Casters of the Shield of National Peace: Servicewomen on the Battlefront of Scientific Research on National Defense

One day in 1988, people at a certain satellite launching test cite of our country discovered that Chen Lishan, a woman engineer responsible for the software program composition of the satellite, had fallen asleep under a desk. She had spent another whole night tackling

key problems. On the desk were program charts placed in good order. As many as 10,000 commands contained therein had been designed for our country's first meteorological satellite. Chen's husband asked in solicitude: "Don't you want to live any more the way you work?" Rubbing her swelling eyes, Chen Lishan tried to smile to him, but was too exhausted to do so . Though she was not a general, the software programs she composed successfully "commanded" the tracking and measuring of 13 satellite and rocket launchings, including the Asia I, and the Long march II Strap-on Rocket. Of the 6 software programs the composition of which she took part in and supervised, 4 won prizes. The place where these achievements were attained is an out -of -the-way mountain area far away from big cities.

There is a whole group of servicewomen who, like Chen Lishan, are possessed of knowledge, ideals and beliefs.

In 1840 imperialists knocked open China's gate with opium and firearms. The hundred-year modern history was one of humiliation and oppression to the Chinese people. Now that they have stood up, they must cast anti-aggression shields so as to protect their territory against encroachment. To this end, a number of outstanding scientists gathered in the field of military science. Among them were a group of young girls, who have now grown into leaders in their chosen fields of learning with innumerable great achievements.

According to incomplete statistics, since 1985, women scientific and technical workers in the Chinese armed forces have been awarded more than 3,000 prizes for achievements in scientific research. Among the whole armed forces' 322 projects that have won third prizes and above at the national level, 183 have involved participation by women scientific and technical workers. Among these they were foremost researchers in 25 projects and chief researchers in 83 projects.

In Oct. 1964, China successfully detonated its first atomic bomb. After that, guided missiles, satellites and other kinds of high-tech equipment were developed. This process meant both a challenge by the intellectuals of our country to the poor and blank industrial basis left by Old China and a long life journey of these intellectuals of our country to the poor and blank industrial basis left by Old China and a long life journey of these intellectuals who chose of their own free will the hard mountain areas where they devoted selflessly their youth and knowledge to the motherland. Hua Ming, a woman researcher, accumulating the theory and practice of field nuclear tests gained through her engagement for over 30 years, fairly systematically summarized the phenomenon and pattern of nuclear explosion in high altitude, provided rich data and theoretical basis for studies of nuclear science, and filled in our country's gaps in the data of nuclear explosion effect. Such studies supervised by her as research on

systematic radioflash, research on satellite radiation environment, and the world tracking technique "high-power microwave technique" have won 2 first awards, 2 second awards. 1 fourth award, and 6 fifth awards. At the time when cities in China are making great strides forwards in decorating themselves with neon lights, imported cars and expressways, the scientific research base in the remote mountain area still keeps its silence just as in the past. Just when the present book draft was about to be sent to the printers, the people there sent a piece of news: the accelerator named "Flash II" reached advanced standards of foreign products of the same kind. So far it has played an important role in nuclear applications and other high- and new-technology research. Moreover, it has brought about obvious social benefits. The person who attained this achievement is Qiu Aici, a woman scientist who has been engaged for several decades in the studies of pulse power technique and high-current pulse electron-beam accelerator.

There are groups of resplendent stars in the areas of China's military science. Each of the constellations indicative of the female sex shines out with its unique brilliancy.

Zhang Shufeng, a chief engineer in the technical section of Xi'an Satellite Observing and Controlling Center, has taken part in over 20 tasks of satellite and guided missile launching and testing. Corresponding to her qualifications and record of service are more than 20 items of technical transformation and improvement, 6 of which won awards for achievements in science and technology. He Huiwan, the first woman missile expert of the Tujia nationality in our country, has been selected a director of the Chinese Space Science Association four times running for her accomplishment of over 20 theses. Wang Ju, a chief engineer in a certain research institute of the Second Artillery Troops, was one of the first batch of graduates majoring in computational mathematics in the 50's in our country. More than 30 years have slipped by, in the course of which Wang Ju has won successively 6 awards for achievements in science and technology at the national or army level, becoming one of our country's experts in the computation and design of the set of data of strategic missile trajectories. She has been honoured as the "Goddess" who arms the missiles with brain and eyes.

In today's world, what constitutes the index of comprehensive strength is science and technology rather than arms and gunboats. The strength of science and technology lies in people of talent. By 1992, professional and technical women cadres in the whole armed forces of China accounted for 93% of the total women cadres. Of these, those with intermediate professional and technical posts made up 23.1% whereas those with high-level professional and technical posts made up 3.2%. This is a qualitative change of the Chinese servicewomen in its entirety whose chief status in the 20's of this century was still that

of the child bride. Times do change! The change is indicative not only of the transformation of the Chinese army from one of physical agility to one of brain power but also of the stride forward of the cadres in the Chinese armed forces towards becoming knowledgeable and professional.

