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In addition to building a Type 58 destroyer, Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard is also building three 7000-ton coastal freighters on three berths.
This scene is too hot, and now China is not free to conduct foreign trade.
These ships are used for inland waterway navigation and coastal trade. The so-called coast is within the radius of the Chinese Air Force's shore-based operations. In this area, the US Navy is not afraid of stopping and detaining ships.
In recent years, the Air Force has also frequently conducted anti-stop and anti-break drills. Cargo ships in the central and offshore areas send radio signals to ask for help. The Air Force quickly takes off fighter jets and arrives at the sea area where the cargo ship is located within 1 to 2 hours to relieve the crisis of the cargo ship.Therefore, the US Navy's blockade is also outside the combat radius of the main aircraft of the Chinese Air Force.
In 1959, maritime trade still relied on two transshipment ports: North Korea’s Nampo Port for transshipment, and South Korea’s Hong Kong.
All maritime trade is carried out by third-party companies, such as British companies registered in Hong Kong, who order goods from Europe and ship them to Hong Kong. After they are unloaded from Hong Kong, the third-party company completes the task, and the Chinese coastal freighter goes to Hong Kong to load the goods. , to Guangzhou, Fujian, Taiwan or Shanghai.
The same is true for Nampo, North Korea. The goods are ordered in the name of North Korea, and the goods are shipped from Eastern European countries to Nampo, and then Chinese cargo ships go to North Korea to load these goods back.Nanpu mainly serves northern ports such as Dalian, Tianjin and Qingdao.
There used to be some cargo ships that did not unload at the transshipment port and sailed to Nampo, North Korea. In fact, they turned around and headed for Qingdao after a few moments outside the port area. This saved the effort of unloading and reloading, but occasionally there were risks. It was discovered by the reconnaissance plane of the US military stationed in South Korea over the Yellow Sea, and then the ship was detained when it returned to the Strait of Malacca.
"Now 3000-ton cargo ships can sail directly to Wuhan, so there is the greatest demand for inland river freighters and barges of this class," Cheng Wang said. Iron ore, cement, and steel are constantly coming and going, and Ma’anshan’s river port is often blocked and queued up, so the pier needs to be expanded.”
Tang Hua: "Recent reports from several Western think tanks and trade consulting organizations have inferred that the isolation policy between the United States and China may not be sustainable. It will persist until 1960 at most. The policy will be changed after the change of the US President. American businessmen and factory owners I can’t sit still, European allies are trading with China semi-openly, and the United States only has 3000 to [-] million smuggled trade volume.”
Cheng Wang: "So, in a year or two, we will have to build more civilian ships."
……
In April 1959, the economic crisis that had spread in Europe and the United States for two years finally saw the dawn of fading.
This economic crisis ended the "post-war high-speed development period" of old Europe and Japan, and returned to the path of low-speed development and periodic crises.
The United States was hurt more than Europe and Japan, with the highest rate of decline in industrial output. In addition, there was something called a "chronic agricultural crisis". At the beginning of 1959, American industry was basically out of the crisis, but the chronic crisis of agriculture was not over yet.
When the economic crisis hit in 57, Eisenhower took several measures to save the American industry: increasing military investment and aerospace investment; The government allocated billions of dollars to build a highway network linking all state capitals in the contiguous United States.
The interstate high-speed project was one of Eisenhower's biggest achievements in office. This expressway network will definitely not be completed during his presidency, and the expected construction period is as long as 20 to 30 years.After he left office, the successor president added billions of dollars to the interstate highway project whenever the economy was in crisis, increasing employment and stimulating the economy.
However, although the United States has gradually stepped out of the industrial depression, the wealthy people in the United States still miss China, and it is too disadvantageous to be isolated from China.China can not only help the United States digest industrial products, but also help the United States digest agricultural products.
All this stems from the book "China is bound to collapse" written by Song Ziwen, who proclaimed himself the Minister of Finance of the government-in-exile of the Republic of China at the end of 1954.
This book has been selling well in the past few years. The most important point in the book is that the Chinese government cannot solve the problem of eating Chinese people.Song Ziwen even exposed himself, revealing all the facts about China that he knew during the Republic of China, saying that during the so-called golden 10 years of the government, the Chinese still did not have enough to eat, and there were famines in many places.
Therefore, Song Ziwen came to the conclusion that there is no way for the Chinese to support themselves, unless they recognize the United States as their father.
Song Ziwen's original meaning was to sing bad words about China, saying that the new China would also suffer from famine.But in the eyes of American businessmen, what he wrote in this chapter is all about business opportunities: Chinese people are short of food, but the United States can export food.At the moment when the United States is facing a chronic agricultural crisis, everyone misses China as a food import market.
……
"Mr. President, the CIA's summary and analysis report on China's nuclear facilities."
Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy handed a report to Eisenhower.
Eisenhower took the report and opened it in no hurry. "When does the CIA think China will build an atomic bomb?"
McElroy: "Twelve to eighteen months. Besides the atomic bomb, there's one thing worse than that: China's developing a hydrogen bomb, Mr. President."
