The Battle of Science and Technology Must Be Fought and This Battle Must Be Won

Mao Zedong's important judgment which was proposed in his work "Without Science and Technology, Productive Forces Cannot Be Raised "published on December 16, 1963. Mao Zedong has always attached great importance to the position and role of science and technology in economic and social development. In February 1940, Mao Zedong pointed out at the founding meeting of the Natural Science Research Institute in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region: Natural science is one of man's weapons in his fight for freedom… For the purpose of attaining freedom in the world of nature, man must use natural science to understand, conquer and change nature and thus attain freedom from nature…We should fully understand that natural science is the most developed and vigorous one which has the power to cause all changes.” In 1953, when New China began to implement the First Five-Year Plan, Mao Zedong proposed that we should prioritize to learn advanced science and technology to build our country. In 1956, on behalf of the Party Central Committee, Zhou Enlai put forward the slogan of "Marching towards Science", emphasizing that the key for the "Four Modernizations" is the modernization of science and technology. In 1958, Mao Zedong put forward: now we must start a technological revolution, and that the Party’s focus of attention should be transferred to a technological revolution. In 1963, he said in a conversation, "The battle of science and technology must be fought, and we must fight it well. In the past, we fought the battle of superstructure and fought for establishment of the people's political power and the People's Army. What was the purpose of building these superstructures? It’s about production. The purpose of superstructure and production relations is to liberate productive forces. Now that the relations of production have changed, productive forces must be raised, without science and technology, productive forces cannot be raised.”

This shows that relying on science and technology to develop productive forces and promote socialist construction in China had become an important guiding thought at that time. Under the guidance of this thought, in a difficult environment, and through the meticulous efforts of scientists and technicians for many years, China has made a number of important achievements in the field of advanced technology such as nuclear technology, man-made satellites and space launch vehicles, such as the atomic bomb (and later the hydrogen bomb) and the intercontinental ballistic missile and the man-made satellite and other important achievements; it was the first country to produce the “synthesized crystalline bovine insulin” and possesses the leading position in the world; and it has gradually developed a number of important basic science and applied science and technology disciplines such as the biophysics, molecular physics, geochemistry, radio astronomy, high energy physics and jet technology, computer technology, semiconductor technology, automation technology, radio technology, etc.

After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the CPC, Deng Xiaoping clearly put forward the conclusion that “science and technology are the primary productive forces” by considering the fact that the rapid development of science and technology in the world has greatly promoted the development of the productive forces. Since then, Jiang Zemin put forward that science and technology are “concentrated reflection and a hallmark of advanced productive forces” ; Hu Jintao put forward that science and technology are “the revolutionary force which promotes the progress of human civilization”; Xi Jinping put forward the important judgement that “A nation will prosper only when its scientific and technological thrive” ideas of which all inherit and develop Mao Zedong's idea that emphasized the significance of science and technology.