Dr. Qi Faren, who is the former Chief Architect of the Chinese Manned Space Operations Project and an Academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, recently announced that, in the year 2014, China will launch high-thrust rockets that can carry 20 tons of weight. Today, China can only send a few tons of cargo into outer space. High-thrust rockets have difficulty with land transportation due to their large size.
He also suggested that next year, China will send the 6-docking-port core portion of the Tiangong-1 space station into orbit and will launch Shenzhou Eight, Nine and Ten spaceships to dock with it. The plan is to complete the Chinese space station’s construction before the year 2020.
Source: Guangming, July 5, 2010
http://www.gmw.cn/content/2010-07/15/content_1180292.htm