The modern PRC has moved on from Mao - but he
is still someone you might study as a historical
significance!
Why don't you study current Chinese events!
tsi
Colonel Yang, wearing a white space suit with his perspex helmet pushed back, walked into the launch centre before dawn between cheering ranks of children and saluted senior generals of the People's Liberation Army.
The astronaut then reappeared behind a glass screen inside the centre, sitting while President Hu, flanked by braided PLA marshals and dark-suited party leaders, delivered a farewell speech that declared the mission a "historic step of the Chinese people in the advance of climbing over the peak of the world's science and technology".
Colonel Yang was a "warrior" probing outer space on behalf of China, bearing a heavy trust to realise its "millennial dream", Mr Hu said, urging him to perform his "glorious, sacred mission" in a cool-headed, staunch and courageous way. "We are waiting for your triumphant return."
The military had backtracked on an earlier plan to broadcast the launch live, apparently worried about the possibility of a disaster or technical breakdown reflecting badly on the national leadership. But within half-an-hour of lift-off, state television began putting out repeated video footage of the launch interspersed with comments from technical experts and congratulations from foreign leaders.
Among the well-wishers was the US space agency NASA, which has suspended its own manned space flights in the wake of the latest space shuttle disaster.
Other Asian countries greeted the launch with respect mingled with apprehension.
Chinese advances have spurred Asia's other big economic powers into more ambitious space efforts. India has revealed plans for an unmanned lunar orbital mission in 2008 and later landing of a robot explorer on the moon |
