The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 942: Olympics and Thoughts
Beijing Airport.

Liu Tao and Zhu Lin came to the airport in person to see their children off.

Liu Jingming, 16, and Liu Yingqing, 14, will represent the Chinese national team for the first time at the Atlanta Summer Olympics.

1996年奥运会是在美国亚特兰大举办，本届奥运会也是现代奥运会的百年诞辰。而本届奥运会举行的时间，则是7月19日至8月4日。

The Chinese sports delegation, consisting of more than 26 people, will participate in 26 of the 24 major events and 224 minor events of the th Olympic Games.

Since the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, the number of members of the Chinese sports delegation has increased with each session, the number of competitions participated in has increased, and the strength has been improving at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In every Olympic Games, facing increasingly fierce competition and more powerful opponents, the total number of gold medals and medals of the Chinese delegation has been increasing, and they have also set Olympic records and world records, which also reflects the rapid rise of China's comprehensive national strength.

Modern international competitive sports are essentially a competition among countries’ national strength.

Just like now, the Chinese delegation can set off for Atlanta two months in advance to adapt to the environment and train in Atlanta. You must know that going to Atlanta two months in advance and training in Atlanta means burning money.

This was unthinkable a dozen years ago.

The Chinese delegation chartered a plane to the United States. Everyone's clothing and other things were very different from what they were a decade ago.

刘景明、刘颖卿两人将参加100米蝶泳、200米蝶泳、50米自由泳、4×100米自由泳、男女混合4×100米混合泳。

At the age of 14, Liu Yingqing became the youngest member of the Chinese delegation.

This delegation is full of talented people, including many athletes.

The men's national table tennis team has the twin stars Kong Linghui and Liu Guoliang. At that time, Kong Linghui was only 21 years old and was extremely handsome, and Liu Guoliang was only 20 years old and already had a badass vibe. The women's team Deng Yaping has been full of honors since she joined the national team in 1988. She was the absolute main force of the Chinese team in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, winning two gold medals in women's singles and doubles, and is now the world's number one female table tennis player.

The diving team has Fu Mingxia, who shocked the world with her amazing jump in Barcelona in 1992 and won the Olympic gold medal in the women's 10-meter diving platform. She became the youngest champion in Olympic history and is famous all over the world. Her amazing jump in Barcelona must be featured in the IOC promotional video during the Olympic years. She has amazing dominance in the 10-meter diving platform and 3-meter springboard and is now the absolute trump card of the Chinese diving team.

In the gymnastics team, Li Xiaoshuang is the absolute star and the absolute trump card. At the 1990th Asian Games in Beijing in 11, he won the gold medals in the team and floor exercise, and became famous from then on. At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, he won the floor exercise championship and became the leader of the Chinese men's gymnastics team. In the 1995 World Championships, he won the individual all-around championship, becoming the first Chinese athlete to win the individual all-around gold medal in the gymnastics world championships.

There is also the star figure of the women's gymnastics team, 'Liu Xuan', who won the uneven bars championship in the 1992 National Gymnastics Championships and is now known as 'Xuan Beauty'.

In addition to more than 450 athletes, there are more than 27 coaches, 39 team leaders, 33 doctors, 6 translators, and sparring partners. Liu Tao has never thought about what kind of results Liu Jingming and Liu Yingqing can achieve. As a parent, he just hopes that they are healthy and happy.

After watching the child get on the plane, the two left.

Back in the courtyard, Liu Tao was reading a newspaper.

The front-page news of the newspaper was an article by Sheng Hong, a Ph.D. in economics from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, titled "What is Civilization?" The article clearly stated: Chinese civilization is superior to Western civilization!
Before the mid-80s, China was in an era of "reverse nationalism," where everything in the West was good and everything in China was bad. When something bad happened, people would say, "This would never happen in Western countries. China is terrible!"

After the reform and opening up, the economy developed rapidly and China's comprehensive national strength grew rapidly. Liu Tao's article "The Future Belongs to China" seemed to sound the clarion call, and "nationalism" gradually rose.

The Chinese people no longer blindly look up to Europe and the United States, but began to think and make comparisons. In addition, more and more people went abroad to study and do business, and news about Europe and the United States appeared more frequently in the news. Many scholars who went to Europe and the United States would involuntarily write articles, allowing everyone to understand more and more about Europe and the United States.

After ten years of development, "nationalism" has been on the rise.

"What is Civilization" was written by Dr. Sheng Hong one year after his visit to the United States. He witnessed the real situation of Western countries, and once this article was published, it immediately triggered a heated discussion in the academic community.

Many public intellectuals were furious and launched attacks on Sheng Hong.

If this is the case, how can they continue to promote their ideas, how can they deceive people, and how can they get paid?

They said before that the Germans did not build image projects during their occupation of Qingdao, leaving the Chinese with a Qingdao that never flooded a hundred years later. After more than a hundred years, some interface parts of the sewers in the former German concession needed to be replaced. According to a phone call from a German company, the Chinese found a small warehouse with complete spare parts. What determines the spirit, code of conduct and behavioral norms of a nation? The answer is really worth our deep thought!
They also say New York has the largest sewer system in the country, with thousands of miles of pipes and dozens of sewage treatment plants that process more than a billion gallons of sewage every day.

They even said that Japanese toilets are extremely clean and the water in the toilets can be drunk directly.

But now, they have been questioned in article after article. Now Sheng Hong's "What is Civilization" even openly says that "Chinese civilization is superior to Western civilization"!
What is even more abominable is that in the article "God is not in a foreign country" written by writer Zhang Chengzhi, he said that he traveled abroad with a pilgrimage mentality before writing this article. There are a few sentences in the article that go like this: You once had a fantasy before you set out, and you really wanted to find it and make it the support of your life. Your dream failed. Just like the dream you guessed did not exist at all, you chased their dream and hit a wall hard!
This article caused widespread discussion throughout the Chinese society. Many people who had their dreams shattered and flattered foreigners cursed and spit on Zhang Chengzhi madly. However, more Chinese people faced the reality after reading the article - it turned out that life abroad is not necessarily better than life at home.

Liu Tao looked at the newspaper and smiled lightly. This trend came earlier and more fiercely than he expected, but he felt it was natural.

After all, everything is afraid of comparison. As long as you really compare, you will find that your own country is not bad, but rather quite excellent. When you count the achievements and the road that China has traveled, you will know that China is so awesome.

(End of this chapter)