23 February 2018
China will establish a constellation of more than 300 low-orbit satellites to provide global communication services, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced 23 February. The first satellite of the Hongyan constellation is set to be launched this year, CASC said. The Hongyan constellation, announced during last year's 3rd China Commercial Aerospace Forum in Wuhan, is composed of more than 300 satellites, along with data processing centers, and will be built in three stages. Once completed, the satellite communication network will take the place of the ground-based network and allow a mobile phone to be connected everywhere on the planet, either in a remote desert or at sea, according to CASC.
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18 February 2018
The UAE Space Agency and the International Astronomical Centre, IAC, have announced a joint campaign to monitor China's Tiangong 1 Space Laboratory as it falls back to Earth. The project was launched as a joint venture between the UAE Space Agency and the IAC, which consists of three different stations distributed throughout the UAE to record astronomical phenomena in the sky. Each station has astronomical cameras directed towards the sky that automatically start recording once a meteor is detected, which may be part of a shower or a piece of space debris. Once the meteor is detected by more than one station, its path is calculated so that its source can be determined.
A prediction, performed by The Aerospace Corporation on 14 February reports that Tiangong 1 is currently expected to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere around early April of 2018 ± 1.5 weeks.
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Last year, the U.S. company NanoRacks which "operates the only commercial laboratory in outer space", flew the first Chinese experiment to the ISS. On 21 February 2018, NanoRacks CEO Jeffrey Manber made a strong statement before the National Space Council:

... "Finally, as I look overseas, the United States cannot simply ignore China’s commercial space ambitions. China is quietly developing a robust commercial space industry. I say quietly because Americans are blinded by our own regulations, and mindset, from participation.

Large Chinese companies are creating commercial launch efforts while young Chinese entrepreneurs are raising funds from Silicon Valley to Hong Kong. On a governmental level, the European Space Agency has astronauts training to visit the planned Chinese space station. But the United States is barred. NanoRacks and others are limited on what we can sell in this marketplace.
 
Avoiding this emerging marketplace, albeit due to justified concerns over technology transfer and other legitimate challenges, is not the American global leadership that we strive to achieve.
 
Now, while my time today is brief, I urge us to negotiate a stern but fair agreement with China, and allow U.S. businesses to do what we do best: innovate and compete better than anyone else."

Full text of the statement can be read on SpaceRef

14 February 2018
To ensure the stability of the services, China continues to build and improve the domestically developed Beidou Navigation Satellite System. "We were under great pressure when the research and development program for Beidou's third-generation satellites began in 2009 because all the components of the new-generation model were new to us," Chi Jun, a senior project manager for the China Academy of Space Technology at China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. recalled. "We had to develop them on our own and overcome a range of technical difficulties." There were huge differences between the technologies used on the new model and those employed in previous generations, resulting in scientists and engineers spending a lot of time producing and verifying countless solutions, he said.
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