Entering ChinaOn the morning of February 7, 2025, a sad news quickly spread all over the Internet.
Comrade Huang Xuhua, an outstanding member of the Communist Party of China, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, a winner of the Medal of the Republic and the highest national science and technology award, a national moral model, the chief designer of China’s first generation of nuclear submarine engineering, and the former director, secretary of the Party Committee (acting) and honorary director of the 719th Research Institute of China State Shipbuilding Corporation Co., Ltd., died at 20:30 on February 6, 2025 in Wuhan, Hubei Province at the age of 99.
“Our country’s first nuclear submarine was launched, and we did it ourselves”
On January 10, 2020, Huang Xuhua, who is over 90 years old, received the 2019 National Highest Science and Technology Award from General Secretary Xi Jinping.
Previously, few people knew his name. As the chief designer of the first generation of nuclear submarines of the Republic, Huang Xuhua is far away from his hometown, incognito, and embarks on a difficult road.
On September 29, 2019, the National Medal of the People’s Republic of China and the National Honorary Title Awarding Ceremony was held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. This is Huang Xuhua, the representative of the winner of the “Medal of the Republic”, speaking at the ceremony. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ding Haitao
In 1958, China launched a nuclear submarine development project. In the face of the technological blockade of foreign countries, Comrade Mao Zedong vowed: “Nuclear submarines will be built in 10,000 years!” ”
Foreign secrecy control is extremely strict, and finding valuable content from the vast number of newspapers, magazines, and papers is like looking for a needle in a haystack. What is rare to find is fragmentary, and it is difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood.
Huang Xuhua asked scientific and technological personnel to bring “three mirrors” with them and use “magnifying glasses” to expand their field of vision; Use the “microscope” to find out the substance; Use the “demon mirror” to abandon the false and keep the true.
At that time, scientific research methods and test equipment were either blank or waiting to be built. Where are today’s computers hundreds of millions of times a second, only abacus and slide rule.
The weight and center of gravity of a nuclear submarine with a displacement of several thousand tons involves tens of thousands of pieces of equipment and instruments, dozens of kilometers of pipes, cables, and thousands of tons of steel materials. Thousands of data are calculated one by one with an abacus and slide rule, integrated, and then constantly adjusted the counterweight, and each adjustment has to start all over again.
There are no ready-made drawings and models, so they work overtime day and night while designing and constructing; Day and night, month and year, tens of thousands of data on the first nuclear submarine were calculated; In order to control the total weight and stability of the nuclear submarine, the leftovers must be weighed by weighing……
“Vow to do earth-shattering things, and be willing to be incognito.”
That desert island and that group of incognito people completely rewrote the history of the world’s nuclear submarines – China’s nuclear submarines started three years after they were launched, launched two years after they started, and officially incorporated into the navy and entered the combat sequence four years after they were launched.
“Our country’s first nuclear submarine was launched, and we did it ourselves.”
Many years later, Huang Xuhua’s clouds are light and light, condensing everything.
China has become the fifth country in the world to possess nuclear submarines after the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and France.
“Loyalty to the country is the greatest filial piety to parents”
A photo of Huang Xuhua when he was studying at Jiao Tong University. (Photo from Shanghai Jiao Tong University website)
“When the motherland needs me to shed my blood once, I will shed it once; When the motherland needs me to shed blood drop by drop, I will shed it drop by drop! ”
Among the few interviews, Huang Xuhua’s words are particularly impressive. In this life, he was always ready to sacrifice for the country.
At the beginning of 1988, the first deep-diving test of the nuclear submarine took place. A steel plate the size of a playing card, after deep diving, the external pressure is more than 1 ton, but if there is a steel plate that is unqualified, a weld is problematic, and a valve is not tightly sealed, it may face the end of the boat being destroyed and killed.
Huang Xuhua decided to dive with the boat himself! “We have to sing ‘majestic, high-spirited, across the Yalu River’, to get the test data back!”
Extreme Depth, Success! Huang Xuhua happily inscribed a poem: “Sixtieth Nail Idiot, Zhi Tan Dragon Palace.” Stormy seas, fun in it! ”
“Idiot” is for science; “Zhi” is for the motherland.
In 1926, Huang Xuhua was born in a small town in Haifeng County, Guangdong Province, ranking third. His parents practiced medicine in the area and were quite prestigious.
