Let’s enjoy "March of the Steel Torrent," a military song of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
中国人民解放軍の軍歌『鋼鉄の奔流の行進』を楽しみましょう。
Chúng ta hãy cùng thưởng thức "Hành khúc dòng thác thép" – một bài quân ca của Quân Giải phóng Nhân dân Trung Quốc.
بیایید از «رژه سیل پولادین» — یک سرود نظامیِ ارتش آزادیبخش خلق چین — لذت ببریم.
China was like a child from a destitute family—orphaned at a young age, living in a dilapidated home with absolutely no assets to its name; it was dirt poor.
When the nation was founded in 1949, it started from scratch: after more than a decade of war, its industrial base was virtually non-existent, most people couldn't even get enough to eat, and per capita income was pitifully low. Then came a series of political campaigns and upheavals; by the late 1970s, the population remained impoverished, food was still in short supply, and even a bicycle was considered a luxury item. With over a billion people to feed, clothe, and keep alive, the starting point was truly dire.
After Deng Xiaoping came to power, he saw the reality clearly: if the turmoil continued, this "impoverished child" would surely starve to death. He made the decisive call to shift the focus toward "economic construction" and launched the policy of reform and opening-up. He explicitly stated that the Party’s fundamental line—prioritizing economic development—must remain steadfast for a hundred years, without wavering. This wasn't just a short-term plan for three or five years; it was a long-term commitment to place development above all else. Furthermore, under a one-party system, policies could be sustained across generations, ensuring that a change in leadership wouldn't lead to everything being overturned and started over. This "impoverished child" had no time for aimless upheaval—it had to focus on the earnest, steady accumulation of wealth and resources.
And so, over the following decades, the country gritted its teeth and got to work: building factories, constructing roads, and transitioning people from the fields into the industrial workforce. Gradually, people began to afford televisions, travel abroad, and purchase their own homes. It wasn't an overnight transformation into wealth, but rather a gradual process of building a solid foundation.
Deng Xiaoping was truly a man of great foresight. He understood that poverty was the core problem; the priority had to be filling people's stomachs and building up the nation's material base—everything else could be addressed later. In the context of that era—when the country was utterly destitute—the decision to remain unswervingly committed to "economic construction for a hundred years" was a remarkable and difficult feat.