China's Tiangong space station celebrates a notable anniversary on Wednesday, with this date marking exactly five years since the launch of the crucial core module which paved the way for the country's permanent presence in space.
In the years that have followed, China has achieved numerous breakthroughs in space exploration since the Tianhe core module was put into orbit on April 29, 2021.
The assembly and construction of the space station continued with two science lab modules, Wentian and Mengtian, being launched and successfully docked in July and October of the following year.
Upon its completion in late 2022, Tiangong become one of two space stations currently in orbit, with the other being the International Space Station (ISS).
Up to now, a total of ten different astronaut crews, spanning the Shenzhou-12 to the Shenzhou-21 missions, have entered the space station and conducted a total of 26 extravehicular activities, including carrying out the assembly and maintenance of space station equipment, and completing the installation of space debris protection devices.
The space station also serves as a national-level space laboratory, where astronauts have conducted space science experiments and tests covering research areas of space life and human research, microgravity physics, space astronomy and earth science, and new space technologies and applications.
This year, China's manned space program plans to conduct one cargo resupply mission and two manned flight missions.
In the future, the space station will host astronauts from China's Hong Kong and Macao. It has also been confirmed that one Pakistani astronaut will also serve as a payload specialist for a short-term flight mission at a later date, with candidates currently in training.
China's cooperation projects with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs are also steadily advancing.
In the future, China will also send the Xuntian Space Telescope to the space station to set up its flagship space astronomy facility. The country will also upgrade its Long March-5B carrier rocket for the launch of new modules to the space station.
The breakthroughs made in the space station come as part of China's ambitious space goals for the coming years, with the country pressing ahead with plans for a manned moon mission by 2030.
China's space station witnesses momentous five years of transformation
China's special fiscal-financial coordination fund of 100 billion yuan (around 17.8 billion U.S. dollars) aimed at boosting domestic demand will focus more on unlocking consumption and investment potential with limited resources to stabilize growth in the second half of this year, according to an economic expert.
The central government has rolled out a six-part policy package under this special fund. Among the six measures, four are designed to support private investment. They include interest subsidies on loans to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and on loans for equipment renewal, a special guarantee program for private investment, and a risk-sharing mechanism for corporate bonds issued by private enterprises.
In addition, two interest subsidy schemes are being implemented to stimulate consumption -- one for personal consumption loans and the other for loans to service-sector businesses.
According to Luo Zhiheng, chief economist at Yuekai Securities, the policies have gradually yielded results over the first half of this year.
"The policies have further boosted related consumption, with culture, tourism and health services seeing relatively high growth rates. In the first half of this year, the growth rate of service-sector consumption was significantly higher than that of retail sales of goods. The policies have also optimized the investment structure. In the first half of the year, investment in equipment and instruments, which is a sub-category of fixed-asset investment, grew by 8.1 percent. Much of this is attributed to the interest subsidy support for loans to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and for equipment renewal," Luo said.
The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee held a meeting in Beijing on Thursday to analyze and study the current economic situation and make arrangements for economic work in the second half of this year.
The meeting called for optimizing the implementation of fiscal-financial coordination policies to boost domestic demand.
Luo said the meeting's call clearly signals efforts to expand domestic demand and stabilize economic growth, and that policy optimization will help sustain the release of consumption potential and investment vitality.
"We need to focus more on the systematic integration of policies and their multiplier effect, so that limited policy resources can deliver greater outcomes and better stabilize the economy. In the implementation process, policies serve as a catalyst. Ultimately, what they are meant to unleash is the vitality of social capital," Luo said.
China's fiscal fund to spur consumption, investment potential in H2: expert
