SURVEY OF CHINA MAINLAND PRESS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000100790009-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 14, 1998
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: September 14, 1964
• Content Type: REPORT

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SURVEY OF , CHINA MAIIti PRESS .
September 14, 1964
* NATIONAL
SCIE3y IpIC Zn.PERIMENT
Large-scale Scientific Experimental Work
CPYRGHT
by
Ch ien Hsieh-sen (
(Peking Jen-min Jih-pao Aug. 30, 1964)
Chairman Mao's enunciation that class struggle, production struggle, and
scientific experiment are the three great revolutionary movements for building a
owerful socialist country is the most cogent and perspicacious summation of the
contemporary activities of mankind. Scientific experimental activity is a more
modern phenomenon that came much later than the class struggle and production
struggle of mankind. However, the scope and magnitude of scientific experiments
are ever expanding, and are expanding at an ever faster rate. This statement is
true not only in terms of the absolute quantity of manpower and material power,
also in comparison with production struggle and in terms of relative quantity.
Chairman Mao drew the profound and wise conclusion that scientific experiments
should be placed on the same level with class struggle and production struggle aft
he analyzed modern science and technology.
The sphere of scientific experiment is very broad. It includes the tests
carried out by man in conjunction with productive labor, and the diverse inquiries
and experiments for the improvement of technology and production. Most people
Da.rticipate in this field of work. This kind of scientific experimental work is
carried out on a small scale by the production teams of people's communes and the
workshops of factories. The work has a mass,character. This aspect of work does
not necessarily call for the use of precision instruments or the guidance of very
profound scientific theories. But it is closely connected with the realities of
pro action. People who participate in this kind of work also directly participate
in labor. They go deep into the first line of the front, and are best able to obse e
tie n:~t~-:xa?. l s in the process of orcduction. Therefore, these scienti is expcri-
ments of them sea hw c a meat role to 2-1.y any, l.eI considerable res~~l:s. They
constitute ca ._:.~n~xr,;~^ n: aspect of scams: ~tifi : ep =.~;y.en .
'A"uz6 also- perceive that a:by-ho wq cciiittmporary natural scic cr:e,
i evelotied to a high de ee and their theoretical systems are rather perfect, yet
choul d be said that -,-vu have not mastered all the mysteries of nature, and we hay
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CPYRGHT
No. 3297
aot discc7ered all the laws governing the movement of matter in nature. Therefore,
the scientific experiments of the masses which 'are not confined by scientific theories
are more able to break through the known boundaries and to discover things unknown
before. The discovery of the high-yield law of paddy rice by Chen Yung-k'.ang,
an outstanding innovator of agricultural techniques in China, and the pneumatic
metal-cutting technology of welder Li Kuei are cases in point. To be sure, le.
-these discoveries can only emerge from a lot of work and the work of many people.
But once a new law is discovered, it gives man new knowledge of the objective world,
and. is therefore most valuable. In our country, the inventions of the working prop
-:all never be buried in oblivion. It is therefore said that the developmentt, of mass
scientific experiments is of significance.
Lt the'in tial stage in the development of science and technolog',y, the
,whole undertaking was very small in scale, and there were few people engaged in
scientific research. They'were assistants to specialized scientists and scientists.
At, that time, every experiment in scientific research was taken up by only it few
-)ersons. The equipment used was also rather crude. It was not much different
from the equipment which we now use for giving instructions in secondary schools, or
probably even cruder. This we can see from the laboratories of the well-known
scientists still preserved, or the pictures showing the circumstances in which some
scientists worked. They made use of such equipment to lay down the foundation of
modern science and technology. Why were the achievements they made so great although
they had only crude equipment? We can of course say that these famous scientists
were brilliant. But the more important reason was that science was.'still is its
infancy'at that 'time, and was more or less rudimentary. Natural things were not very
carefully analyzed and dissected, and as a consequence, tools which were rather
crude could meet the need.
Even today, crude equipment and instruments, besides being used in mass
scientific experiments, are still also used in some rather important scientific and
theoretical work. For example, apart from paper and pen, botanical and zoological
taxonomists need collecting tools, magnifying glasses and a rich store of specimens
in research. These also cannot be described as complex equipment. There are some
scientific problems'which can be considered as the most "pioneering." For example,
it is necessary to determine whether there are outside the earth or the solar system
'living things like those on the earth. One kind of laboratory work to solve this
question of cosmic biology is to collect meteorites from outer space. These meteorites
are then cut apart in very clean working environment to insure that the inner part
of the meteorites is not "contaminated" by biological matter on the earth. Samples
are next taken for analysis to see whether the inner part of the meteorites contains
traces of biological matter, or the vestiges of organic matter composed of atoms of
carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. If such traces are present, and if it can
be proved that this is not due to contamination after the meteorites fell on the
earth, then it can be shown that there may also be living things like those on the
earth in outer space many billions of miles away. Such work also does not need
very complicated equipment.
it can thus be seen that even for specialized scientists, the study of very im-
portant scientii'ic.'.probl'ems -does:.not.?necesoarily.' call: for the :use.,.of_.comple:x egpipmont.
The problems they study are greatly different from those at the early stage of
scientific development, but they inherit the ..material conditions for research at the
initial stage, namely, one or two workrooms, some crude tools, several assistants
working under a scientist, plus a library and a filing room. The scientists engaged
in such work also work diligently to develop the new sphere of science and technology,
and constitute an important force among the scientific ranks.
However, what we must especially describe here is not this kind of _-aall-
scale scientific experimental work, but large-scale scientific experimental 1lGork
clearly marked by the characteristics of modern science and technology uEY c_risection
mental work in modern science and technology calls for careful analysis
of natural phenomena, and hence it so necessary to make' use of suitable fine tools
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