(SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST) -- Chinese space officials and experts were unable to attend a major international space conference in the US this week, Beijing said on Wednesday as it blamed Washington for “weaponising” its visa system.
Hua Chunying, a foreign ministry spokeswoman, told a daily news conference in Beijing on Wednesday that the Chinese delegation was absent from the International Astronautical Congress in Washington because the US authorities had failed to grant visas in time.
The absence of representatives from one of the world’s biggest space programmes had raised eyebrows among some delegates, and Hua said the failure to approve visas in time for the event was the “tip of the iceberg.”