ABSTRACT
In Peking, I met the famous Chinese number theorist L. K. Hua (also written there as Hua Luogeng). I had previously known him when he visited the West in 1938, and at that time he had already published notable results in number theory. At the time of our visit, Hua was the Director of the Mathematics Institute at the Peking Academy of Science. We learned that he had not only developed number theory in China, but that he had also introduced operations research, using ideas such as the optimal seeking method (OSM) and the internal path method. The OSM is a method of finding the
maximum value of an empirically given function. Hua had adopted some Western ideas, and explained them well to many others in China. At one point he was said to have lectured (by a telephone network) to an audience of about 100,000 people. His method fitted the Chinese doctrine that workers are capable of almost any achievement. We were told that at one point during the Cultural Revolution, Hua’s work was defended by Chairman Mao and by Chou En-Lai; for once, a respected mathematician in China.
