China's taikonauts in germ-free press conference
China's about to send three men into space. The country wants to show them off, but it doesn't want any of them to get sick before they go. So, this afternoon, China's authorities arranged a news conference in which the astronauts took questions from behind a glass panel, thereby protecting them from potentially sickly journalists and officials marooned on the other side.
The three answered questions for a few minutes.
"I feel very honoured to be able to participate in this mission," said Zhai Zhigang, the commander.
Do they feel any pressure?
"You should pay attention to what you're doing right now," said Zhai, "You have to maintain a very even state of mind."
Any time for snapshots when you're out in space?
"When we have time we will take pictures and videos," said Liu Boming evenly.
The three men then stood up, saluted and left the room. Hopefully they didn't catch any germs.
On Thursday evening, they're set to take off in their rocket - the Shenzhou 7 - from China's central Gansu province (the government has invited a number of media agencies to cover the launch - but, sadly for us, the BBC isn't on the list.)
Then, on Saturday, Zhai Zhigang is expected to perform China's first ever space walk. This is the next step in a long-term space plan which eventually has China heading off to explore Mars and Jupiter as well.
The three men on this mission will be the 4th, 5th and 6th men that China's sent into space - the first Chinese citizen to leave this world was Yang Liwei in October 2003.
Everything seems to be going well so far. But there's one small problem that China hasn't fully addressed: what, exactly, should you call a Chinese space traveller?
The front page of the English-language China Daily happily refers to "astronauts" as did a state TV translator during the press conference. But the official news agency, Xinhua, refers to the space travellers as "taikonauts" (taken from the Chinese word Tai Kong which means space).
Any preferences?
I’m 
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~50~RS~)
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James:
Interesting choice of words about Space!!!
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Good to know BBC is not invited. The government is at least doing something right.
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James you are very blase and condescending in your manner when you write about the health precautions of the Chinese astronauts. It obviously shows you have no idea about space health issues. You're also very patronising towards the Chinese astronauts.
Or is it all just sour grapes because you and the BBC were not invited to the launch. With your and the BBC's track record with regards to China I'm surprised you haven't been booted out of the country yet. You sometimes seem to forget that you're guests in the country and shouldn't think that just because you are a 'journalist' that you're also a VIP, you're not, so get over it.
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Not on the list? They probablu fear that you could turn things upside down? James, you proved that you have that kind of ability before during the torch relay. Remember?
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evry time China has a big party the BBC is not invited, so sad.
not a big deal, but it's the only the biggest party in the world right now.
BBC can watch it on TV like us nobodies out here.
China will be so happy to once again be on top of the world in inventions and high tech, like they were not long ago.
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Good for you! Watching that may not be safe!
From my experience, if China lets media cover too much of any space activity, the activity has a big chance to fail that day.
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in chinese it usually called 'Yu Hang Yuan',i.e. "Space travel People".
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I just hope the same kind of spite and fault-finding used towards James can be equally applied to Chinese political jounalists.
Then China--our country--can benefit even more greatly from the praiseworthy 'fighting spirit and courage' your guys have so far displayed here to contest the authority!
At least the way James writes about China is nothing different from a British political journalist who writes about Britain.
(see BBC Nick Robinson's Newslog)
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I am really glad that BBC was not invited.
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James,
Do we Chinese deserve the despise, ridicule, and neglect expressed by all the world civilized people, even though we have the taikongnauts, number one gold medal counts, most PhD's, fastest growing economy, greatest social system in human history, happiest citizens, bestest emperors?
I think your blog is no exception in ridiculing and despising us. Hey, we just killed some babies. That's an accident.
Please say something good about us
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'taijinauts'?
The space travellers need relaxation, anyway.
Interesting to see how popular Chinese 'tai ji' becomes with British people, not only the old but also the young.
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If the government cannot insure the basic food safety and product quality for the people, taikonaut or astronaut makes no difference. China remains a third class country.
I am "protesting" against the Chinese government for the shoddy work they've been doing.
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Getting even mildly sick in space is a big issue. You cant wipe the inside of your visor if you sneeze on a spacewalk. If your stomach decides to empty its self via the wrong channel......dont want to think about it.
The Americans even quarantined their people after coming back from the moon.
Another big day for China.
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I hope they didn't drink any local milk!
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To all the Chinese here: If you hate the BBC, don't read it/watch it then! Go back to your CCTV!
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I think it is pretty lame that a country like China which has a large segment of their population living below most modern nation’s poverty lines and who for many people in the countryside have no clean drinking water, are wasting money on doing what has been done years ago. And for what, national pride? Are the Chinese so desperate to impress the rest of the world? It is as if they have an inferiority complex and instead of impressing the world with improvements to their poor and human rights issues they put three guys in space costing billions to do so. Foolishness - they are about 40 years too late.
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Just call them "rich" !! They'll be in great demand for all manner of advertising !!
"Refreshes you after a long space-walk !"
"The preferred footwear of space walkers !"
"Instant noodles as used in space !"
