Travel agent leaks State secret

The Australian ^ | October 9, 2003 | Catherine Armitage

[Kaiwen]

CHINA plans to launch a man into space, or maybe even two or three, next Wednesday at 6am - at least according to the travel agent with exclusive rights to market tours to watch the historic launch.

It's supposed to be a state secret, but anybody who responded to advertisements placed by the China Aviation International Travel Service in two Beijing newspapers this week was let in on it. "The launch is scheduled on the 15th. It's still a secret," said a tour salesman.

Just under 4000 yuan ($700) buys a return flight from Beijing to the remote Gobi desert launch site in Inner Mongolia, four nights' accommodation in a four-ish star hotel and a seat to watch proceedings from 8km away on October 15.

"You can't get closer in case something happened. Oh, please excuse me for saying unlucky words," said the tour agent, who gave his name as Xiong.

Fear of failure and the fact it is a military mission has shrouded the project in secrecy. There was speculation the launch would be held during the top leaders' annual planning session, which runs for four days from this Saturday.

An event that will propel China into the exclusive club of nations to have achieved manned space flight is seemingly too important a propaganda opportunity for the leaders to miss.

According to Chinese media reports, President Hu Jintao and former president Jiang Zemin will be viewing from 7km away.

"It's of great significance, a milestone of our probe into the unknown field," said Wu Zhe, deputy principal of the Beijing University of Aeronautic and Astronautic Science and Technology.

Dr Wu said the mission had the same political significance as "two bombs and one satellite", a phrase used by Chinese to refer to their Cold War development of atomic and hydrogen bombs and the first Chinese satellite.