. High-quality ore, after meeting domestic construction needs, could even be partially shipped back to the mainland.

As for the Pacific defense system — it, too, had taken initial shape.

3) Chinese Goods in the Spotlight (2): The World Situation

The "Free World" never abandoned its hostility toward socialist nations. The situation in East Asia was somewhat more tolerable in the Free World's eyes, because China practiced anti-colonialism — vigorously supporting national independence movements within liberated territories, regardless of whether the emerging nations leaned capitalist or socialist.

The Soviet Union, by contrast, began supporting communist and workers' parties in every Eastern European nation after liberation. Eight countries successively joined the socialist camp, their ties extremely close. In 1945, Yugoslav Communist Party Secretary General Tito proposed to Stalin the creation of an international consultative body for Eastern European communist parties; Stalin agreed. By 1947, the evolving world situation made such an institution necessary. That September, in Poland, nine Eastern European nations established the Communist Information Bureau. The organized Eastern European socialist bloc began to take shape. By 1955, to counter the American-led "North Atlantic Treaty Organization," the Eastern European socialist states (excluding Yugoslavia) further established the "Warsaw Treaty Organization."

In Asia, the three nations that had earliest established socialist governments — the People's Republic of China, the Japanese Socialist Republic, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea — did not form a similar ideological military organization. The three nations signed the "Western Pacific Security Treaty" in 1943. After the Southeast Asian peoples achieved national independence, they established the "Southeast Asian Cooperation Organization" under Chinese mediation, signing the "China/Japan/Korea and Southeast Asian Cooperation Organization Treaty." The South Asian subcontinent, divided into five nations, also successively signed the "Indian Ocean Freedom of Navigation Treaty" with China. These treaties primarily strengthened economic ties among Asian nations (capitalist and socialist alike). The Western Pacific Security Treaty was defensive in nature. Combined with Eastern Europe's proximity to Europe's heartland — its flat terrain ideally suited for the Soviet armored torrent — the Free World consistently regarded the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact as the primary threat across both the Asian and Eastern European socialist territories.

In January 1946, less than a year after the war's end, former First Lord of the Admiralty and former Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered his famous "Iron Curtain" speech at Fulton, Missouri. Churchill's act formally raised the curtain on the Cold War.

On March 18, 1949, to militarily guard against the Eastern European socialist bloc, the United States and Western European nations publicly established the "North Atlantic Treaty Organization," formally constituted upon the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, D.C. on April 4 of the same year.

That November, as wartime technological accumulation began to bear fruit and certain military technologies started transitioning to civilian use, the civilian technology sector entered rapid development. To prevent the leakage of advanced technology and restrict strategic exports, the United States secretly proposed the creation of the "Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls" (commonly known as "CoCom" or the "Paris Committee"), involving fourteen nations. It began a technology-level blockade of socialist nations and certain nationalist countries.

The contest between the Free World and the socialist camp had officially begun.

4) Chinese Goods in the Spotlight (3): Soviet Manufacturing vs. Chinese Manufacturing

Soviet products had always been synonymous with "crude, bulky, ugly, rough, and clumsy" (please overlook the individual characters in this description — the different meanings of each Chinese character don't affect comprehension). Some Soviet technologies had always followed "heterodox" paths. For example — well, for instance — Soviet vacuum tube technology, because military requirements outweighed civilian ones, followed the path of nuclear-war-hardened vacuum tubes. But this didn't mean Soviet products were bad. Soviet goods were also in demand worldwide, especially their military equipment.

However, the path the Soviet Union took in industrial development was truly a road of no return. Because the Soviet Union had tilted all industry toward military production during the war, and because NATO posed an immediate postwar threat that made it impossible to reverse course, for a very long time the Soviets had no choice but to import Chinese products to satisfy their domestic population's needs.

Yet Soviet arms were selling worldwide at this time — not only equipping the Eastern European socialist bloc nations but also spreading across the globe alongside revolutionary exports. The QBZ40, which China had authorized the Soviet Union to produce, was improved domestically by Kalashnikov and renamed the AK-47. Beyond massive domestic deployment, it was also supplied in large quantities to Eastern European nations. Faced with this fait accompli and the backdrop of East-West confrontation, China was powerless to intervene, ultimately charging each Eastern European nation a symbolic one-yuan technology licensing fee.

