China plans to launch space station

It would appear that China has official plans to launch its own space station by 2020.

The People's Republic of China is very ambitious about its space program, using it as a way to establish themselves as one of the world's leading scientific nations.

The space program began in 1956, mainly for military use. It's manned space program began 1968 and sent it's first human in space in 2003, making it the third country to do so.

According to The China Daily newspaper, China's planned space station would be "a small-scale, 20-ton space workshop," quoting Long Lehao, a leading designer of the Long March 3A rocket that carried the Chang'e 1, a lunar probe, into space. The recent lunar probe launch has sparked rivalry between China and Japan's space programs. India is also said to possibly join in on the space race with plans to launch it's own probe in April. Although Chinese officials claim that they would rather work with other countries rather than compete in a space race. They were willing to participate in the International Space Station but the U.S. were uneasy about allowing a communist dictatorship aboard.
















Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_program_of_China
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/WireStory?id=3830131&page=1