The fact is that in the 1960s, at the peak of the Cold War, China's channels for purchasing food from countries like Canada and the United States remained open. China even bought grain from Canada to support Albania. Because the domestic situation was so difficult and they couldn't produce enough food, they couldn't refuse Albania's request for aid. They had to use foreign exchange to buy grain and send it to Albania. Albania was still very angry, protesting that the food aid was too little and too slow. The Chinese government had no choice but to send a telegram to a grain-carrying ship, ordering them to urgently change course to Albania. The crew received the telegram and wept bitterly, but still resolutely followed the orders to Albania. Albania's anger subsided slightly. Albania was always full of complaints and accusations about China's aid, saying the quality was too poor. China had no choice but to import a complete set of machinery and equipment from Italy for Albania using foreign exchange, so that Albania stopped blaming China. When they needed aid, Albania was arrogant, saying if it weren't for their support, the aid from the Soviet Union would have been more and better, and China should be grateful. China highly valued this only European ally. Despite having a group of Asian and African little brothers, none of them could compare to this legitimate European white country. After Albania fell out with the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union expelled Albanian students studying in the Soviet Union. China was delighted and offered these students better treatment to come to China. The black students refused, asking why their treatment was so much better than ours. There was really no way, no money to further improve the treatment for black students, so they could only watch them return home.
When President Peng visited Eastern Europe, the leader of East Germany asked for Chinese food aid. He said that in West Germany, each person could eat 80 kilograms of meat per year, and he wanted the people of East Germany to eat even more to show superiority. President Peng remained silent for a long time and said that they didn't have much food either. The leader of East Germany was very surprised, saying that their newspapers reported that they had excess food. President Peng remained silent for a long time again and said that what the newspapers reported might not necessarily be correct.