"About 40 years ago, my grandpa predicted that wars in the future would rely heavily on high technology. He asked me to gain the knowledge and skills that would help China make breakthroughs in military theory. For this farsightedness alone, I admire him," Zhu Heping explained.
He added that his grandpa had a strong love of reading and had taken pains to create an atmosphere conducive to learning at home. "Grandpa had read through four volumes of the Selected Works of Mao Zedong eight times before 1973. He finished a ninth thorough reading in 1974 at the age of 88," the proud heir added, "and we always read together while exchanging opinions and making notes, which exerted an edifying influence on me, especially in terms of shaping my political theories."
Encouraged by Zhu De, Zhu Heping, though self-taught, finished his senior high education in three years and some years later gained a master's degree in Economics and Business Administration at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Thinking back to the old days, Zhu Heping concluded that his family tradition of "being red and expert" should never be abandoned. He was appointed vice head of the Air Force Command College in 2006, reaching his goal to be an expert leader, capable of both making decisions related to technology and developing development strategies in tune with his politics.
"Leaders now should be experts too. Researchers for our country's air force need to be familiar with both technology and finance. The cost of a fighter is in the tens of thousands of yuan. Without financial underpinnings, there's no way for an air force to be strong. A technological background is also a necessity, since we cannot modernize our army by importing technological advancements," he concluded.
Zhu Heping also pointed out that an education in revolutionary traditions would help solve some problems that are troubling the new young talent working, for example, in a research team."Suppose everybody in the team has a PhD," he posits, "but some are assigned to take charge of the overall design, and others to study some cracks on a certain material...how does everyone maintain a healthy attitude towards their assignments? The answers, can in fact be found in stories about the Red Army--in how the soldiers dealt with distributing the last piece of bread when they were all starving as they forged through the snows of a mountain。"
