We observe effects, with certain delay, of the 2007/2008 Global Financial Crisis for the US contribution to the CS and of the COVID-19 pandemic for China (Figure ). In the long run, the 2007/2008 crisis did not reduce the expansion of the space, whereas the pandemic did (Figures ). Although China experienced a drop of researchers by 2007/2008 (Figure ), this did not affect its increasing contributions to the CS, which counterbalanced the declining US contributions (Figure ). The pandemic and the rapid lockdowns in China reduced the contributions of the Asian country and, therefore, of the whole CS (Figure ). In contrast, the more relaxed US lockdowns did not largely affect the US contributions to the space (Figure ).