At the end of 2024, fighting broke out again in northern Syria, and many ordinary people died in this conflict. But watching his people killed and their houses destroyed, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hardly spoke.
Under normal circumstances, in the face of this situation, leaders have already come out to express their views, condemn and appease the people, but Assad seems somewhat silent.
Some people call him incompetent, while others say that he takes care of the overall situation, but the problem is not the individual, but the "foundation" of the whole country has long collapsed.
At this time, look back at the years in which New China was founded, Mao Zedong was under pressure to engage in heavy industries, and how clear and visionary that kind of "trafficking to change the bottom" is.
Syria's "geographical trap"
Syria is not poor, it has oil, natural gas, and Mediterranean ports, and geographically located between Europe, West Asia and Africa, it looks like a block of “strategic gold zone.”
But the reality is that this land has become a special place for fighting.
In 2011, the "Arab Spring" swept across the Middle East, and Syria did not escape it. Since then, the country has been fighting.
Government forces, opposition parties, extremist organizations, and later armed forces supported by the US military, Russian military, Iran, and Turkey, all forces continue to cause trouble here.
By 2024, Syria is ostensibly a country, but in fact it has been cut into several pieces.
Most of the oil fields in the east are controlled by the U.S. military, and Kurdish forces are also strong in this zone, while the northern regions are frequently targeted by Turkish airstrikes, mainly against Kurds and Syrian government-controlled areas.
Places such as Aleppo, Hasakeh and Deir Zawr have conflicts almost every year and people are displaced.
Although Assad's government nominally controls most of the country, in fact, he can't speak in many places, such as oil fields. He can't even touch a drop of oil, and he can't control who enters and who leaves the border.
That's why he seems silent when facing the killing of civilians. It's not that he doesn't want to speak out, but it's useless to speak out.
The oil fields are in the hands of others, the military equipment depends on foreign aid, the economy is sanctioned, and even the salaries of civil servants are in arrears in finance. It is easy to speak out, but difficult to solve problems.
New China's Choice
When China was founded in 1949, the situation was very tough, the war lasted for decades, the country was ruined, the industrial base was basically zero, even a decent screw must be imported.
At the time, many people felt that it was urgent to start with light industry, textile factories, food factories, and improve people's livelihoods.
But Mao Zedong did not think so, he said very directly, the country to be independent, the first step is not to eat enough, but to build the "home base".
So China began to carry out the "Five-Year Plan" and launched a number of heavy industry projects. Changchun built FAW, Baosteel prepared to build it, and Northeast China vigorously developed machinery manufacturing. At that time, the idea was not to be afraid of poverty, but to have no foundation.
But a very realistic problem is that heavy industry invests a lot, is slow, indeed people eat a lot of suffering.
To save food to support the city, farmers farm more and sell less, and people in the city have to rely on tickets to buy meat. But it was under such conditions that China just built the industrial system brick by brick from scratch.
In the 1960s, China had the ability to build aircraft, tanks, and rockets; in 1964, the first atomic bomb exploded successfully, and in 1967, the hydrogen bomb was also developed; in 1970, the Dongfanghong-1 satellite was launched, and China could finally broadcast their voice from space.
These achievements are essentially the "ballast stone" of national sovereignty.
Without these foundations, China will not be able to talk about reform and opening up in the next few decades, and no one will be a true friend of a country that relies on foreign aid even for its own defense.
Two paths, two destinies
Looking back at Syria’s past decades, it is easy to conclude that if a country does not have a complete industrial system and independent defense capabilities, the so-called “resources” are the fat meat in the eyes of others, and the so-called “people’s livelihood policies” are only superficial articles.
The Assad government also wants to improve people's livelihood. In 2024, it also introduced some food subsidy policies to compress military spending and allocate it to buy food and distribute it to the people.
But the problem is that this approach can only be delayed for a moment, without a strong economic foundation, the country is like a leaked water barrel, filling one hole and breaking another.
Instead, China in the early days chose to eat hard-made "barrels", although the years passed tightly, but later the country developed, the lives of the people only step by step followed.
This does not mean that people's livelihood is not important, but that if the country does not even have the ability to protect itself, people's livelihood will not be able to be maintained in the end. The government has little control over Syria's oil. Its military equipment relies on Russian aid and Iran's help supports its finances.
In the event of conflict, it can only be expected by the United Nations to mediate, it can hardly interfere itself, and this passive situation, even if the president speaks every day, can not change the situation.
From the very beginning, the destiny of the country has been disputed on its own, and even if the cost is high, the most important things must be held in its own hands.
Not afraid of hardship, but afraid of having no foundation
The encounter in Syria is not an individual case, looking at the world, many resources-based countries have similar problems. more resources, good location, but because there is no solid industrial system and independent national defense capabilities, they eventually become the game of great powers.
Chairman Mao was talking about "underlying logic" at that time. He knew that if the people really wanted to live a good life, the country must first have the strength to "not ask for help".
The reality of Syria is just a mirror. If a country doesn't lay a solid foundation, even if it has more resources and good policies, it may be turned upside down in a day.
Today's China has high-speed rail, satellites, and chip factories. People's livelihood is improving and the country is developing. All this didn't come out of thin air, but was laid by the choice of "bitter before sweet" decades ago.
Today's Syria is not an accident, but the result of long-term weakness and poverty. It makes us realize more clearly that a strong country cannot be built by resources, but has to be built step by step.
To understand this, we really understand the "hardness" of President Mao at the time, which is not a temporary reasonable measure, but the inevitable path of a nation that wants to stand straight.
Peace and development are never the pie that falls from the sky, but the ground that is laid on the ground, and this is the best reminder that reality gives us.