Thread on how china became a science superpower according to the economist.
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yes, they game the patent system meanwhile they smuggle actual innovative tech and try to reverse engineer it.
they’ve made leaps im the scientific arena but ccp propaganda accounts got some people detached from reality.
Source : China appears to pull off satellite feat that NASA has never achieved
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China's Push for Supremacy in Space
By
Theo Burman is a Newsweek Live News Reporter based in London, U.K. He writes about U.S. politics and international news, with a focus on infrastructure and technology. He has covered technological and cultural issues extensively in the U.S. and the U.K., such as the rise of Elon Musk and other tech figures within the conservative movement, and the development of high-profile international construction projects. Theo joined Newsweek in 2024 and has previously written for Dexerto, PinkNews, and News UK. He is a graduate of Durham University and News Associates. You can get in touch with Theo by emailing t.burman@newsweek.com. Languages: English.
Theo Burman
Live News Reporter
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
Read original
Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Two remote-controlled Chinese satellites appear to have docked in high orbit to allow refueling and servicing for the first time.
The achievement, which has yet to be matched by the U.S, involved autonomous spacecraft Shijian-21 and Shijian-25, completing the task in geostationary orbit earlier this month.
Geostationary orbits occur at 22,236 miles above the surface, and are typically used for communications satellites so that they can move with the rotation of the Earth. However, the high orbit and need for satellites to maintain speeds with the Earth's rotation makes docking extremely difficult.
The event, not so far confirmed by China, was reported after optical sensor data suggested the satellites "appeared visually merged" between July 2 and July 6, according to space situational awareness provider COMSPOC, based in the U.S.
Newsweek contacted NASA and the China National Space Administration for more information on the situation via email.
If confirmed, China's achievement would highlight major advancements in space servicing capabilities—an area long pursued by global space agencies. Refueling satellites during flight extends their operational life span and reduces space debris, benefits considered critical for maintaining sustainable long-term operations in ever-more-crowded orbital pathways.
NASA has previously achieved autonomous docking and fuel transfer in low Earth orbit with the 2007 DARPA Orbital Express mission, but has not managed the process in the higher, more challenging geostationary orbit in which the Shijian mission occurred.
The close-proximity operations were observed alongside two American military surveillance satellites stationed nearby to monitor the historic maneuver.
The operation involved carefully coordinated movements as Shijian-25 approached and maneuvered near Shijian-21 throughout June and early July, culminating in the period when they appeared to converge, according to U.S. and Swiss tracking sources.
Tracking from COMSPOC and other space surveillance organizations indicated the following sequence: Shijian-25, which launched earlier in 2025 to test mission-extension technologies, moved steadily toward Shijian-21 starting in early June.
Stock image: The International Space Station docking over Tunisia, May, 2016. Stock image: The International Space Station docking over Tunisia, May, 2016. Getty Images
Read more China
The two achieved a close approach on June 13 before temporarily separating 90 minutes later. Another round of close-proximity operations took place on June 30, observed from Earth by optical tracking firm s2a Systems in Switzerland.
During these maneuvers, the satellites orbited at over 22,000 miles above the equator, firmly in geostationary territory.
Shijian-25's mission reportedly aimed to use robotic arms to latch onto Shijian-21 and replenish its fuel, enabling extended mission life.
Shijian-21 had previously depleted much of its fuel in 2022 while towing a defunct BeiDou navigation satellite into a higher, inactive "graveyard" orbit, thus contributing to debris reduction.
Swiss optical tracking firm s2a Systems said on July 2: "After a day with small but relatively constant distance yesterday, the two objects came closer again today and can no longer be separated by our instrument since about 11:00 UTC (7 p.m. Beijing time)"
Further confirmation of the suspected refueling and on-orbit servicing between Shijian-21 and Shijian-25 will depend on statements from Chinese authorities or future international tracking analysis.
China Appears to Pull Off Satellite Feat That NASA Has Never Achieved
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China's Push for Supremacy in Space
By
Theo Burman is a Newsweek Live News Reporter based in London, U.K. He writes about U.S. politics and international news, with a focus on infrastructure and technology. He has covered technological and cultural issues extensively in the U.S. and the U.K., such as the rise of Elon Musk and other tech figures within the conservative movement, and the development of high-profile international construction projects. Theo joined Newsweek in 2024 and has previously written for Dexerto, PinkNews, and News UK. He is a graduate of Durham University and News Associates. You can get in touch with Theo by emailing t.burman@newsweek.com. Languages: English.
Theo Burman
Live News Reporter
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
Read original
Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.Two remote-controlled Chinese satellites appear to have docked in high orbit to allow refueling and servicing for the first time.
The achievement, which has yet to be matched by the U.S, involved autonomous spacecraft Shijian-21 and Shijian-25, completing the task in geostationary orbit earlier this month.
