Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visits to three Middle East countries lately further consolidate political mutual trust between China and these countries, Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a press briefing in Beijing on Tuesday.
Guo made the remarks in response to a media query on Wang's visits to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, and Jordan from Dec 12 to 16.
"Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visits to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan were a great success, reaching a series of new consensuses and results in implementing the important common understandings between President Xi Jinping and the leaders of the three countries, and advancing bilateral relations and China-Arab cooperation," Guo said.
"The visits further consolidate political mutual trust between China and Arab countries. Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China always stands with the Global South and with small and medium-sized countries, firmly safeguards the common interests of developing countries, supports the three countries in upholding strategic autonomy and pursuing development paths suited to their national conditions, and is always their most reliable strategic partner. The three countries reiterated their commitment to the one-China principle, reaffirming that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory. The three countries also unanimously support China in hosting the second China-Arab States Summit. The visits further promote China-Arab cooperation across various fields. Both sides agreed to strengthen alignment of development strategies, deepen cooperation in traditional sectors, expand collaboration in emerging and future industries, and enrich the partnerships to better benefit their peoples," he said.
"The visits deepen all-round coordination between China and Arab countries. The three countries spoke highly of and expressed strong support for the four global initiatives proposed by President Xi Jinping, and appreciated China's fair and just position on the Palestinian question and other issues. Both sides agreed to enhance solidarity and coordination, jointly safeguard regional peace and stability, and work together to advance a multipolar world," said the spokesman.
Spokesman on Chinese FM's visits to three Middle East countries
The maiden flight of China's independently developed Zhuque-3 reusable rocket, also the country's first attempt to recover an orbital stage of a carrier rocket, has made important breakthrough despite final-stage failure, said Dai Zheng, commander in chief of the Zhuque-3 mission.
The Zhuque-3 is a large-capacity, low-cost, reusable liquid launch vehicle independently developed by China to deploy large-scale constellations.
The Zhuque-3 rocket blasted off from the Dongfeng commercial space innovation pilot zone, near the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.
After ignition and liftoff, the first and second stages of the rocket separated in about 130 seconds. The second stage continued to complete the orbital insertion mission, while the first stage began its return journey.
The reuse section appeared in people's sight on time. Nevertheless, its first-stage booster suffered anomalous combustion during recovery, failing to achieve a soft touchdown on the landing pad.
The specific causes are under investigation, according to Dai, also the CEO of LandSpace, the rocket's designer, who gave an exclusive interview to the China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing.
"This launch was actually China's first attempt to recover the first stage of an orbital-deployed launch vehicle. From the very beginning, we didn't expect the maiden flight to be a guaranteed success, it was more of an experimental and exploratory endeavor, and the result is slightly regrettable," said Dai.
Getting a rocket from supersonic speed to a perfectly intact landing on the ground is an extremely difficult task for rocket control, and the retrieved footage from the rocket showed that Zhuque-3 is not far from success, according to Dai.
"After separation, it underwent a high-altitude, high-angle attitude adjustment. After the attitude adjustment, it ignited at an altitude of 80 kilometers. This high-altitude ignition phase is actually very successful. When it entered the lower 40-kilometer range, the engine was shut down. Then it entered the aerodynamic gliding phase, during which the rocket descended at a supersonic speed, which was very fast at this point, and we had to rely on the grid fins on the rocket and the onboard control system to control the rocket," he said.
"From 40 kilometers to the final three kilometers above the ground, the supersonic descent phase, the aerodynamic control during the phase were flawless. At three kilometers above the ground, a landing ignition was required, somewhat like an emergency brake. As the altitude dropped to zero, the speed essentially decreased to zero. Only then could the landing legs extend to absorb the final impact, allowing the rocket to land intact. This is an extremely challenging maneuver for rocket control. Our final attempt to brake failed, so it didn't function as a brake, and ultimately it crashed at the edge of the landing zone, approximately 40 meters from the designated touchdown center," said Dai.
Although the mission was not entirely successful, for Dai and his team, the successful entry into orbit is also very meaningful.
"The primary objective of this mission was to verify the rocket's ability to reach the designated orbit. It shows that our rocket is able to subsequently provide services to satellite customers. Recovery is a very important means for a rocket company to reduce costs, but for our customers, their requirement is you deliver their cargo, their payload, their satellite, to the intended operational orbit. Whether the rocket can be reused is not their concern. In fact, we didn't launch the rocket with a real payload this time, but with a dummy payload instead. For the rocket industry, especially for a private commercial rocket company like ours, a successful flight is essential to demonstrate the rocket's capability before we can sell it. This is actually an industry practice," said Dai.
China's self-developed reusable rocket achieves key breakthrough in maiden flight: mission leader
