Extracts. China Steadfast on Plan to Send its Man Onto Moon A Chinese space official stressed Wednesday the country's determination to land its man on the moon, hinting that it may test launch another unmanned space vehicle soon. Luan Enjie, director of the State Aerospace Bureau told a space symposium that "China will realize its dream of exploring the moon and will actively participate in the international exploration of Mars." He said China was developing a manned spaceship based on the successful unmanned test flight last November. Luan's statements come amid reports that the second unmanned test flight of China's manned space program would take place during the ongoing seven-day National Day holiday which began on October 1. Luan said the Chinese space program was setting a series of new goals including the development and manufacture of a new type of launcher and efforts to enter the international satellite communication market. Chinese officials earlier said China planned to put a man in space "early this century," while at least three unmanned test flights were expected to proceed a manned flight. China launched the "Shenzhou" spaceship last November 21 and the vehicle made a successful 21-hour flight after orbiting the earth 14 times and returning safely to the Qinghai Plateau in northwestern China. It was launched aboard a Long March 2-F carrier rocket from the new Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwestern province of Gansu. The test flight took many Western observers by surprise as it had not been previously announced, although Chinese space officials for years have hinted the country intended to send a man into space. China has launched nearly 300 satellites since the early 1970s, some 25 for commercial use, while 16 out of 17 retrievable satellites have successfully returned to earth intact. If China succeeds in putting its man in space it will be the third country to do so, following the former Soviet Union and the United States. ----------- Chinese Optimistic About Future Income Increase More than 45 percent of Chinese interviewees feel confident that their income will rise in the future, a latest survey shows. Among 5,584 people, aged between 18-65, in ten major Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and seven rural counties, 45.8 percent believed that they will receive large or moderate increases in income in the next year, 12.6 percent expected a decrease in income. Research indicates that people in their 20s, city residents, and people who have received higher education or have ideal working positions, such as managers and technicians, are quite optimistic about their income. ---------- Consumption Pattern Changes Among Chinese People Following are the facts and figures about the consumption pattern of Chinese people in the Ninth Five-year Plan period (1996-2000), provided by the State Development Planning Commission. Food consumption accounted for 41.9 percent of the total expense of urban residents in 1999, dropping 8 percentage points from 1995, and 52.6 percent of rural people's expense, down 6 percentage points. Food consumption is expected to drop to 40 percent of the total expense among urban residents and 50 percent among rural people by 2000. Urban residents have 9.8-square-meter living space per capita in the first four years of the Plan, up from 1995's 8.1 square meters, while living space in rural areas rose from 21 sq m to 24.4 sq m per capita. Chinese fixed telephone users totaled 110 million in 1999, with 43.24 million using mobile phones. And the number has topped 200 million by September this year, 135 million of which are fixed phone users and 65 million mobile phone users. _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi _______________________________________________________ Kominform list for general information. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Anti-Imperialism list for anti-imperialist news. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________________
