China space mission 'a great victory'

President Jiang Zemin has hailed the successful launch of China’s unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou IV, calling it a “great victory” that demonstrated the country’s increasing technological capabilities.

In a statement carried by the government’s Xinhua News Agency, Jiang congratulated everyone involved in the project and encouraged harder work to push China’s space programme forward – towards the government’s goal of sending up a Chinese space traveller as soon as possible.