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China launches unmanned spacecraft

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE Dec. 30. China today celebrated the successful launch of `Shenzhou IV', the fourth in a series of unmanned spacecraft, and set its sights more confidently on a possible manned space mission in the foreseeable future.

Today's picture-perfect launch and the spacecraft's subsequent cruise along a pre-determined orbital path have placed China on a boost-phase trajectory towards the status of a major space-faring nation.

A fashionable theory in contemporary international politics is that the ``post-modern'' future in world affairs belongs to space-faring nations just as the sea-faring states had in the past dominated the onset of the modern era.

Viewed in this perspective, China is pacing itself towards a major role in international politics as regards the strategic applications of the know how related to the exploration of outer space.

At a more terrestrial level, China completed the finishing touches for tomorrow's launch of an ultra-high-speed train service of the "magnetic levitation'' (MagLev) kind in Shanghai.

The MagLev project will be commissioned in the presence of the Chinese Prime Minister, Zhu Rongji, and the visiting German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder.

Mr. Schroeder today held intensive talks with senior Chinese leaders, including the Chinese President, Jiang Zemin, and the Vice-President, Hu Jintao, in Beijing.

They zeroed in their attention on the present international crises such as those relating to Iraq and North Korea besides the possibilities of making the U.N. Security Council `tick' as a prime mover.

China is a permanent member of the Council while Germany will take up a rotational non-permanent seat from New Year's Day.

While Beijing has collaborated with Germany to make the MagLev project a reality, China maintains that its own scientific and technological base has served as the launch-pad for the space programme.

According to an official account in Beijing, the "Shenzhou IV'' spacecraft (meaning, a divine or cosmic vessel) successfully lifted-off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launching Centre 00:40 a.m. local time today (Beijing time).

A "Long March II F' rocket was used to launch the spacecraft. Today's "blast-off'' marked the 27th launch, all in a row without any failure, of the indigenous rockets, it was said.

Today's lift-off was witnessed by senior Chinese leaders, including Li Peng and two members of the new Politburo of the Communist Party of China, besides top military officers.

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