People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps twelve were chosen as astronaut candidates. The Astronaut Corps was established in January 1998 and the twelve along with two PLAAF trainees sent to Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in 1996 forms Chinese Group 1. Seven pilots entered the Astronaut Corps in May 2010 as the Group 2. In 2014, Group 1 astronauts Wu Jie, Li Qinglong, Chen Quan, Zhao Chuandong, and Pan Zhanchun retired from the Astronaut Corps due to age; none of them had flown in a mission. The Astronaut Corps was part of the General Armaments Department until GAD's disbandment in January 2016. As part of the
Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language The Steering Committee for the Test Of Proficiency-Huayu (SC-TOP) was established in November 2005 under the direction of the Ministry of Education of R.O.C. Originally called the Chinese Language Testing Center and renamed in January, 2007, the Committee aims to develop and promote an effective Chinese assessment system, mainly the Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language (TOCFL), for Chinese learners worldwide to assess their Chinese proficiency. The SC-TOP has the following major missions: The Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language (TOCFL) is a standardized language proficiency test developed for non-native speakers of Chinese. It is the result of