Now locked in head-on rivalry, the US once helped China kick-start its science and technology ambitions

One of the darkest eras in China’s modern history, the decade-long Cultural Revolution, was a living nightmare for millions of Chinese, including three intellectuals from Beijing who later went on to study in the US as part of a programme that resulted from normalisation of Sino-US ties in 1979.

Yan Dachun recalls being beaten around the lower body with iron batons that broke one of his legs. Liu Baicheng had to move to a different city and live separately from his wife when he was forced into hard labour in a state-owned foundry, and saw his father in law driven to commit suicide. Ji Fusheng suffered public humiliation because he dared to challenge the belief that Communist Party leader Mao Zedong’s words were the absolute truth.

Towards the end of 1978, one man’s push for reforms gifted them a fate-changing opportunity. Deng Xiaoping, the late Chinese paramount leader who assumed the reins of power after Mao’s death, announced bold plans in December that year to open up the country to the rest of the world. Deng, who later declared that “science and technology are the top productive force”, agreed to allow the country’s top tech talent to go abroad to study with the intent of helping China catch up after a lost decade.

Even under Mao, China had proposed a programme called the “four modernisations” – to advance agriculture, industry, national defence, and science and technology – but its implementation stalled during the Cultural Revolution. Despite the chaos of that period, China’s first satellite was launched in 1970 but it was not until after Mao’s death in 1976 that Deng was able to start moving the country towards true modernisation.

After receiving approval from US President Jimmy Carter, who had restored diplomatic relations with China on January 1, 1979, a group of 52 experts in science and technology were chosen to be among the first Chinese citizens to study in the US since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

Deng’s strategy proved successful as most of the intellectuals, then middle-aged, returned home to help rebuild the country as they had promised the government, after two or three years as visiting scholars at top American institutions.