I think the Chinese term should be in the article whether we use the english astronaut or the pseudo-english taikonaut. Saying that it looks ugly doesn't seem to me to be a good reason to remove the correct Chinese term. Ark30inf 03:56, 15 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Time will tell what the preferred term for a Chinese astronaut is in English - my money's on "astronaut". There's no special reason to include a Chinese translation of "astronaut" on this page (any more than there is a reason to include a Chinese translation of the word "rocket" for example). rlandmann

We should probably take our lead from China's official news sources -- both Xinhua and China Daily use "Chinese astronaut" so we should stick to that. Fuzheado 05:52, 15 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Agree. "Taikonaut" is not a Chinese term, it is an english term invented by English news media. It is originated from "Taikonren", a nonofficial Chinese term which I believe is used mainly in Hong Kong. Wshun

Yup, it's interesting that only Western media outlets have been using that term. Fuzheado 06:39, 15 Oct 2003 (UTC)

"China the third country to put a person in space," <- this needs to be made clearer. People of other countries have been in space; but that sentence makes it sound liek it isn't so. -- Tarquin 08:50, 15 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I don't think this contributes much to the article:

"The Party and the people will never forget those who have set up this outstanding merit in the space industry for the motherland,the people and the nation," said Hu, who also expressed congratulations and respect to specialists and people who have contributed to China's space mission development on behalf of the CPC Central Committee, the State Council and the Central Military Commission its chairman Jiang Zemin.

Add it back if you object. It just sounded too much like the People's Daily. --Jiang 03:28, 16 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Not sure why this was here, since I don't know of anyone who suggested that the launch was a hoax.

Although news reports of the launch were strictly controlled by the PRC government, and a live broadcast of the launch apparently canceled, the launch was congratulated by NASA, which implied that NASA also confirmed the launch.

---User:Roadrunner