China plans manned space flight

BEIJING — China revealed plans Thursday to become the world's third space-traveling nation by launching a manned capsule sometime this year, an expensive prize for a government hungry to showcase its progress and increase its global prestige.

Such an expedition would represent both a scientific watershed and a public relations victory for China's military-linked space program. It came as the latest unmanned Chinese craft, Shenzhou IV, orbited the Earth for a fourth day — a trip described after it began Monday as a direct precursor to a manned flight.

The next mission, Shenzhou V, will contain at least one "taikonaut," the Chinese version of an astronaut, according to a report from China News Service, a government news agency aimed at Chinese speakers abroad.

It quoted Yuan Jie, director of the Shanghai Aerospace Bureau, as saying the flight will take place during the second half of 2003. Yuan's office confirmed the report Thursday.

"Shenzhou V will be manned," said an official there, reached by telephone. He refused to give his name but quoted Yuan as saying the flight would be a "breakthrough in China's manned aerospace history."