Shenzhou-18 crew complete multiple tasks in second spacewalk

The Shenzhou-18 crew aboard China's orbiting space station successfully completed multiple tasks in their second spacewalk on Wednesday, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

The mission, which lasted about six and a half hours, was conducted by the trio, Ye Guangfu, Li Cong and Li Guangsu, with the assistance of a ground team and the space station's robotic arm.

At 16:19, Li Cong opened the hatch door of the Wentian space lab module and began his first spacewalk.

With the assistance of the space station's robotic arm, Li came to the operation point. Then Ye Guangfu transferred the relevant equipment and devices out of the space station and exited the capsule at 17:41.

Ye climbed to the operation point by himself, and cooperated with Li to install protection devices for the cables of the Wentian lab module and the pipelines of the Tianhe core module.

In the meantime, Li Guangsu carried out monitoring of the robotic arm and provided necessary support from inside the Tianhe core module.

"The main purpose of the spacewalk this time is to install protection devices for extravehicular equipment, mainly cables and pipelines, so as to improve the space station's ability to operate safely and steadily over the long term," said Liu Ming, an engineer with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

In their previous spacewalk on May 28, the Shenzhou-18 trio mainly installed protection devices for the extravehicular cables of the Mengtian lab module. The spacewalk this time is to install protection devices for the extravehicular cables and pipelines of the Wentian lab module and the Tianhe core module.

"There are more protection devices we have to install this time than the previous spacewalk. During the process, astronauts needed to get from the exit hatch to the relevant operation points, which took them a lot of time. But they have completed the task with ease," said Wu Dawei, an expert with the China Astronaut Research and Training Center.

After installing protection devices, Li Cong mounted the robotic arm and conducted an extravehicular inspection of the space station's facilities through his helmet camera.

"The astronauts completed the extravehicular mission with great ease and in a smooth and perfect way," said Wu.

After completing the predetermined tasks, Ye Guangfu and Li Cong returned safely to the Wentian lab module.

"The Chinese space station is very beautiful. Whenever the robotic arm moves to the highest point, I can't help taking more glances at the space station despite the glaring sunlight. I really feel the greatness of the project from my heart, and I applaud all the space professionals and our motherland. We will make continuous efforts to successfully and efficiently complete the follow-up tasks to the end. Let's meet again inside the cabin," Li Cong said outside the space station.

"Congratulations to the Shenzhou-18 crew on the successful completion of the extravehicular mission. We are very lucky to have you on the space station and we look forward to more of your wonderful performances in the following tasks," a ground staff member replied at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center.

The Shenzhou-18 crew, sent to the space on April 25 this year, have completed one third of their space journey and are scheduled to carry out a large amount of in-orbit scientific experiments and technological tests, the agency said.

Shenzhou-18 crew complete multiple tasks in second spacewalk

Imposing provisional tariffs on imports of Chinese EVs will do no good to the development of European economy, according to a German expert.

The European Commission announced on Thursday its decision to impose provisional countervailing duties, ranging from 17.4 percent to 37.6 percent, on imports of battery electric vehicles from China starting Friday.

This has triggered wide opposition from many officials, industrial associations as well as auto enterprises.

In an interview with China Central Television (CCTV), Horst Lochel, professor of Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, believed that such tariff imposition is not good for Europe's economic development.

"We struggle here with the economic development. We are also struggling still with inflation. So if the prices are rising, we have even again higher inflation. So I don't think this is really a good development for the European economy overall. If China reacts also with higher tariffs on European products, then, of course, the prices for the Chinese people will also rise. That means the demand is declining. That means we have less production and less exports to China, which is also then challenging the profit of the companies," Lochel said.

He then pointed out that experts from German political, business and educational circles reckon that enhancing competitiveness is the right way for mutual benefit.

"Because we're already heavily invested in China, made a lot of joint venture with Chinese companies, and if we perhaps see also some investment of Chinese EV car companies here in Europe and Germany would be also fine. So the best way is to increase competitiveness. This is the sense of the market economy. If you are under pressure, you have to increase your competitiveness to get on the same level playing fields as your competitor. I think this is the most important thing to have a mutual beneficial trade," Lochel noted.

Imposing tariffs on Chinese EVs does no good to European economy: German expert