China sets 2021 economy priorities
Key meeting focuses on boosting domestic demand, controllable supply chain
Top Chinese policymakers on Friday put heavy emphasis on addressing various internal challenges ranging from consumption, technology and financial security at a key meeting that outlines top policy priorities for 2021, signaling the world’s second-largest economy is shifting reliance on the domestic economy as external risks continue to mount marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and trade tensions.
At the closely watched Central Economic Work Conference in Beijing, attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping and other senior officials, top leaders commended “historic” achievements in the battle against the COVID-19 epidemic, while concluding the Chinese economy continues to face many uncertainties from the external environment, not-so-solid recovery conditions and various risks posed by the pandemic.
Closely following the complete success of Chang’e-5 lunar sample return mission on Thursday, China’s National Space Administration (CNSA) disclosed plans for a slew of ambitious space projects that include a new three-step plan for the country’s future moon and deeper space exploration missions, which Wu Yanhua, the CNSA deputy head, referred to as “surveying, constructing, and exploiting,” as opposed to the already conquered goals of “orbiting, landing and returning.”
Wu made the remarks during a special press conference at the State Council Information Office in Beijing on Thursday afternoon, and in the early morning, the re-entry capsule of the Chang’e-5 probe executed a safe landing in its predetermined site in Siziwang Banner of North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
“Surveying” means to explore the space and geological environment of the moon and other cosmic bodies, and the variety of radiation in space, Wu said .“Constructing” is to master the capability of building infrastructure, remarked the CNSA official, citing Queqiao the relay satellite of the Chang’e-4 probe that is capable of providing constant moon-Earth tracking and communication service function.
“Exploiting” refers to human development of extraterrestrial resources, which Wu sees as the common goal of interstellar probe missions from all over the world.
Walk the walk in space
The past decades witnessed the steady and robust development of China’s space exploration programs, which have acted as proof of selfreliance, resilience and the CNSA’s capacity for organizing major programs in a concerted, systematic fashion, said space insiders.
And they now have all the reason in the world to believe that China will practice its space plans for years to come, well-paced and always headed for the infinity of the universe.
Global Times has learned from the CNSA that Phase 4 of the country’s moon exploration is already underway, which will include four missions named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology, Chang’e.
The Chang’e-4 probe that achieved the man’s first robotic landing on the dark side of the moon in January 2019 was the first step in the new phase.
And the agency and scientists are mulling over the details of the Chang’e-6 mission, which could be enforced during the 14th FiveYear Plan (2021-25) period. The Chang’e-6 mission, also a lunar material retrieving task just as Chang’e-5, would inherit and further extend the technology breakthroughs and complexity of the previous mission.
The country’s space agency is also planning Chang’e-7 and -8 missions and taking those missions as opportunities; China will reach out to relevant countries and international agencies to jointly study the capability of building a moon research base and verify core technologies.
China will carry out 11 launches that include four crewed spaceships and four cargo spaceship flights in the next two years, as it aims to complete the building of the country’s first space station by around 2022.
Commenting on the prospect of sending Chinese astronauts to the moon, Wu Yanhua, the CNSA deputy head, said Thursday that the space station construction would be a priority for the next two years, and the topic of crewed lunar missions still awaits further discussion.
He stressed that if there are any Chinese crewed moon mission, they shall be different from those by the US and Soviet Union during the space race period, which focused merely on who got there first and who made more landings.
We shall focus on the scientific research value [in future crewed moon missions], and breakthroughs made during the Chang’e-5 mission – take-off from the moon, rendezvous and docking on the lunar orbit, and re-entry to Earth – are all solid foundations laid for future crewed missions, he said.
A new three-step plan for China’s future moon and deeper space exploration missions is “surveying, constructing, and exploiting.”