Commonly known as the Chinese Space Station Telescope (CSST), Xuntian (Heavenly Cruiser) is readying to become China’s first major telescope in space. Unlike previous space telescopes such as Hubble, this orbiting observatory, due for launch in 2024, will be orbiting alongside the Chinese large modular space station, able to dock with the outpost when needed. One of the most-important characteristics of a telescope is its diameter — which limits how much light it can take in at a single time....

Over the past few weeks, the Chinese government’s crackdown on Big Tech companies has intensified. The giants haveall feltthe brunt of heightened regulatory scrutiny. At the end of last year, Ant Group (which owns the payment platform AliPay) failed to go public on the stock market. Chinese regulators citeda lack of compliance with new fintech regulations, which were abruptly introduced a week after founder Jack Ma publicly criticized the existing regulatory regime....

China’s dominance in manufacturing has made it thefactory of the world. The subsequent economic growth enriched anever-expanding middle class, and the country’s retail industry has quickly adapted to supply a growing appetite for consumption. Some of these developments in the way people spend their money, powered by the latest technology, will soon be appearing on a device near you. Indeed, at the start of this year, The Economistsuggestedthat retailers everywhere should look to China, and some arealready doing so....

China’sZhurong roverlanded safely on Marson May 15, making China only the third country to successfully land a rover on the red planet. More impressively still, China is the first Mars-going nation to carry out an orbiting, landing and rovering operation as its first mission. Planetary scientist Roberto Oroseitold NatureChina is “doing in a single go what NASA took decades to do”, while astrophysicist Jonathon McDowelldescribedChina’s decision to include a rover in its maiden Mars outing as a “very gutsy move”....

China just launched its own satellite navigation system to compete with America’sGlobal Positioning Systemand the European Union’sGalileo and Russia’s Global Navigation Satellite System. Beidou, as the government-owned system is called, is designed to provide more accurate navigation and positioning services in the Asia and Pacific region before 2012 and will be capable of providing global navigation services by 2020. The new satellite navigation system was built to end the country’s dependence upon the US GPS system in 2000, when it sent two orbiters as a double-satellite experimental positioning system....