President Jiang Zemin, who is now on an inspection tour out of Beijing, sent a message of congratulations on the successful return of China's third unmanned spaceship "Shenzhou III" Monday afternoon.

Jiang sent the message in a telephone call to Cao Gangchuan, head of the General Armaments Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, a member of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief director of the national manned spacecraft program.

Jiang expressed congratulations on the successful launch, normal operation and safe return of the space vehicle.

Jiang, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China and chairman of the CMC, encouraged all those who participated in the program to work even harder, in order to ensure the success of the forthcoming launching of the fourth spaceship and other follow-up space activities.

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