In the 80's, when the defense ministers of China and the U.S. began to exchange views on space technology contacts, there wasn't yet in China any satellite testing building with above a 10,000-grade purity. The task was given to a woman officer, senior engineer Lin Shuyun. Fully aware that this project was the crux of the matter in China's entering the international spaceflight market, Lin, relying on her work experience of many years, blazed new trails and fulfilled all the designing tasks with high quality in a short period of only four months. This was a project unique in Asia: the total floorage was 6,200 square meters, with 3 testing halls. Of these, the main hall was 42 meters long, 18 meters wide, and 18 meters high, with a 100,000-grade air-conditioning purity and a blast intensity of 220,000 cubic metres per hour. In the past 20 years or so, Lin Shuyun has taken part in the construction of about a dozen key projects of national defense, supervised and completed over 40 project designing tasks, 2 of which won respectively a silver prize for excellent projects and a second prize for progress in science and technology at the national level, a first prize for excellent projects awarded by the Science and Industry Commission.

One deep night of whirling snow in midwinter of 1991, a woman professor of the Defense Science and Technology University in Changsha fell down on the ground, which resulted in the splintered fracture of her right wrist. The next day, she was seen entering the machine room again with her bandaged hand. She was Professor Li Xiaomei, who took the lead in developing and exploiting the meteorological application software system of the Galaxy II. The injured right hand didn't stop her from leading the members of the task group in putting forward the parallel algorithm plan which was up to internationally advanced standards. They carried out in the shortest possible time a set of incredible technical plans, shortening the runtime of the Galaxy II in making a day's weather forecast to 413 seconds, which was far below the 1,100 seconds set in the contract. Professor Li is a great master in the studies of the theory and application of super-scale computer parallel algorithm and in the super-scale computer application software system. She has won successively an individual prize of the order of first prizes for progress in science and technology at the national level, and individual second prize of the order of special-grade prizes for achievements in science and technology awarded by the Military Commission, 2 first prizes, 4 second prizes,

6 third prizes at the ministerial and commission levels, and individual first prize of the order of prizes for significant scientific researches and experiments in science and technology at the national level and l first prize awarded by the Guanghua Foundation. She has published 3 monographs, with a total of 1.5 million characters and has been a mentor to 14 graduate students. In addition, she is director of the Parallel Algorithm Specialized Council under the Computational Mathematics Branch of the Chinese Mathematics Association, vice- president of the mathematics Software Society of the Chinese Software Trade Society, and a member of the International Industry and Applied Mathematics Association.

People have presented to Liu Miqun, daughter from a family of commanders, such heroic lines as "My bow like a full moon, and aiming northwest, I will shoot down the fierce Wolf from out the sky" so as to praise her for her contributions to the development of surface- to-air missiles of the Air Force. This is not just because she and her comrades successfully developed a new high-energy liquid fuel in 7 years, after 17 tests and improvements. Moreover it is because she displayed a courageous and resolute spirit of defying death duringthe tuial application of the fuel. Once,in the course of a test,the heads of two missiles broke off and the payloads failed to detonate .The cause were found. By that time night had fallen over the boundless Gobi Desert and no one could be certain about the exact place where the missiles had fallen. With the payloads were the detonators which might ignite at any moment.Yet Liu Miqun insisted upon going to look for the bodies herself. She went at the risk of her life, found the missile bodies and reached the correct conclusion.

There was a number of military scientists who did their work in accordance with the change of the weather. When it was coldest, they worked among the northernmost troops; when it was hottest, they worked among the southernmost troops. Their average age was the same the southernmost troops. Their average age was the same as that of the young servicemen's fathers.Yet ther worked and drilled together with the young soldiers despite the harsh conditions. Their goal was to lighten the servicemen's load in circumstances of marches and operations. Each day, they got up earlier than the soldiers to go to the dining room to check the calories in the food; yet they wint to bed later than the soldiers so as to work out the went to bed later than the soldiers so as to work out the day's data. After 3 scorching summmers and freezing winters, Individual Load Standard of the Chinese People's Liberation Army came into being in 1986. It set scientifically the servicemen's optimum load during marches and operations and carried the function of theoretical guidance in lightening individual load. Not only did the scientists have to reduce the soldiers' load, they also had to let

