Chapter 48: Self-Reliance and Self-Strengthening

Director Qian’s days were not easy.

To be more precise, they were extremely hard.

At this moment, he desperately needed results to prove himself.

First, the Five Institutes under Director Qian’s leadership operated on an independent budget, without competing for national defense funds with other projects.

Second, over the past three years, he relocated 1,500 core R&D personnel to the Qinghai Base, far from frontline regions.

Finally, the senior leaders explicitly instructed that expenditures for atomic bombs and missiles must be listed as separate items, ensuring they account for at least 15% of total military spending.

Everyone can see the results of the atomic bomb—China certainly needs it—but what about missiles? What makes your missile development different from others’?

In his letter to the senior leaders, Director Qian wrote: If missile R&D funding falls below 15%, we will lose the window for international catch-up.

From the standpoint of actual national support, when including accompanying industrial investments, missile spending in the military budget has indeed exceeded 15%.

It can be said that China has never shortchanged Director Qian or the Five Institutes in scientific investment.

You received such massive support—you must deliver results.

In the past, criticism has arisen from all sides: Why not pursue mass science? Why let you alone handle scientific research?

These criticisms were immense pressure, directly crushing down on Director Qian.

Criticism was one thing; greater pressure came from America, whose Bullpup missiles with a 1,000-kilometer range had already been deployed across from Fujian Province.

Facing this situation, Director Qian had been holding back his anger—if he didn’t produce something, his own downfall didn’t matter, but if the entire missile development line collapsed, everything would be lost.

He had long been dissatisfied with the Soviets, because the P-2 missile technology they transferred was a crippled version.

Watching Pokrovsky’s face turn pale, Director Qian felt immense satisfaction inside.

He had always known the Russians were untrustworthy; seeing the missile technical drawings merely confirmed it again.

“Pokrovsky, the P-2 you transferred to us had a range of only 270 kilometers. We Chinese can increase it to 600 kilometers on our own.”

“You yourselves couldn’t achieve 500-meter accuracy—we Chinese will show you how!”

After speaking, Director Qian’s heart surged—500-meter accuracy meant too much; for China, it meant at last having a genuine means to directly threaten the areas across from Fujian.

With 500-meter accuracy, a 590-kilometer range, and a velocity of 2 km/s, these three combined meant every city west of the Central Mountains could be covered by the Truth Cannon.

It would greatly alleviate security concerns along the coast.

“Qian, achieving a 600-kilometer range—I believe your capability makes it entirely possible. We all know it’s difficult, but not impossible.”

“Whether refining oxidizers or increasing fuel density, modifying the engine—there are many ways to extend range.”

“But improving accuracy—especially jumping from kilometer-level to meter-level—is an entirely different challenge.”

“You must have achieved a technological breakthrough to accomplish this.”

“According to the 1957 technical agreement, this technology must be shared with us.” Pokrovsky’s tone grew increasingly forceful. “Yes, you’ve surely discovered a new inertial guidance method to achieve such a leap in accuracy.”

He seemed determined to confirm his claim.

Director Qian shook his head: “Sorry, the technical agreement no longer exists. Have you forgotten?”

“You have already torn up the technical agreement.”

“Moreover, the agreement was flawed from the start—we Chinese were magnanimous and never held it against you.”

The 1957 technical agreement stipulated the transfer of R-2 missile technology, but you gave us a crippled version called P-2.

The R-2 had a range of 550 kilometers; the crippled P-2 had a theoretical range of only 270 kilometers.

If the Russians hadn’t been untrustworthy and delivered something utterly unusable, we wouldn’t have taken until 1960 to conduct our first test flight after receiving the blueprints in 1957.

Over the past three years, Director Qian’s Five Institutes comprehensively upgraded the P-2: improved fuel, redesigned the engine, adjusted structural materials, and refined the tailstream fairing.

Even without Lin Ran’s returned Monte Carlo method and variational optimization, Director Qian’s team would have optimized the P-2’s trajectory.

From the beginning, the Russians had ill intent—their delivery was a crippled version of a crippled design.

“The Military Industrial Committee accepts document KT-0124/1960.”

“Sending unit: ****”

“Date: July 31, 1960, 4:30 Moscow Time.”

“To: ****”

“CC:”

“Urgent Report: Abnormal Development of Chinese Missile Technology and Recommended Countermeasures.”

“Key Facts Confirmed:”

“According to radar data from Observation Station 7 (Zhangjiakou) and experimental records from Bingcheng (see Attachments KT-0124-1 to KT-0124-5), during the fourth full-system test of Project 1059 on July 30, 1960:”

“Range: 591 kilometers (219% beyond the theoretical maximum of the R-2 technical files we transferred); Circular Error Probable (CEP): 483 meters (Soviet standard required 1.8 kilometers); Penetration speed: 2.2 Mach.”

“Anomalous Technical Tracing:”

“Fuel system confirmed to use modified ethanol–liquid oxygen mixture, thermodynamic efficiency exceeding design specifications by 21%; turbopump assembly features a three-chamber parallel patented structure; guidance gyro drift rate reduced to 0.08°/h; inertial guidance algorithm has surpassed our never-released Globus-3 core algorithm.”

“Risk Assessment:”

“(1) China has acquired the capability to directly strike Far Eastern targets (Khabarovsk/Vladivostok) with missiles;”

“(2) Neutral countries may reach deals with China; if China sells missile technology, we will lose strategic leverage in certain regions;”

“(3) If China reverse-engineers and exports its improved technology, it could trigger total collapse of the Warsaw Pact’s technical system.”

“Recommended Actions......”

In July, Bingcheng was not cold, but Pokrovsky felt a chill—the shock from his Chinese counterparts left him uneasy.

After drafting the fax, he sat before the KROT fax machine, watching the message slowly transmit back to Moscow, thinking: “The Chinese colleagues are too restless.”

The Russians had transferred technology to many countries, but only China persisted in making something different from what they were given.

Take India as an example: the MiG-21 production line transferred in the late 1960s remained unchanged for fifty years until 2019—exactly as delivered.

Even after over four hundred crashes due to insufficient engine thrust and avionics coupling failures—more crashed than ever completed a full service cycle—they never succeeded in improving it.

“If only China would be like other countries and stop being so restless,” Pokrovsky thought.