Li Guoxing received a new right cheek, upper lip, nose and an eyebrow in a 14-hour operation at the Xijing Hospital, a military facility in the northwestern city of Xian.

“Up to now, the patient is in good condition,” the hospital said. “The operation was successful. It is predicted that the wounds can be healed within one week.”

The hospital did not identify the donor, saying only that it was a man declared brain-dead before the operation. His family had requested that no other information be revealed.

Mr Li’s face had been ripped when he was attacked by a bear in 2004 in southwestern Yunnan province and he had since lived as a recluse because of his disfigurement.

Photographs released by the hospital showed the extent of Mr Li’s injuries, his right eye nearly closed and the cheek and lip badly ripped, exposing pink flesh. Another picture showed Mr Li after the operation, lying with a tube in his mouth, his face puffy and with surgical scars from his lower left ear above his nose to his right ear and around his chin.

The surgeon, Guo Shuzhong, the director of the plasticsurgery department, said that Mr Li was recovering satisfactorily but that it would take six months for feeling to return to his new face. In addition he would need to overcome psychological problems. Mr Guo said: “His wife may take a long time to adjust to his new face.”

The partial face transplant comes only six months after doctors in Amiens, northern France, performed the world’s first such procedure on Isabelle Dinoire, 38, whose lips and nose were torn off by her dog. French medical authorities said last night that Mme Dinoire, was “doing as well as anyone could expect”. Philippe Domy, the director of Amiens University Hospital, told The Times: “There is no sign of a rejection and her progress is entirely satisfactory.”

Han Yan, the deputy director of Xijing’s plastic-surgery department, said that the surgery on Mr Li, “is even more complex than the transplant in France”.

China is increasingly eager to demonstrate its scientific prowess. Over the past decade, the Government has poured money into advanced scientific fields, from aerospace to biotechnology, directing grant money to create research centres to rival the West. China is only the third country with a successful manned space programme, and its gene research has won praise from abroad.

Experts have previously criticised the Government for lax oversight of research and said that the push for breakthroughs was creating ethical problems. Beijing tightened regulations on drug trials after Chinese reporters accused a US-funded project of conducting research on asthma medication without the proper consent of farmers in central China in the 1990s.

Last month, the Health Ministry banned the sale of human organs, apparently to clean up the lucrative but poorly regulated transplant business.

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