Yuri Gagarin, Alan Shepherd – Li Qinglong? If China becomes the third nation to put a person into space, the man rumoured to be the first Chinese astronaut, or yuhangyuan, will be the new name on everyone’s lips. Coming more than 40 years after Gagarin’s historic orbit of the Earth, it will not in itself be a major technological triumph. But it will spell out to the world that China has the know-how and financial clout to put a crew into space.