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(c) 1986, The Washington Post PEKING - China has made "great progress" in developing a manned space program and the day it launches a man in space for the first time is "not far off," an official newspaper said Sunday. The overseas edition of the People's Da ....

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.... said. On June 5 of this year, Sun Jiadong, vice minister of astronautics, told reporters that China would put a man into space but that such a program "must be worked out gradually in keeping with our needs and capabilities." A foreign observer who has followed the Chinese space program said it could still be a few years before China puts a man into orbit. The People's Daily report did not say how many astronauts are being trained or exactly when they might go into space. The Chinese have appeared to be working for several years on problems associated with building a space shuttle. A high-ranking official of China's national defense, science an ....