They'll probably make more money in one year of advertising that you can make in a lifetime of journalism !! Just ask Colonel Yang Liwei, first Chinese citizen in space !!
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"China's grip still firm on Tibetan area" By Michael Bristow, the BBC's very own Free Tibet activist.
Well what can I say, another biased story on the BBC by a well known China basher, Michael Bristow. He writes another report that demonizes China on one side and paints the Tibetans as innocent, flower power, peace loving, wouldn't hurt a fly bunch of people.
If protestors in Europe or the US turned violent then they would be classified as rioters and criminals, no questioned asked, by the western media, Regardless of their grieviances or the legitimacy of their cause. But NO! In China if they are tibetan then they're the innocent party always, regardless if they riot and destroy property and kill innocent Chinese.
I noticed how Bristow carefully omitted that Han Chinese were murdered by the tibetans. Bristow just manipulated the story to imply that it was only Communist Party and Chinese government property that was damaged. No, the tibetans, killed innocent Chinese trying to make a living and live peacefully in their own country, slaughtered without remorse.
Tibet is a region of China, pure and simple. For all the Free TIbet activists around the world, I bet many of you are in a country that doesn't techincally belong to you, through brutal colonisation or in a country that inflicted uninmaginable pain, torture, death, slavery and sufferring around the world on people of different race or religion.
I hope the BBC moderators allow this comment, but who knows I may be censored.
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I think Chinese people have a superb ability to sniff out propogandas. Do not you think so, James?
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Haha, the "taikonauts" thing is just another joke of English translation by mainland Chinese. No surprise ~
The glass panel is also interesting ~ but we should not laugh at the seriousness.
This is a big step for Chinese though it is like elementary level to the west.
However, a step is still a step, better than stop ~
Anyway ~ good luck to them
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China Daily is as "official" as Xinhua agency, if not more. It's the overseas version of the People's Daily.
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china seems to enjoy being a closed country. 'reform and open' seems to be just a slogan after all.
Some comments here shows that some Chinese people think their country is better off being closed. Nevermind learning from history, kicking whoever you don't like (just because you don't wanna hear them) out of this country seems to be the right thing to do.
These days I wonder where the great qualities that Chinese people used to prize so much. some cannot afford being crticised, they just don't have the capacity (which seems to be a great Chinese traditional value as well) for it.
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i can smell some kind of sour grape in your article, guy. why bother? just sending three men into space and perfoming a spacewalk which U.S and Soviet Union did it years ago.
yes,you are not invited to the first place. why should the authorities do that? give them a reason.
please ask not what china did for you, ask what you did for china, man. Then the answer reveals.
oh, we call astronaut yuhangyuan, i am sure you know that. we are not like soviet union, we don't call it cosmonaut. haha.
ok, let's get to the point.
i hope it will be an successful spaceflight.
let's pray for them and pray for China.
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wonderfulchinese #5
Good choice of word! 'Fear' is perhaps the word that explains pretty much every strange thing that the Chinese goverment does these days. They just can't afford losing face, so everything has to be 'perfect' (in their sense anyway).
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James, Why don't you put your thoughts
in the Chinese version of BBC news? Would
be interesting to see what kind of reactions from Chinese readers whom BBC always want to attract.
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To Voodohaze: whether your comments are censored or not makes no difference to me as I gladly skip through them knowing that each one will be exactly the same: an over-reaction to James' blog combined with a nationalistic defence of China, and attack of anything or anyone else.
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I want to wish the astronauts every success in completing their mission.
As an oversees Chinese, I think I speak for many of my fellow oversees Chinese when I say that no matter what our passports might say, our mirrors - and our hearts - will always remind us of who we are.
The love of our motherland flows through every artery of our bodies. The humiliation that we suffered previously, the hardship that we had endure and the optimism that we share for China's tomorrow, is inscribed within our DNA.
wo ai no zhong guo.
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In response to #21. At 03:07am on 25 Sep 2008, Baron-Hall.
India, which has a population size similar to China's, has more people below the poverty line than China does, around double at 400million. India is one of your cherished democracies and they are spending money on their space program and not helping the poor.
China has taken 600million people out of poverty in the last 30 or so years.
Why doesn't any country in the world, like the US and countries in the EU stop spending money on their space programs and help the poor, which there are many in those countries.
And why doesn't the US with it's 400billion dollar plus annual military budget stop spending on that and start helping the poor instead.
Why does the US government want to throw a trillion dollars at bailing out the fat cats in the finance industry and not help the poor instead.
why... why.... why!
Western double standards at work again.
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for someone thinking about poverty stuffs in China, does it mean britain can not do the spacecraft things because they are thinking about poor people in their country? No, it is too much excuse, i can still see so many poor people in the uk. at least, all of my british mates are not as rich as my chinese friends...dunno why, maybe you guys just thinking of other countries 'problems' when chinese people are working and studying hard. ;)
I had been living in beijing for 19years and my family got happy life there. Glad my country always be the top 3. US n RUSSIA was cool.
the empire on which the sun never sets...?please Britain, show us the 'sun' still there, lol.
