China and Europe have successfully launched their first joint satellite, SMILE, for space research. This collaboration proceeds amid escalating trade and geopolitical tensions between Beijing and Brussels.

China and Europe on Tuesday launched their first jointly developed satellite, a space mission that will explore the precise mechanism of the Earth’s defence against solar wind. The successful collaboration on the Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) comes as Beijing and Brussels are locked in escalating trade and geopolitical tensions, largely driven by the European Union’s massive trade deficit with China. The satellite has been jointly designed and developed by the Chinese...