万花筒 2008-09-29&09-30 中国人实现太空行走（在线收听）

China's first astronaut to walk in space, waved to its countrymen and then uttered these words: Greetings to all the people in China and the world. Back on earth, they responded with pride.

“I love China.”

“I'm proud to be Chinese,” says this man and many in the crowd as they watched Zhai Zhi Gang waved the flag in men’s final frontier.

It was just a month ago that crowds had gathered around this big screen to cheer on another major international event--the Olympics. This coming so close on the heels of that event, China's government hopes to send this message that its rising power is not just on earth, but also in space.

A successful space walk is a major step forward for China's plans to build a space station by 2020. In the words of China's Manned Space Programme  "This is a breakthrough!"

The ultimate purpose for exploring space is to pursue peace. China should definitely mark its footprint on this part of history. But with details of its space programme still cloaked in secrecy and under the control of China's military, concerns linger that this will only expedite a space race. Though analysts who track China’s military technology call the race more of a crawl and one that may spur more space exploration from the U.S.

I think that the U.S. generally responds, better when there is competition than when there isn't. So, insofar as the Chinese mission is a spur, reminding American decision-makers that there are other countries out there that are intent upon a manned presence, a long-term presence. Yes, I think that's probably a good thing.

At the big screen, only big dreams being met in this moment--the days of milk scandals and the earthquake forgotten momentarily. This historic moment seems a natural step to visitors.

Like U.S. , like Russia, they had to do it. To prove that they are big nations.

A big and growing nation, continuing to stretch the boundaries of its power.