re: I Don't think So, I See an 8 Mission
I agree with the gist of your statement.
But what I was speculating on was?...
Could the Chinese pull off a more ambitious version
of a Gemini-Agena by using an unmanned
Shenzhou to boost a manned Shenzhou
into an egg-shaped orbit reaching upto an
altitude of 4,000 miles up; an altitude where
one just climbs out of Earth's "gravitational well"?
Such a mission could be accomplished by the
Chinese as early as 2011, assuming they were
less cautious than they are.