the different parts of the latter's bodies share rationally their outfit load. Another 3 years went by ,and they succeeded in developing XZJ 91 Kit Carried by Individuals, thus bringing an end to the history of "binding with ropes and belts" during servicemen's marches. The No. 1 performer and supervisor of these scientific research items is Liu Ximei, a woman scientist and senior engineer. Working together with her in the Military Supplies Equipment Research Institute was another outstanding woman by the name of Jiang Zhihua,an expert in techniques of garment function checking.In fulfilling the item Producive Technology lf Hot Melt Bonding Flocculi and Hot Melt Bonding Machine , she undertook all by herself the design,drawing and installation of the whole control systim of electrical appliances. At the same time whdn they were awarded a first prize for progress in science and technology both at the national and army levels, they enabled Chinese of innumerable families to wear for the first time cold-resistant garments made of noncotton warm flocculi. When Jiang Zhihua and her colleahues tested with the most primitive method the warmthkeeping drrect of individual garments in Daxing'anling in the depth of winter, a bolder plan was working in her mind :the plan of simulated testing with computers. The test of "78-1 warm dummy" wherein she supervised the study and design of the hardware control sytem proved successful. Then its second-generation product, the "87 poikilothermal warm dummy," successfully systim in achieving quick data acquisition speed, high control accuracy and good system stability. This was a set of automatic control equipment of simulated test of heatexchange process between the human body and environment and could simulate the warmth-keeping property of garments of real human groups in both static and dynamic states in low-temperature circumstances, thus providing for various kinds of garment, winter garments in particular, studying and testing means with comprehensive functions. It furnished not only a series of data and bases for the study, production and outfit of the Chinese armed forces'87 serial winter garments and civil oil-field protective clothing for the Chinese exploration in the South Pole, danger-escape clothing for naval submaromers, and North Pole clothing for the American troops. Moreover, based on the research fruits of the shole system, National Standard of Cold-Resistant and Warmth- Keeping Requirements for Labour Protective Clothing was also formulated.

Associated with the naval navigation light and ship anticorrosive paint was also a woman's name. She was Sa Benmao,a senior engineer of the 4805 Plant of the Novy .In the past 30 years or so ,she has accompished successively 63 scientific research items and published 67 scientific papers and final experiment reports, of which 2 filled in the gaps of the nation, 3 were awarded prizes for significant achievements in scientific research during the National Conference on

Science in 1978. The ethyne cleaning agent for navigation lights to have an operation life 36 times as long as that of foreign products of the same kind . The use of brush indium coating liquid in ship mechanical repair could save for the country up tl RMB 1,000,000 yuan each year.Now she is over 60 years old ,but she still remembers that the first time she accepted the task of developing dthyne cleaning agent she was only 28.

In the initial stage of its establishment, the A cademy lf Military Science had fewer than 10 women ,sho were chiefly engaged in translation and the sorting out of material. Now , however,women research workers can be found in almost all the mahor disciplines of the acadimy,such as studies of strategies, studies of campaigns,studies of military systems, studies of military histories, studies of militar encyclopedias, and analytical studies of military planning and management. They account for 9.2% of the total number of the scientific research personnel of the academy . Xu Xiaojun, engaged in the studies of military stratehies, has published works and trqnslations of over 200 million characters, has won for many times first-class and second-class awoards for excellent papers at the army level and has won a third class award for achievements in military scientific research at the army level. Her papers have been included respectively in New Developments in the Theories of Campaigns in the Soviet and American Military Forces , New Investigations into Tactical Developments ,Investigations on Sun Zi's Victories, and 21st-Century Asia; Strategic Adjustment. She also participated in the composition of such monographs as On Mao Zedong's Military Strategies and On High-Tech Wars and in the translation of Sun Zi Warcraft into French.Liu Xiaoying, a research fellow on foreign military affairs, is a mentor to graduate students . Among the major military monographs the translation and proof of which she participated in are The Decisive Campaigns of the Second World War, Guide to Modern Wars ,Military Strategies, Commanders as well as some other books and material , all of which totals over 200 million characters; among the military monographs the compilation of which she participated in are A General View of the Strengthening of Foreign Military Qualities, Research on Foreign Rapid Response Forces and A General View of Foreign Reserve Forces .Liu's academic attainments have won many prizes for scientific research achievements awarded by the state or the Academy of Military Science.

It is in the field of military medicine that the PLA has the greatest number of women scientists and the biggest concentration of achievements. Shen Peifen,a research fellow at the Preclinical Medical Science ,won 2 first-class army-level awards for progress in science and technology as a result of her Production of Antihuman TL Monoclonal

Antibody and Research on the Immune Typing of Lymphocytic Leukemia with Monoclonal Antibody. Four other achievements of hers won respectively second-class or third-class awards for achievements in science and technology. Thus she has become one of the most outstanding women scientists.