Soviet tank technology was also advancing rapidly. Beyond the vast experience accumulated during the war, the Soviets incorporated numerous advantages from China's ZTZ-43 to produce their own T-44 tank. After obtaining partial documentation for China's ZTZ-49 tank, they used reverse engineering to produce their own replica, which after improvements was finalized in 1954 as the T-54. They subsequently began mass-producing T-54/55 tanks in partnership with Czechoslovakia and Poland, with an estimated total production of approximately 50,000 units — one-third of the world's postwar tank production. Subsequent Soviet tanks were all descended from Chinese designs, eventually developing their own distinctive characteristics.

The Soviet Union also used the PF40 rocket launcher supplied by China to produce its own RPG-2, while the subsequent RPG-7 became ubiquitous worldwide.

Postwar China, for its part, did not pursue a strategy of overwhelming quality with quantity in weapons and equipment. Instead, it adopted an elite-force strategy. As China's nuclear weapons capabilities became public knowledge, the world's wariness deepened. Once all five permanent Security Council members possessed nuclear weapons and nuclear winter theory began to circulate, nations developed profound misgivings about destroying the planet. The world situation reached a terrifying nuclear equilibrium, and genuine peace began to descend.

The Central leadership maintained a half-believing, half-doubting attitude toward Chairman Chen Ke's predictions about the world situation. His past predictions had invariably proven correct, but before verification, no one dared express agreement — this time was no different. Chairman Chen Ke made certain concessions, not insisting on immediately implementing the elite-force strategy. Instead, he adopted a "walking on two legs" approach: maintaining current military strength on one hand, while accelerating the development of cutting-edge projects within the military portion of the Science and Technology Book Plan on the other. Once these projects came to fruition, the elite-force policy would become inevitable.

Wartime technological accumulation finally erupted in 1949 — quantitative change triggering qualitative change. The successful commercialization of integrated circuits opened the breach. The first artificial satellite reached orbit; computer miniaturization progressed; computer networks began construction. Combined with earlier nuclear technology applications, the Third Technological Revolution began, and China stood at the world's vanguard.

Chairman Chen Ke's predictions began coming true after the application of rocket technology. China's successful satellite launch via rocket meant China possessed the ability to deliver nuclear weapons to any point on Earth. With the capacity for standoff delivery of weapons of mass destruction, China could to some degree dispense with wartime troop levels. Combined with new engines and special steels, new main battle tanks possessed firepower and armor surpassing any WWII-era tank; jet aircraft began mass replacement of propeller planes.

Anti-tank guided missiles for countering the "King of Land Warfare," large-scale deployment of "tank-killer" attack helicopters, and countless other developments — the Chinese military began its march toward the streamlined, specialized force that Chairman Chen Ke had predicted.

Although China gradually began demobilizing traditional infantry postwar, its vast territory and overseas garrisons meant it still maintained the world's largest army, navy, and air force. Even when Sino-Soviet relations deteriorated to the point where a million Red Army soldiers faced a million Red Army soldiers across the border, China could still comfortably free up resources to support pro-Chinese forces in East Africa and the Middle East in their confrontation with the United States, Soviet Union, and other powers.

5) The Third Technological Revolution

The Third Technological Revolution — also called the Digital Revolution — made traditional industry more mechanized and automated, reducing operating costs and fundamentally transforming societal operating models. Represented by the application of nuclear energy, space technology, electronic computers, and renewable energy, it encompassed synthetic materials, molecular biology, genetic engineering, solar energy, wind energy, and other high-technology fields.

Scholarly consensus generally holds that the Third Technological Revolution first occurred in China. On October 16, 1940, China detonated its first atomic bomb. Five years later, on October 1, 1945, China detonated its first hydrogen bomb. And prior to that — on July 16 — the United States had only just detonated its first atomic bomb.

