China plans to land a probe on Mars in 2021 in a bid to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the chief commander of Chang'e-1 Satellite System said on Friday.

"China is likely to launch a Mars probe in 2020. After months of flying, the probe is expected to land in Mars at the 100th anniversary of the CPC. If successful, it will be a present from people working in the aerospace field," Ye Peijian, the commander, also a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, told the Xinhua News Agency on Friday. 

Ye said the schedule is tight but his team is confident of the mission.

"Our team accomplished the moon exploration project in 2013 as part of the Chang'e-3 mission," he noted, adding that China has accumulated enough experience from its moon project.

Previous reports from Xinhua said the Mars probe's main mission will be to conduct a comprehensive remote sensing and a surface landing.

In November 2015, China unveiled a model of its orbiter and landing rover at the China International Industry Fair in Shanghai.

"Up till now we have made a breakthrough on the communication issue with a distance of 400 million kilometers. The main difficulty would be landing on Mars," Ye said.

The CPC was founded in 1921 and had over 80 million members as of 2015.