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All you UK and western people are right, this has been done before 40 years ago.
It is no big deal, every country in the developed world can do this if they wanted to.
But China is a 3rd world country, so they are no. 1 in this class.
Too bad the UK don't want to do this, I bet they have the right stuff to put a man in to space if they wish to.
The Brits don't waste their money on useless things like going to space, they like to spend their money in Afghanistan helping to rebuild all NATO had bombed. And their African friends and lovers are leaving for another, spend some money there and buy back some love.
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Just watched your report on the space launch. You seem to be able to condescend yet put across the image of China as a threat simultaneously - all form a space launch involving no other nations - that takes some doing.
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Heyone.
Fear is a good thing for a government donot you think? The opposite is not fear of any thing. That is pretty much the description of the US government. It has fearlessly overthrew many governments, droped bombs in a dozen of countries, killed millions in their wars, flared up racial or ethnic and religious conflicts on different continents. No worries of loosing face, no fear. No need of perfection. It is normal for the US government to do all of that. What a fearless government the world has to put up with.
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taikolonizer loves to venture out into the space!
The BBC was called "Enemy's Station" in China, anybody knows? It still probably is by the look of the comments here.
It could be why the party's working hard to make sure their people would not have a love affair with the BBC.
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I think it is pretty lame that a country like China which has a large segment of their population living below most modern nation?s poverty lines and who for many people in the countryside have no clean drinking water, are wasting money on doing what has been done years ago. And for what, national pride? Are the Chinese so desperate to impress the rest of the world? It is as if they have an inferiority complex and instead of impressing the world with improvements to their poor and human rights issues they put three guys in space costing billions to do so. Foolishness - they are about 40 years too late.
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I think it is pretty lame that countries like UK and US which are among the richest countries in the word with a large segment of their population living a much better life than average always invade poor countries and harm other poeple (Iraq, Afganistan...) for natural resources (e.g. oil) instead of making better use of their high-tech and money to the wellfare of their own citizen.
Some narrow-minded people always looking for solutions in a narrow scope who believe their wellfare can only be built on other poeple's loss. Some poeple believe we should search the solutions to the planet's existing problems in a broader way which may significantly improve the wellfare of all the human beings.
Your thinking is weird, laking vision. I dont know how all brits thinks. But at least the Chinese believes that the future of human relies in a much larger space. So do I. And it is certainly not just a showoff to impress others or just about national pride. It serves many pratical purposes and definitely worth the investment.
You really need to think twice before you make a cluless judgement of other poeple. How could a simple fool understand the vision of a wise man?
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To No.20 ian95x
Your short message shows a lot of anger and haterous in you. You need to be cool. It is just a blog.
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To "Senlin" and comment #32. At 12:29pm on 25 Sep 2008, Senlin wrote: "To Voodohaze: whether your comments are censored or not makes no difference to me as I gladly skip through them knowing that each one will be exactly the same: an over-reaction to James' blog combined with a nationalistic defence of China, and attack of anything or anyone else."
Yeah, yeah, who cares whether you read my comments or not. I certainly don't.
And stop criticising me for speaking my opinion, it's called free speech! Part of your so cherished democracies. Have you something against free speech?
Why don't you write something of relevance rather than flame me.
To the BBC moderators, if you allowed that flame of me then you should allow this one too. It's only fair.
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to post 40 by thisisacryforhelp:
Come on, you know the term "enemy's station" is seriously outdated. It originated during the cultural revolution and died out soon after the cultural revolution was over. Spreading some information which is no longer true makes me wonder if you are intentionally misleading the audience here.
About twenty years ago when I was in college I used to listen to BBC everyday, and a lot of my schoolmates use to do the same, and we used to sincerely believe in every word it said. During that time a radio that can receive broadcasting by BBC, VOA and CNN alike was a must-have equipment for college students.
Now my nephew is in college and if you ask him, he and his classmates believe that BBC and CNN are among the biggest liars when it comes to reporting on China.
It is BBC and CNN themselves that have destroyed their creditworthiness among the younger generation in China. The party did not have to do any thing in this regard, just the opposite, as shown by the ordinarly Chinese' reactions to their reports over Tibetan riot and torch relay, they have done a huge favor to the party.
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to Senlin: Many of the words I use in my comments have also been used by the BBC when used to report on things in China.
So if I'm being extreme then you must also think that the BBC is extreme. But somehow I doubt that!
Western double standards once again.
Don't suppress my free speech!!
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A lot of poor people in China? Not as many as 10 years ago.
Last time I looked 30% of Americans were below the 'poverty' line and its not exactly the highlife in the UK.
Maybe the investments in spaces exploration are somehow linked to poverty levels. The more spent on space, the less poverty.
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The government that can send men into space walking, cannot guarantee the food safety of its people.Such a woeful spectacle.
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well hello China!
hope a lot of you will be able to visit the winter Olympics in Vancouver in 14 months.
best regards,
Frank
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