A taikonaut is an astronaut from China — a person China sends into space. English has quietly grown a small set of these words, one for each country with its own space programme: astronaut for Americans and for space travellers in general, cosmonaut for Russians (and before that, Soviets), and taikonaut for the Chinese. All three mean the same job. The different words mark who sent the person up, not what the person does. Taikonaut is the newest of the three. It was made in 1998, when China was preparing to send people into space, and it spread through the news after Yang Liwei's flight in 2003. Because it is new, its standing is a little unsettled: it is common in Western news reporting, and you will meet it in newspapers and on television, but Chinese official English usually just says astronaut, and some writers prefer that too. So you should recognise it easily, and you may use it, but do not think astronaut is wrong for a Chinese crew member — it is not. Say it TIE-ko-nawt. In Chinese-language reporting, the person is 太空人 or, in official mainland use, 航天員.

（中國的）太空人；中國官方用「航天員」，台灣媒體多半直接說「中國太空人」