View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE Founding of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Computing Technology Zhang Jiuchun and Zhang Baichun Chinese Academy of Sciences Computer science originated in the People’s Republic of China in 1956 with the founding of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Computing Technology. The Soviet Union, which played a pivotal role, gave the Chinese the opportunity to learn computer science by supplying components and describing the manufacturing process. The Soviets also helped solve key difficulties and trained workers. In 1956, the Chinese Science Planning Protocol for Developing National Sciences and Commission of the State Council organized Technology between 1956 and 1967. This pro- scientists around the country to prepare a re- tocol proposed to increase investment in 12 port for developing science and technology important fields of science and technology. over the next 12 years. This report led to the Chinese officials identified four fields as founding of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ critical for national security: one was comput- Institute of Computing Technology. ing technology. They stated that developing In this article, we describe the events and these fields would require an emergency effort ideas that led up to the institute’s founding, because of pressure from the West. On the including the role played by the Soviet Union basisofthisreport,theChinesegovernment and Soviet experts. The Soviet Union not only decided to develop electronic digital compu- helped the Chinese become acquainted with ters, establish the Institute of Computing computing technology but also made sugges- Technology of the Chinese Academy of tions for managing Chinese development Sciences (CAS), and—most significantly—to efforts. borrow the basic computing technology from the Soviet Union. Overview: A technology policy For the Chinese to produce results, they On 1 July 1949, the Chinese Communist needed the Soviet Union’s help. The Soviet Party formally adopted a policy—called leaning Union began in the early stage of the 1950s to to one side—of looking to the Soviet Union for supply informal aid, consisting of informal technological and economic advice. Chinese exchanges of information and suggestions on leaders had little choice but to accept such developing computing. In 1956, the Soviet a policy, because the US and other Western Union helped China create the plan for countries were refusing to export technology developing computing technology over the to China. Responding to the actions of the next 12 years. In 1958, the Soviet Union Western countries, the Soviet Union hoped to formalized an agreement with China, called bring China within the block of socialist the 122-Project Convention (The Convention countries. on Soviet Union and China Cooperating and Soviet Public evidence of the Soviet strategy was Union Helping China with Significant Scientific seen in 1954, when a delegation of Soviet and Technical Research). Consequently, Chi- officials, led by the new premier, Nikita nese scientists were able to create the model Khrushchev, visited China and promised great- 104 computer by 1959. er scientific, technological, and economic aid. Soon, however, tensions began to build In 1956, with the assistance of the Soviet between the Chinese and Soviet governments. experts, the Chinese government developed The leaders of the Soviet Union and China a protocol, outlined in the report Long-term never fully trusted each other. While China 16 IEEE Annals of the History of Computing Published by the IEEE Computer Society 1058-6180/07/$25.00 G 2007 IEEE was determined to master modern technology, the testimony of early Chinese computing especially national defense technology, the experts, we describe the foundation of the Soviet leaders was always of two minds. On Institute of Computing Technology within one hand, Soviet leaders remained unsure of CAS and show how computing technology Mao Zedong’s desire to stay independent of was transferred from the Soviet Union to Soviet technology, nuclear protection, and China. general strategy, and expressed reluctance to provide China with advanced weapons. On Early research and decision making the other hand, Mao Zedong was needed to Aswe’vesaid,CASwasfoundedin1949. support the Soviet Union’s leadership inside Three years later, CAS scientists created a tenta- the socialist bloc during Nikita Khrushchev’s tive plan to develop computing technology and campaign to remove Stalinism in 1956. organized a computer research group led by Khrushchev agreed in 1957 to give China Hua Luogeng.1 In July 1953, a delegation of advanced military technology. Thereafter, he CAS researchers, who had visited the Soviet and Mao Zedong slowly moved toward differ- Union earlier that year, held a special sympo- ent interpretations of socialism and commu- sium on science and technology. During the nism, and their divergence escalated. symposium’s mathematics section, Hua pro- In July 1960, the Soviet Union withdrew its posed that China develop skills in differential experts from China, an event that marked the equations, mechanics, elliptical functions, breakdown of Sino-Russian relationships. In mathematical statistics, and computational subsequent years, the two countries became mathematics. Hua also advised China to ensure increasingly antagonistic. The Soviet Union that these skills were disseminated at Chinese began reducing its aid to China in science, universities to train engineers and scientists.3 technology, and the economy and stopped all This proposal caught the attention of CAS’s aid in the late 1960s. Despite this turnabout, leaders. On 15 October 1953, CAS held a meet- China continued to develop computing tech- ing to discuss the scientific research plan for an nology and successfully created a set of fast, Institute of Mathematics. The research plan transistor computers in 1965 for national included implementing Hua’s proposal. defenseandall-purposeuse. At this meeting, Hua recommended that Because Chinese computing technology China put into practice, and learn by experi- related specifically to military needs, the ence, what it had acquired from the Soviet history of that technology has seldom been Union and establish eight mathematical re- disclosed. In recent years, however, some search divisions, or groups, one of which publications have described parts of this would study computational mathematics. history.1 Also, some of the computer research- Hua believed that computational mathe- ers of the 1960s have discussed how they matics was urgently needed and was the duplicated Soviet computers. In these ac- weakest link in Chinese research. However, counts, Chinese researchers usually empha- Qian Sanqiang, director of the CAS Institute sized the Chinese effort and rarely discussed for Modern Physics, thought the CAS plan for Soviet aid. developing electronic computers was too Before we began our research, the most ambitious because it required a significant important international research paper was investment of equipment and people. He ‘‘Computer Technology in Communist China suggested that computers be developed (1956–1965),’’ written by Donald G. Audette through a plan that would begin with the in 1966, which described the development of simplest objectives and develop more gradu- Chinese computing technology.2 However, ally, working with the CAS mathematical because Audette could not obtain sufficient, divisions. Wu Youxun, vice president of CAS, reliable sources for crucial context, his de- agreed and decided that the academy should scription and conclusion were incomplete. For develop computational mathematics and train example, Audette stated that China hadn’t professional specialists in this field by building mastered computing technology before Soviet an electronic computer. He also concluded experts left China and that the first Chinese that research for electronic computers should computers were used mainly in mathematical be done in the Institute of Physics’ electronics calculation. group and ordered that Hua’s computer re- As we will explain, Chinese scientists search group be transferred to that institute.4 mastered computing technology before the By early 1954, China was already studying Soviets left, and their work was used for many Soviet computing technology. The CAS com- applications. Using archival records as well as puter research scientists had translated the January–March 2007 17 Founding: CAS Institute of Computing Technology Soviet book The Approaches to Study Radiant term protocol for developing science and Electronics (edited by A.A. Sanin, published in technology. The Central Government also 1958) to study radio tube pulse circuits. invited Sergei A. Lebedev, superintendent of Furthermore, in October 1954, three kinds the Soviet Academy of Sciences’ Institute of of computers were shown at the Exhibition of Precision Machinery and Computing Technol- the Achievements of the Soviet Economy and ogy Research, to China to help plan the Culture Construction in the Soviet Exhibition research for computing technology.10 Hall (today’s Beijing Exhibition Center). The At the same time, the Chinese scientists had exhibition had an analog computer, an elec- made some independent progress in develop- tronic integrator to work out linear differential ing computing circuits. For example, in April equations, and a computer to calculate a de- 1956, Wu Jikang of the CAS computer research flection differential