People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps The People's Liberation Army Astronaut Corps () is a unit of the People's Liberation Army Strategic Support Force that is responsible for the selection and training of astronauts for the Chinese manned space program (Project 921). In August 1992, the Manned Space Program Command proposed to select astronaut candidates from the People's Liberation Army Air Force fighter pilots to the Central Military Committee and the proposal was approved in September. In October 1992, a Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense-PLAAF jointed task force started the preliminary selection; 1,506 pilots were identified and
Chinese as a foreign language Chinese language proficiency exam program, which tests has been taken around 100 million times (including by domestic ethnic minority candidates). Within China's Guangdong Province, Cantonese is also offered in some schools as optional or extra-curricular courses in select Chinese as a foreign language programs, although many require students to be proficient in the Mandarin first. Chinese is rated as one of the most difficult languages to learn for people whose native language is English, together with Arabic, Japanese and Korean. According to the Foreign Service Institute, a native English speaker needs over 2,200 hours of intensive study, taking 88 weeks