China's northern neighbor, the Soviet Union, had received accurate intelligence as early as 1942 — in Interior Minister Beria's report to the State Defense Committee — regarding American, British, and French atomic bomb research. The report also noted that an unusual weapons test conducted two years earlier in China's northwestern interior was very likely an atomic bomb detonation. However, the Soviet Union was then at a critical juncture of the Soviet-German war and could not divert additional resources to nuclear weapons research. Only after the war could massive resources be allocated. Combined with materials and enriched uranium captured from Germany, the Soviet nuclear research program accelerated. On August 29, 1949, the Soviet Union's first atomic bomb was successfully detonated at Novaya Zemlya.

The true peace born of nuclear terror quietly descended from that moment.

At 1:00 AM on October 1, 1949, China launched the world's first artificial satellite from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. The Chinese government then announced from its capital, Zhengzhou, to the entire world that China had successfully launched humanity's first artificial satellite — shocking the globe.

China's successful launch was followed by a flood of congratulatory messages. Japan and Korea were first to extend congratulations, hailing the People's Republic of China's achievement as a monumental feat for all humanity. The Soviet Union followed, calling the launch "a great victory for socialism." The American Association of Scientists also sent congratulations, praising Chinese scientists for accomplishing a great endeavor in the history of human technology. Britain... France... the Secretary-General of the United Nations...

Two years later, in 1951, China successfully launched its first communications satellite, once again leaving the entire world speechless. China had once again surged ahead.

Four years after that, the Soviet Union — rushing furiously — launched its own first artificial satellite. The United States, not to be outdone, successfully launched its own first satellite in December. But compared to China, the technological gap was enormous: both nations had merely managed to put a satellite into orbit, while China had already achieved geostationary orbit...

The successful launches of China's artificial and communications satellites captured worldwide attention. But in the Cold War context, everyone focused on China's terrifying rocket technology. No one noticed China's equally terrifying advances in integrated circuits and electronic computing.

America had built the world's first analog electronic computer as early as 1930, but didn't develop its first vacuum-tube computer — ENIAC — until 1946. It was a true colossus: 17,840 vacuum tubes, 80 feet by 8 feet, weighing 28 tons, consuming 170 kilowatts, computing 5,000 additions per second, at a cost of approximately $487,000 — built to calculate artillery trajectories. The American scientific community celebrated exuberantly. But they did not know that their Chinese counterparts across the Pacific had long since been using electronic computers and were already working on miniaturization.

In 1947, through the tireless efforts of Chinese scientists, the first integrated circuit was successfully developed. By 1949, commercially viable small-scale integrated circuits (MSI and SSI) were being applied to computers. By the end of 1949, the first compact computer was successfully produced. While the rest of the world was still on first-generation vacuum-tube digital machines and striving toward second-generation transistor machines, China had already entered the third generation of integrated-circuit digital computers and was advancing toward the next generation of large-scale integrated circuit machines.

But the third-generation computer was merely a product without a matching operating system, processor instruction sets, or general-purpose programming capabilities. It was not until November 11, 1955, at an evaluation meeting personally chaired by Chairman Chen Ke, that he systematically articulated the concepts of computer hardware and software. In the early stages of computing development, this was a guiding beacon. Following this clear line of thinking, progress was swift. By 1957, a microcomputer with complete hardware and software — operating system, drivers, keyboard, mouse, and all — was successfully produced. By 1958, most national-level laboratories were equipped with microcomputers, and preliminary inter-computer connectivity had been achieved. By 1960, computers — which had by then been distributed to all major universities — were successfully networked, and the push to bring computers to primary and secondary schools was underway.

Confronted with what could only be described as a "Sturm und Drang" pace of Chinese computing development, the world was left speechless. But no one knew the truth: behind China's astonishingly rapid computer proliferation lay the sustained efforts of two generations of national leaders — Chen Ke and Li Runshi. What no one realized at the time was that the forced adoption of computers was designed to enable information to spread more rapidly and clearly among the populace, to maximize the awakening and exercise of the people's collective wisdom — so that the masses would be able to take the leading role in the last great undertaking before Chen Ke's death.