The HTV-6 spacecraft had an extra mission after delivering cargo to the International Space Station, but it didn't work:
After departing from the space station on Jan. 27, HTV-6 spent a week orbiting the Earth 12 miles (19 kilometers) below and 23 miles (37 km) ahead of the ISS to keep a safe distance while testing out a new technology for removing space junk, or orbital debris, from Earth's orbit.
The Kounotori Integrated Tether Experiment (KITE) flunked its first orbital test when a glitch prevented it from properly deploying a 700-meter-long (2,300 feet) electrodynamic tether made to grab pieces of space junk, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) reported Tuesday (Jan. 31).
JAXA's space-junk-removing tether is designed to latch on to a piece of orbiting debris before pulling it down into Earth's atmosphere for a fiery disposal. The agency continued to troubleshoot and attempt to deploy the tether through Saturday (Feb. 4), but alas, the Japanese experiment burned up in the atmosphere without a space-junk tether success.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 09 2017, @01:50AM
So, basically, the Chinese should have sent a spacecraft.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Chinese+homeless+makes+living+collecting+trash+recycling+stands+next+Beijing+August+2013+stepped+crackdown+oversized+unregistered+dogs+provoked+panic+among+capital+expanding+ranks+owners+enraged+China+emerging+animal+rights+movement/8757921/story.html [montrealgazette.com]
https://www.salon.com/2014/07/19/why_so_many_elderly_chinese_are_collecting_trash_partner/ [salon.com]