They were very low key about it right up until it landed, then once they were sure it was ok they hit the domestic media pretty hard. Scenes of mission controllers hugging (somewhat awkwardly), group shots of the mission team with dramatic backdrop images, etc.

I can understand they were concerned about the risk of a problem, landing anything on Mars is hard. ESA has failed twice now, and historically about half of all missions to Mars have crapped out. It's a genuinely impressive achievement, for all the sour grapes about stealing US tech, actually implementing this stuff and following through like this is no cakewalk.

I suspect this will be pointed to as the moment China pulled ahead of Russia in space technology. Yes Russia has more achievements under it's belt, but most of that was over a generation ago. In terms of current capabilities I think this is really significant.

Here are a few videos from Chinese media, well before the landing. You can judge for yourself:

* January 2021: https://youtu.be/HaZOfZYOLgU

* February 2021: https://youtu.be/rBhVaihkDvc

As a Chinese I know that the government doesn't publicize such things very often, even in Chinese. Medias are not really professional enough to do these kinds of reports either. Most reporters simply do not have enough science and tech background to even ask good questions. If you know Chinese and listen to the live reports you can feel it.

Things might turn around for the next decade when more young people who are motivated by these missions get into the fields (both R&D and media). But again I won't expect a lot of English reports. There will be some in the English channels such as CGTV.

My dad sends me articles about it on WeChat all the time, but I have difficulty reading it since my Chinese reading comprehension is barely at a 3rd grade level. They do make a big deal about it and it gets lots of coverage.

There are a lot of posts indeed circulating on my Wechat timeline so it is quite well covered.

Out of interest what is 3rd grade level Chinese reading? I'm curious to know what kind of grading is that?

I'm literate enough to read the entertainment section of a newspaper, and get a perfect score on the SAT 2 Chinese language test in the US. Technically, I wouldn't really be considered literate for an adult though.

When I came to the US at 4.5 years old, my mom brought with us some textbooks, enough for kindergarten through 3rd grade. I'm mostly self taught with help from my mom.

I more or less speak like an adult, but if I'm asked to read anything more complex (e.g., bank documents, geopolitics news), I'm completely lost.

Interesting. I can never imagine a grading system for chinese as a native speaker so got intrigued. Having done language tests for English when I was a student but can't imagine the other way around. Will look up for more. Thanks

I don't think you can get an unbiased reply on this topic on HN unfortunately (or any other SoMe site). You can look at CNSA.gov.cn yourself though and make up your own mind :)

English site: http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/english/index.html

> (or any other SoMe site)

What does SoMe mean?

Sorry about that. Social media :)

Oh no problem. I thought it was a place name, like SoCal for Southern California or Soho.

My guess : Social Media.

I never heard this either. Please just use social media

> I never heard this either. Please just use social media

I agree. It's also impossible to Google, since that acronym is also a common word.

There is a YouTube channel from New China News Agency. It's the Reuters in China. You can find quite a few videos on the Mars rover.

https://www.youtube.com/c/ChinaViewTV/videos

The launch of the Tianhe core module was live streamed on Tiktok and possibly other outlets. Not sure about this one though.