Beijing has called on the UN to remind the US to abide by the treaty regulating outer space after space satellites launched by tech tycoon Elon Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX almost collided with its space station twice in the past year. China said its space station deployed prevention collision avoidance control measures in July and October to avoid colliding with Starlink satellites in a recent report submitted by Beijing to the UN’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space earlier this month. “China wishes to request the secretary general…
Day: December 27, 2021
A cluster of covid-19 cases in China prompts a citywide lockdown
Dec 28th 2021 FOR MUCH of the pandemic, the lives of most people in China have remained relatively normal except for hassles caused by tough border controls. For the 13m residents of the western city of Xi’an, that changed on December 23rd 2021 when officials imposed one of the biggest lockdowns anywhere in the country since SARS-CoV-2 was first detected in the central city of Wuhan late in 2019. Four days later inhabitants were told to stay at home, and go out only to be tested for covid-19. No one…
Jonathan Spence, Noted China Scholar, Dies at 85
Jonathan D. Spence, an eminent scholar of China and its vast history who in books like “God’s Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan” (1996) and “The Search for Modern China” (1990) excavated that country’s past and illuminated its present, died on Saturday at his home in West Haven, Conn. He was 85. His wife, Annping Chin, said the cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease. Professor Spence, who taught for more than 40 years at Yale University, where his lecture classes were always in great demand, found the…
Covid cases rise in Xi’an as China battles biggest community outbreak since 2020
Lockdown restrictions have been tightened in the Chinese city of Xi’an, which is battling the largest community outbreak the country has seen since the initial months of the pandemic when China brought thousands of daily infections under control. Authorities reported 162 new community infections on Monday, up from 158 on Sunday. All but 10 of Monday’s new cases were reported in Shaanxi province, where 13 million residents of the capital Xi’an have been locked down for five days. The lockdown is the first time China had implemented such severe measures…