The Institute of Mechanics, one of the earliest rocket science laboratories, which is part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), was demolished illegally on July 17.  Many important historical documents and equipments used in space technology research during the 1950s and 1960s were destroyed. The CAS planned to built a new campus on the site, but the institute had not finished packing. It remains unclear whether the demolition team had misunderstood the deadline and adopted the usual practice of forced demolition to evict occupants, or whether a dispute had erupted between the institute and the leadership, the South China Morning Post reports.