Always attached to the original text of the motherland

Always attached to the motherland (included in the eighth lesson of the eighth grade volume of the Jiangsu Education Press)

Liu Jingzhi

Qian Xuesen was born in Shanghai in 1911. In his early years, he studied in Beijing Normal University. Studied at the High School Affiliated to the University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In 1935, he passed the Boxer Indemnity Grant to study abroad at public expense. He first studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, and then went to the California Institute of Technology for further study. He studied under the famous physicist von Kármán, one of the founders of American aerospace science, and spent three years there. Later, he received a doctorate and stayed at the school to teach. During this period, under the influence of von Karman, he became interested in rocket technology and participated in the rocket research group of the Guggenheim Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. This laboratory later became the cradle of American rocket technology, and Qian Xuesen was one of the first three members to study rocket technology in this cradle.

At the end of World War II, the U.S. Air Force highly praised Qian Xuesen for his "huge contribution" and "inestimable contribution" to the victory of the war. American columnist Milton Vioest believes that Qian Xuesen has been "a key figure in formulating the long-term plan for the U.S. Air Force to transition from propeller-driven aircraft to jet aircraft, and finally to the transition to unmanned spacecraft that fly in space." A bright star in the galaxy of scientists who helped the United States become the world's premier military power."

In 1947, upon the recommendation of von Kármán, Qian Xuesen became the youngest tenured professor at Caltech. Since the second half of 1949, he has assumed the position of director of the Guggenheim Jet Propulsion Research Center in the college, leading graduate student research and teaching. At that time, Qian Xuesen, only 37 years old, was already recognized by the world as an authority in mechanics and applied mathematics and one of the pioneers of fluid mechanics research. He was an outstanding aerodynamicist, a pioneer of modern aviation science and rocket technology, Founder of engineering cybernetics.

From 1935 to 1955, Qian Xuesen stayed in the United States for 20 years. During these 20 years, he has made brilliant achievements in academics and enjoyed generous benefits in life. However, he was always attached to the motherland where he was born and raised. In letters to his father, he lamented more than once, "When will my travel career last?" He told his father that more than once he dreamed of Shanghai and the house where he spent his childhood.

On October 1, 1949, New China was born. Qian Xuesen was very excited. On the Mid-Autumn Festival of that year (the sixth day of the birth of New China), Qian Xuesen and his wife had a strong idea in their hearts: to return to the motherland and contribute their wisdom and strength to the new motherland.

In July 1950, Qian Xuesen, who had already made up his mind to return to his motherland, met with the U.S. Navy Undersecretary in charge of his research work and told him that he was ready to leave for home immediately. The minor was shocked. He believed: "Qian Xuesen is worth five divisions no matter where he is." He once said: "I would rather shoot him than let him go back to China."

In August 1950, Qian Xuesen bought I bought my ticket and prepared to leave the United States on a Canadian Pacific flight. In mid-September, he resigned from his position as director of the Hypersonics Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Los Angeles and head of the college's Guggenheim Jet Propulsion Research Center. At the same time, he has packed many scientific books and research notes into boxes and handed them over to an American moving company for shipment back to China.

At this moment, he suddenly received a notice from the US Immigration Service. The Immigration Bureau refused to allow him to leave the United States and threatened him with prison sentences and fines! All of his scientific books and notebooks were also searched and seized, and he was falsely accused of attempting to transport confidential scientific documents back to his country.

At that time, China and the United States were in a state of war and hostility on the Korean battlefield. Fascist-style McCarthyism is prevalent in the United States. Qian Xuesen's determination to return to China angered the US authorities. On September 9, 1950, Qian Xuesen was suddenly and illegally arrested by the FBI and sent to a detention center on Termina Island where he was held for 15 days. After 15 days of torture, he lost 30 pounds.

After hearing the news, many teachers and students at the California Institute of Technology and Professor von Kármán, who was far away in Europe at the time, immediately lodged a strong protest to the US Immigration Service and raised another US$15,000 in bail before Qian Xuesen was released from prison. Rescued from detention center on Termina Island.

However, things are not over yet. The U.S. Immigration Bureau illegally restricted Qian Xuesen's freedom, requiring him to report to the Immigration Bureau once a month and not allowing him to leave Los Angeles, where he lives. FBI agents have been monitoring him, often breaking into his laboratory and residence to cause trouble. His letters and phone calls were also checked.

In order to reduce the troubles of his friends, Qian Xuesen was isolated from the outside world for five years. However, this life of disguised house arrest did not weaken Qian Xuesen and his wife's will to return to the motherland. His wife Jiang Ying recalled: "In those years, we always packed three small and lightweight boxes, ready to fly back to China at any time every day."

For the convenience of returning to China, the house they rented They only signed one-year contracts. They moved five times in five years. At that time, his seven-year-old boy and five-year-old girl also knew that their grandfather and grandmother were missing them in China, far away from the United States.

In June 1955, in order to return to the motherland as soon as possible, the tortured Qian Xuesen wrote a letter to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, calling for help from the motherland.

Prime Minister Zhou Enlai attached great importance to this and immediately ordered this letter to be sent to the Chinese Ambassador to Poland Wang Bingnan, instructing him to argue with reason during Sino-US ambassadorial talks to try to rescue Qian Xuesen and return to China.

Faced with the hard facts, the US representative was speechless. Soon, relevant authorities in the United States hurriedly informed Qian Xuesen that he could leave the United States and return to China.

On September 17, 1955, after more than five years of struggle, Qian Xuesen, Jiang Ying and their two children finally successfully boarded a ship and sailed to the east, heading for the motherland they had always been attached to.