The Chinese interest in Mir was mentioned by the officials at MirCorp -- the commercial company set up to privatize the Russian space station -- who hinted that China could rent the orbiting platform.

The news was met cautiously in the West, since it was unclear how Chinas rental would work alongside MirCorps own efforts to privatize the station. Previous efforts at Russian-Chinese cooperation have produced few results -- as have many other efforts to commercialize Mir.

Many observers have also dismissed rumors about China's interest in "renting" Mir because the budding space power has always stressed the independent nature of its piloted space program.

Last year, China conducted a successful un-piloted test flight of a spacecraft designed to carry astronauts. Although the country strongly denied Russian involvement in the project, released images of the vehicle showed striking resemblance to the Russian Soyuz spacecraft -- especially the descent module, which bears the closest similarity to the Russian hardware.

A Russian connection to the Chinese space program was widely speculated long before the Chinese test, although the scale of Russia's involvement had remained unclear. At the time of the test, Russian officials confirmed to SPACE.com that although China purchased a Soyuz reentry capsule and some other, mostly used, equipment in the mid-1990s, most of the Chinese program had been developed independently.

Adding Chinese spacecraft into the equation of a potential Sino-Russian space pact would solve the problem of Chinas national pride while simultaneously allowing them to acquire experience with docking and long-duration piloted flights.

According to sources in Russia, after letting the relationship dwindle in the mid-1990s, China has recently renewed its contacts with Russian space officials.

Reportedly, China has already "tested the water" on the possible purchase of Russian docking equipment, and has asked them to consider allowing a Chinese spacecraft equipped with a docking mechanism to be sent to Mir.

"There is a long way to go, but they now have an idea -- Since there is a station in orbit and they have yet to build one of their own, why not get some experience?" a Russian official who do not wish to be identified told SPACE.com.

China has admitted its intention to build a space station, and Russian experts, citing their own experience, pointed out that development of a rendezvous and docking system would be one of the most challenging areas of such project.

"It takes years to develop. They cannot buy this technology anywhere but [from] us, so they will come to us [to purchase the system] sooner or later," the Russian source said.

NASA has already purchased a Russian docking system for the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS). That transaction, according to Russian specialists, saved the American space agency years in building the ISS. At the same time, the U.S. purchase of the Russian hardware, along with other investments, allowed the cash-strapped Russian agency to finance Mir for several years.

It seems the same formula is being considered to maintain Mir in the future -- China could at least partially fill the financial vacuum left by NASA.

Skeptics will likely say that China hardly has enough resources to play such a role.

China has yet to test its ability to operate a piloted spacecraft, which probably means that Mir would have to survive for a long time -- possibly years -- before China could attempt to send a crew to dock with the space station.

Yet China is rejuvenating its contacts with the Russian space industry, using ties almost as old as the modern Chinese state.

One of the organizations the Chinese have recently contacted was OKB MEI, founded in 1947. The center was instrumental in the development of radio-electronic equipment for early Soviet ballistic missiles and later space technology.

Currently, OKB MEI is led by a veteran of the Russian space program Konstantin Pobedonostzev, who in the 1950s attended the Moscow Energetic Institute, where a number of Chinese students were also getting their degrees. Decades (and an historical epoch) later, he was reportedly contacted on possible cooperation by a former classmate who is presently a high-ranking official in the Chinese space industry.

Chinese space experts also have approached TsNIIMash, Russias leading research and certification center in rocket and space technology. Until last month, the organization was headed by the late Vladimir Utkin, who in the 1950s had worked for the Uzhnoe production facility in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, helping the Chinese start their own missile development program.