text: China Showcases Space Program to the World By STEPHANIE HOO     JIUQUAN, China (AP) -- Rising space power China provided a rare peek into its top-secret launch center Wednesday, capitalizing on its recent success in orbit to promote the military-funded project as a lure for foreign investment and a key to growing prosperity.    A police car with flashing lights led busloads of international journalists across northwestern China's vast Gobi Desert to the Jiuquan space center, past armored patrol vehicles and a sign, in English: "Foreigners are not allowed to enter without permission."    It was the first time China let foreigners enter, though officials forbade photographs of the command-and-control center with its rows of computer screens or the mammoth assembly hall where workers built the spacecraft that lifted China's first astronaut into orbit last October...
inputs: China Showcases Space Program to the World By STEPHANIE HOO     JIUQUAN, China (AP) -- Rising space power China provided a rare peek into its top-secret launch center Wednesday, capitalizing on its recent success in orbit to promote the military-funded project as a lure for foreign investment and a key to growing prosperity.    A police car with flashing lights led busloads of international journalists across northwestern China's vast Gobi Desert to the Jiuquan space center, past armored patrol vehicles and a sign, in English: "Foreigners are not allowed to enter without permission."    It was the first time China let foreigners enter, though officials forbade photographs of the command-and-control center with its rows of computer screens or the mammoth assembly hall where workers built the spacecraft that lifted China's first astronaut into orbit last October...