According to the website of the State Council Information Office, on September 21, the Information Office held a meeting with Chinese and foreign journalists titled “Strivers on the New Journey”. Yang Liwei, the deputy chief designer of China’s manned space program and a top-level astronaut, explained that two Pakistani astronauts are currently training at the Astronaut Center. In the near future, they will fly together with Chinese astronauts on China’s space station.
In May this year, Li Jiaying, the first payload specialist from Hong Kong, flew aboard Shenzhou 23 and participated in the scientific research mission to develop the “Tianyun Camera” in Hong Kong. What is your opinion on Hong Kong's researchers being able to carry out tasks directly on the space station, moving from ground support? In this regard, Yang Liwei said that Li Jiaying from Hong Kong performed extremely well in space.
Yang Liwei said that on September 21st, the Shenzhou-23 crew in space sent blessings to the astronauts on Earth. 'Their work is going very smoothly, and their tasks have been completed very well. Over the years, there has been a lot of cooperation between Hong Kong and the mainland in manned spaceflight. For example, several universities in Hong Kong have directly participated in the construction of the space station.'
Regarding whether the national space program will provide more opportunities for Hong Kong people, Hong Kong's scientific researchers, engineers, and even astronauts to participate in the future, Yang Liwei said that in the future, both from mainland China and Hong Kong/Macao, more people will be involved in manned space programs.
Yang Liwei said, 'As an astronaut, I also hope that more young people will join our team. As we all know, today's astronauts are completely different from those in our first batch. The first batch of astronauts mainly came from the aviation field, while today's astronauts come not only from the aviation field but also from colleges and research institutes, as well as from frontline engineering and design personnel. Therefore, I truly hope that more people will become my colleagues, and I also hope that we will see more astronauts in space in the near future.'
He added, “We have also announced that two Pakistani astronauts are currently training at the Astronaut Center. In the near future, they will fly on the Chinese space station together with our astronauts.”
In February 2025, China and Pakistan signed a cooperation agreement in Islamabad regarding the selection and training of Pakistani astronauts for participation in China’s space station missions. Subsequently, the selection process for Pakistani astronauts was officially launched. After strict screening and evaluation at three stages—preliminary selection, re-selection, and final selection—two Pakistani astronauts were ultimately selected.
In April this year, the selection process for the first batch of foreign astronauts in China's manned space program was completed. According to the WeChat public account "China Manned Space Program", two Pakistani candidates, Muhammad Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud, were finally selected.
On May 23, during the press conference for the Shenzhou 23 manned flight mission, a spokesperson stated that two Pakistani astronauts had arrived at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center and were participating in mission training with Chinese astronauts. According to the plan, one Pakistani astronaut will serve as a payload specialist for a short-term flight mission.
