Billionaire Elon Musk is taken to task this Tuesday on Chinese social networks.
It is implicated after two of its satellites narrowly missed, according to Beijing, the Chinese capital, to collide with the space station of the Asian giant.
The richest man in the world, who has just been voted personality of the year by the American magazine Time, is well known in China for his Tesla electric cars.
But his space exploration company SpaceX is now earning him the resentment of Internet users.
According to a document sent at the beginning of December by Beijing to the Office for Outer Space Affairs of the United Nations (United Nations Organization) in Vienna, Austria, the Chinese space station Tiangong had twice, in July and October, to carry out maneuvers in order to to avoid "an encounter" with SpaceX devices.
The Chinese space agency had to react "in order to ensure the safety and survival of astronauts in orbit," Beijing added.
A quarter of Tesla's production sold in China
SpaceX has not yet reacted on Tuesday to this information, which displeased Chinese Internet users.
"Prepare to boycott Tesla," laced a user of the Weibo social network, under a keyword seen more than 87 million times.
“It's not lacking in irony: The Chinese are buying Tesla, giving Musk money to launch
(satellites)
and throw them at the Chinese space station,” complained another.
The Chinese market is crucial for the multi-billionaire Canada-US of South African origin.
Tesla sells about a quarter of its production to China and has a factory in Shanghai.
The automaker has, however, been the subject of criticism in recent months following accidents and data protection concerns.
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In space, SpaceX launched a constellation of more than 1,500 satellites, Starlink, intended to bring connection to the Internet to the four corners of the globe.
This constellation has notably increased the circulation of objects in space.
"We have seen an increase in the number of collision risks since the start of the Starlink deployment," said Jonathan McDowell, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the United States.
China this year launched the main module of its Tiangong space station (the "heavenly palace"), whose construction is to be completed next year.
Two crews of three astronauts have followed one another since June.