Geostationary orbits occur at 22,236 miles above the surface, and are typically used for communications satellites so that they can move with the rotation of the Earth. However, the high orbit and need for satellites to maintain speeds with the Earth's rotation makes docking extremely difficult.
The event, not so far confirmed by China, was reported after optical sensor data suggested the satellites "appeared visually merged" between July 2 and July 6, according to space situational awareness provider COMSPOC, based in the U.S.
Newsweek contacted NASA and the China National Space Administration for more information on the situation via email.
Why It Matters
If confirmed, China's achievement would highlight major advancements in space servicing capabilities—an area long pursued by global space agencies. Refueling satellites during flight extends their operational life span and reduces space debris, benefits considered critical for maintaining sustainable long-term operations in ever-more-crowded orbital pathways.
NASA has previously achieved autonomous docking and fuel transfer in low Earth orbit with the 2007 DARPA Orbital Express mission, but has not managed the process in the higher, more challenging geostationary orbit in which the Shijian mission occurred.
What To Know
The close-proximity operations were observed alongside two American military surveillance satellites stationed nearby to monitor the historic maneuver.
The operation involved carefully coordinated movements as Shijian-25 approached and maneuvered near Shijian-21 throughout June and early July, culminating in the period when they appeared to converge, according to U.S. and Swiss tracking sources.
Tracking from COMSPOC and other space surveillance organizations indicated the following sequence: Shijian-25, which launched earlier in 2025 to test mission-extension technologies, moved steadily toward Shijian-21 starting in early June.
Stock image: The International Space Station docking over Tunisia, May, 2016. Stock image: The International Space Station docking over Tunisia, May, 2016. Getty Images
Read more China
The two achieved a close approach on June 13 before temporarily separating 90 minutes later. Another round of close-proximity operations took place on June 30, observed from Earth by optical tracking firm s2a Systems in Switzerland.
During these maneuvers, the satellites orbited at over 22,000 miles above the equator, firmly in geostationary territory.
Shijian-25's mission reportedly aimed to use robotic arms to latch onto Shijian-21 and replenish its fuel, enabling extended mission life.
Shijian-21 had previously depleted much of its fuel in 2022 while towing a defunct BeiDou navigation satellite into a higher, inactive "graveyard" orbit, thus contributing to debris reduction.
What People Are Saying
Swiss optical tracking firm s2a Systems said on July 2: "After a day with small but relatively constant distance yesterday, the two objects came closer again today and can no longer be separated by our instrument since about 11:00 UTC (7 p.m. Beijing time)"
What Happens Next
Further confirmation of the suspected refueling and on-orbit servicing between Shijian-21 and Shijian-25 will depend on statements from Chinese authorities or future international tracking analysis.
I actually have an issue with black intellectuals when it comes to this. We have a big hesitance to cite information from our own academics in the Caribbean and Africa. I see nothing wrong with what China is doing.
You know damn well these white colleges won't cite Chinese articles , from Chinese journals unless they have to in favor of just regurgitating ivy texts. During college I actually had an issue with many professors limiting our search for citations to a handful of schools. God forbid that I cited researchers from the University of Cape Town or UNairobi or University of West Indies, instead of Harvard and Cornell. I'd consider this western citation inflation.
In fact I see this whole complaint as more WS at play. It's no different than when white people complain about foreign nations trading in their own currencies(ruble/yuan/rand) instead of using their Western intermediaries (dollar/ Sterling/euro).
While i get what youre saying, a large bulk of western intellectual thought isn't white so its really not the same as an ethnostate like china. If anything, your insinuation is what white supremacy wants as a narrative.
IIVI
Superstar
Their new 6th gen stealth fighter jet got movable wings. Going to make controlling it’s closure, energy and drops next-level.
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RhymesWell
All Star
What did people expect letting them manufacture damn there everything. Of course they are building better tech than us now. America's obsession with greed will be it's own undoing.
Bingo
O.T.I.S.
Veteran
Easy
China moved towards intellectualism after Covid and America largely moved towards Idiocracy.. the movie. Literally.
So they are going to lap us in terms of scientific endeavors and… America just continues to regress
China moved towards intellectualism after Covid and America largely moved towards Idiocracy.. the movie. Literally.
So they are going to lap us in terms of scientific endeavors and… America just continues to regress
Wargames
One Of The Last Real Ones To Do It
It's been going on since Trump got elected the first time. He's just speed running it now, but it's a decades long shyt on their part and a short term shift on our own. It doesn't help we gave them so much of what we knew because they were willing to create products for us for cheap.
I'm 99% sure we're not even going to bother competing. We will just treat them like Japan and change the rules of the game for our benefit. The geopolitical equivalent of flipping over the table when you can't win a poker game.