……
"This factory was photographed when our U-2 passed by the vicinity of Baotou for the first time. The size, layout, and main workshop equipment of the factory can be identified, so we are almost 100% sure that this is a gas-diffusion method uranium enrichment plant .”
"We are very familiar with this kind of factory layout, because we have seen this kind of factory in U-2 in the Ural region. This is the gas diffusion factory that was dismantled by the Soviet Union and shipped to China in 1956. We have estimated its production capacity before, and it can provide Weapons-grade uranium for 20 implosion bombs, or low-enriched uranium for two plutonium-producing reactors."
"The plutonium-producing reactor was not photographed by our reconnaissance plane, but the U-2 photographed this on its third flight, a heavy chemical plant. It may be used to extract plutonium-239 from spent fuel rods. Therefore, China Not only are uranium bombs being developed, but plutonium bombs are also being developed, which can be roughly confirmed.”
"But the most critical information is the photos taken by our U-2 during the second flyby. There are several factory facilities in this area. The first thing we identified was a heavy water plant. At a distance of 40 kilometers from the heavy water plant There is a factory there, and at first we thought it was a fluorite smelter, but after careful analysis, it didn't look like a fluorite smelter, it was a lithium deuteride factory."
"Lithium deuteride-6 and tritium are two commonly used fusion materials for hydrogen bombs. Tritium and deuterium are not used in atomic bombs. Therefore, China is planning for its own hydrogen bomb."
Eisenhower flipped through the report page by page, while McElroy and nuclear experts answered the president's questions.
"Is lithium deuteride necessarily used to make hydrogen bombs?" Eisenhower asked.
"Precisely, the material used to make hydrogen bombs is lithium-6 deuteride, which requires an isotope separation of natural lithium to separate the two substances lithium-6 and lithium-7. We did not photograph the lithium isotope separation plant , but the separation of lithium isotopes is not too difficult, and China must have factories for separating lithium isotopes."
Eisenhower turned to the last page of the report and pondered for a long time.
McElroy: "Does the Air Force need to develop a plan for precision bombing into the interior of China?"
Eisenhower: "No. To put pressure on the Soviet Union, say why China is secretly developing nuclear weapons while the United States, the Soviet Union, and Britain are stopping nuclear tests and conducting nuclear disarmament negotiations."
……
Okinawa.
On the evening of April 4th, at the U.S. military base in Okinawa, the atmosphere in the Air Force Staff Headquarters was tense, and some staff members still showed some panic on their faces.
The U-2 reconnaissance plane that was supposed to return two hours ago has yet to show up. It has neither sent a radio identification signal in the East China Sea nor appeared over Okinawa.
Six F-86 fighter jets had been dispatched to do a visual search over the East China Sea, but the pilots found nothing until dark.
Could it be that the plane malfunctioned and crashed?Hope people are ok.
……Do not.
Right now, CIA chief Mike Mills is really thinking: If something happens to the plane, well... let's hope something happens to people.
"Mike, what should we do now?" Major General Smart of the Okinawa base asked.
Mike Mills spread his hands: "I think we should tune the radio receiving equipment to the channel of 'Central People's Broadcasting Station'."
……
From the end of 1958, when U-2 entered China for the first time to this morning's mission, U-2 entered the hinterland of China five times in total. This fifth inland reconnaissance, something happened.
You must know that in Central Asia and Europe, U-2 has carried out reconnaissance in the Soviet Union 22 times in a row without missing a single shot.
Of course, the U.S. Air Force already knew that entering the hinterland of China for reconnaissance may be more dangerous than entering the hinterland of the Soviet Union: China and the Soviet Union are equipped with the same anti-aircraft missiles, and the performance of the air-to-air warning radar is similar, but on the Chinese side, the U-2 has to pass through the population of China In the dense area, the air-to-air surveillance radar density here is much higher than that in the Central Asia and Ural regions of the Soviet Union.
The CIA's intelligence system and the records of the U-2's radar warning device proved that China and the Soviet Union had discovered the phenomenon of the U-2's altitude drop when turning. When U-2 turns to return, it conducts interception or anti-aircraft missile ambush.
Therefore, U-2 chooses a different steering and home point each time, and chooses a different entry route each time. The frequency of U-2 intrusion flights in China is not high, only flying once a month, but between the two flights, the U.S. Air Force will analyze the electromagnetic signals in the hinterland of China very carefully, refresh the position of the ground radar station, and let the U-2 [-] Choose the best route to enter.
These four months are the four months when the Chinese Air Force's air defense missile force and U-2 try to figure out what their opponents think.
On the fourth flight, the U-2 pilot designed one of the most ingenious routes: turning over the photo target instead of turning when flying 100 kilometers ahead of the target.
This route was very successful. U-2 dodged the four Hongqi-4 anti-aircraft missile battalions in front of it, and made the commanders and fighters of the second brigade stare with anger, but there was no way for him to go back swaggeringly.
……
On the morning of April 4, U-5 took off from Okinawa and entered China to perform its fifth reconnaissance mission.