At the end of elementary school, the all-out war of resistance began. Huang Xuhua walked for four days to find the middle school that had been relocated to escape the Japanese invaders.
“Bomb if you want, because our country is too weak!” Huang Xuhua, who grew up in artillery fire and turmoil, is too eager for the strength of the motherland.
This young man who once wanted to study medicine was admitted to the Department of Naval Architecture Engineering of Jiaotong University with the first place, and he made a vow: “I want to study aviation, learn shipbuilding, and I want to save the country with science!” ”
Witness of the years. When he left home to devote himself to the nuclear submarine business, Huang Xuhua was only in his early thirties, and when he saw his relatives again, he was already full of gray hair.
“My family didn’t know what I was doing outside, and I didn’t go back when my father died……”
Someone always asks Huang Xuhua, loyalty and filial piety can’t be both, how do you understand it?
“Loyalty to the country is the greatest filial piety to parents.”
Behind the mission of no regrets, there is a lifetime of nostalgia that is difficult to solve, and there is a pursuit that transcends the mundane.
“There is no home without a country, and there is no filial piety without a home. Although I did not keep my promise to ‘always go home and see it’, I kept my promise to keep my work confidential, and I am sure that one day, everyone will understand and understand me.” ”
Among his siblings, he had the least salary and the smallest house. He smiled faintly: “You are in such a good situation, I congratulate you, but I will never blush.” I still walk my single-plank bridge, and I will not waver in my life. ”
“There is a kind of life, deep and silent, but deafening”
After winning the highest national science and technology award, Huang Xuhua was busier than in the past: he went into primary and secondary schools to give reports to children, popularize science, and preach the spirit of scientists; It has donated more than 20 million yuan to scientific research, science popularization, and educational institutions, and set up the “Huang Xuhua Science and Technology Innovation Award Fund” to encourage successors to innovate and scale new heights……
In the photos and videos of various lectures, he is always in good spirits and smiling. Even when he had to use crutches and sit in a wheelchair, he straightened his back and looked at him.
The “Academician Huang Xuhua Science and Technology Education Center” of Zhongshan Road Primary School, Wuchang District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province, a heartfelt collection activity called “Grandpa Huang, I want to say to you”, attracted the enthusiastic participation of children.
A child wrote: Dear Grandpa Huang, now we can enjoy peace because there are “nameless” devotees like you, who have given strength to the whole nation with their strong backbone. Although you don’t often appear in people’s eyes, you have been working quietly for the country. I want to learn from you, follow your example, move forward bravely, and realize my life ideals.
Many scientific researchers who have consulted him and received his guidance have sighed: Huang Lao seems to be tireless, and as long as the country needs it, he will go all out.
After the news of the obituary was issued, the staff of the 719th Research Institute, where Huang Xuhua was alive, were immersed in grief.
They remembered that on the occasion of the 70 th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, when the “old director” was awarded the “Medal of the Republic”, he said: The glory of the Medal of the Republic belongs to every member of the nuclear submarine front! My colleagues and I belong to the motherland in this life, and we have no regrets in this life!
A comrade from the 719th Research Institute told Xinhua News Agency that Huang was still busy with work in his eighties, and was depressed for a while because he suffered from cataracts.
Some people wonder, what’s wrong with Huang Lao, who has always been happy? He said with some anger that if you can’t read the scientific research data, how can you keep up with the international frontier?
Later, the cataract surgery went well, the small print on the mobile phone could be read clearly, and he was as happy as a child, and immediately threw himself into the stacks of books and papers.
How many people can “choose one thing for a lifetime”? How many people are there who “go away with their clothes and hide their merits and fame”?
“Casting a sword for the country, Huang Lao will go all the way!”
“Salute, these guys helped each of us straighten up!”
“Salute to you who have the same pure heart.”
“There is a kind of life, deep and silent, but deafening.”
……
Countless netizens paid tribute to the post and expressed their sorrows.
Huang Xuhua and students from Shanghai Jiao Tong University shared their scientist spirit. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Ying
The portal of Shanghai Jiao Tong University has been adjusted to black and white, and the prominent position on the homepage is the article “Mourning for Senior Huang Xuhua”.
Some people recall that in April 2016, at the meeting to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the founding of Shanghai Jiaotong University, Huang Xuhua, an old alumnus, gently pushed away the chair prepared for him by the school, insisted on standing, and told everyone about the spirit of scientists in his heart……