Trump is almost exactly like Reagan when he strong armed japan into the plaza accords. Reagan also had a tariff war with japan back then.
Trump's recent trade war is the same game but a different player. Reagan Effectively short curcuited their country which got as close as 66% of American gdp and they never recovered after trade restrictions. They went from being the second greatest economy and the second greatest output of research to 5th or 6th. Japan spent so much time stitching the pieces of their country together that they neglected scientific research.
That post-reagan R&D neglect is how you have a first world country still using floppy disks and fax machines as late as 2 years ago.
their government effectively had to go so deep into debt to prop up their country's economy that they didn't have money left for R&D subsidies. The remnants of this are seen in their debt to GDP being 232% of their GDP. More than even America.
I see China heading in the same direction. Notice how the money is not quite flowing the same way it used to before COVID. China also reached that 66% mark and were swatted down by trade restrictions. You know the silly chip war over nvidia chips? It's the exact same plot line Reagan used with Intel in the 80s. So history is repeating itself.
Scustin Bieburr
Baby baybee baybee UUUGH
China has been about science for a minute now. All of their leaders have degrees in scientific fields. Right now the amount of patents china is getting is nearly 3x the amount america is getting.
Patents by Country 2025
Details on which countries hold the most patents and patent applications, as well as per-country variations in patent-granting procedures and profiles of the leading patent-holding countries.
The stereotype about chinese parents wanting their kids to be doctors or engineers has a grain of truth to it.
It is impossible to control a nation nearly 4 times the size of america if you cant deliver results. They dont have political parties they can push the blame on when they fail, and people regularly get kicked out of power if they fail to meet targets.
What that ends up looking like is if you are a governor of a chinese province and say you're going to build high speed rail, 2 new bridges and a nuclear power plant, if you dont deliver on that shyt youre demoted or kicked out of the party. There are no donors or pacs to spin your failure for you, no other party to run to. There are no militias to threaten your opponents with. You either deliver or youre gone.
So naturally a country that prizes education and invests heavily in building things will continue to make scientific breakthroughs. They have to or else they risk millions of their own constituents rioting or getting fired/jailed by the central command. People really dont realize how many people actually live in that country. These days we have infinite loopholes in legislation and our government is a revolving door of private business interests and our news functions as a PR wing for big business and to protect their pet politicians. China has gone from making cheap imitations to now making things like EVs that are actually good quality. They are where japan was in the 1960s and 1970s. People joked about japanese cars and electronics being cheaply made garbage.
Now the top consoles are japanese. Toyota is an automotive juggernaut and the best TVs you can buy are usually Sony or Panasonic because japan has a knowledge based culture as well and people who are intelligent actually get treated with respect. The problem we have right now is too many people want the SIMULATION of something rather than the real thing. White people want the APPEARANCE of intelligence but are too lazy to actually go to college and get a degree. They want the appearance of social equality but dont want to do the work and take the risks and make sacrifices to get there. Like the prisoners in Plato's cave we are a society that insists the shadows are the real thing instead of believing the person that has actually gone through the effort of finding the real objects and wants us to have them.
We aren't going to beat a country that is doubling and tripling down on science by continuing to make university a luxury for the rich, by cutting money for scientific research and enforcing white supremacy instead of merit based hiring. But because we have become such a delusional society, we somehow believe that while everyone else is sprinting towards the finish line, we will beat them by hopping in one foot and spinning around.
I'm 99% sure we're not even going to bother competing. We will just treat them like Japan and change the rules of the game for our benefit. The geopolitical equivalent of flipping over the table when you can't win a poker game.
Trump is almost exactly like Reagan when he strong armed japan into the plaza accords. Reagan also had a tariff war with japan back then.Trump's recent trade war is the same game but a different player. Reagan Effectively short curcuited their country which got as close as 66% of American gdp and they never recovered after trade restrictions. They went from being the second greatest economy and the second greatest output of research to 5th or 6th. Japan spent so much time stitching the pieces of their country together that they neglected scientific research.
That post-reagan R&D neglect is how you have a first world country still using floppy disks and fax machines as late as 2 years ago.their government effectively had to go so deep into debt to prop up their country's economy that they didn't have money left for R&D subsidies. The remnants of this are seen in their debt to GDP being 232% of their GDP. More than even America.
I see China heading in the same direction. Notice how the money is not quite flowing the same way it used to before COVID. China also reached that 66% mark and were swatted down by trade restrictions. You know the silly chip war over nvidia chips? It's the exact same plot line Reagan used with Intel in the 80s. So history is repeating itself.
Yeah, China is making great moves (unlike Japan in the 90s) but ultimately the debt load +demographic cliff will make maneuvering inevitable stagflation very hard.