There is another woman scientist by the name of Huang Cuifen who,in 1950, embarked upon a freighter with her husband at great risks,drifted over 50 days at sea and thus returned home from the U.S. after going through all kinds of hardships and difficulties. Together with her husband she set up the microorganism teaching and research section and pharmacology teaching and research section and pharmacology teaching and research section and donated the payment for Bacteriology and Pharmacology she compiled to the country for its War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. In the 50's, the tetragenous toxoid for war injuries, the gas gangrene toxoid she developed and some other achieve-ments of hers filled in domestic gaps. During the ten-years turmoil,despite the grievances and tribulations she and her family suffered ,she supervised key scientific research items of national defense, which reached advanced international standards in chief indices and won awards tremendous achievements at the National Conference on Science. In the early 80's, in order to master techniques in genetic engineering as soon as possible, she went to Washington,America for visit and research in the name of going to visit relatives at her own expense. This elderly Chinese professor was seen to arrive at the laboratory each day about one hour earlier than the others, eat what she brought with her for lunch-two pieces of bread and an apple, and yet stand each day at the experiment table for 10 hours on end. Six months went by,in the course of which she participated in and accomplished 2 scientific research items and published 2 papers. She brought back to the motherland and handed over to her work unit 10,000 American dollars worth of experimental instruments and reagents given as a gift to her by her American colleagues. After returning home, she established over 20 new techniques and methods in the research on genetic engineering, thus creating conditions for the research and development of relevand vaccines and biological products .In 1984,she was conferred the title of "Model Sciedtific Worker" by the Central Military Commission.

Peng Liyuan, a soprano singer of the Song and Dance Ensemble of the General Political Department and a national first-class performer,is ranked among these many scholars because she was the first in China to obtain a Master's degree in national vocal music singing performance. By the time she decided to enter college again for advanced studies,she was not only a famous actress who acted the leading role in the opera White Haired Girl ,but had also won a gold

award in the National Competition of Singing Performance of Vocal Music Works by Nie Er and Xian Xinghai in 1985 and the first place of the professional group with national performance in the Second National Young Singers' Grand Tv Prix in 1986. When she made a scientific study of the traditional Chinese singing performance ,people once again had a taste of her vision and talent. In 1989 she won a "gold record"award and a "broadcasting gold song " award at the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Republic. In 1990 she won the title of the Second National Film and TV Ten Best Singers and in 1994 won a gold award and gold singing award at the '94 Flower City Cup China's MTV Grand Competitios. Since 1990 she has held successfully recitals and singing performances respectively in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Singapore and has become one of the most successful singers in China. The women scientists have not only attained scientific and technological achievements but are also people of action bold in developing the research findings. In May 1992, Xiao Wenbin, director of the Poison and Medicaments Research Institute of the Academy of Military Medical Science, shouldered also the heavy responsibility of director of the Beijing Fourth Ring Pharmaceutical Factory. Confronted with the fierce competitions by several thousand domestic and foreign pharmaceutical enterprises,she and her colleagues established the development system of merging the factory and the institute into an organic whole, with each backing the other. Xiao originated the "Fourth Ring Model" of one institute, two systems with a unified goal; operation through division of labour with unified leadership; use of personnel with unified allocation; distribution of profits with unified coordination and similar methods of science and enterprise complementing each other.Within a year of its setting up, the factory made the miracle of Per-capita sales income of 820,000 yuan, total profit tax of 27.41 million yuan,and tax payment delivered to the state of 8 million yuan. Its comprehensive indexes in the year ranked the seventh among the 20 powerful enterprises in Beijing's new technique

industrial development experimental areas.

The contributions and sacrifices of the women scientists fighting in the field of military scientific research are doublefold. For quite a long time in the past, for the sake of national safety, experts engaged in military science were required to conceal their identities over a long period of time .Thus the achievements of the women scientists and they themselves became rarely known"secrets"" In 1986 ," Medical Prevention of Injuries by Special Weapons in Wartime" appeared gloreously in the ranks of special-grade awards for progress in science and technology at the national level. This was the fruit of a 27-year effort by scientific research personnel of the Academy of Military Medical Science. It contained 124 achievements. Of these

the antidotes had been tried out successively by over 3,000 people.In 1986 when I was gathering material within this formerly "mysterious" compound, woman scientist XU Qinhui told me that on her two legs there were still two scars ,a keepsake left by the trial of an ointment. At that time she was just graduated from college and was in her early twenties. She still clearly remembered that when the ointment was applied, blisters as big as copper coins appeared in her skin and caused her so much pain that she was unable to sleep for several nights. The woman scientist also said jokingly: "When we have a grandson in the future and he asks about the scars, we'll tell him that these are scars of glory left on his grandpa and grandma in the earlier years." The new anti-toxin drugs and appliances thus came into birth in their hands. Another 10 years has nearly gone by.I'm not sure whether XU Qinhui has got a grandson or not, but I know that the years when scientists had to contribute gratuitously their bodies and lives are gone forever.I also know that today, when the tide of commodities is surging ahead, there are still many Xu Qinhuis of those years who, just as in the past, are cultivating the land of scientific research of national defense and casting meticulously the shield of national peace.