[2] After the surrender of Japan, Qian was transferred in 1947 to the Institute of Meteorology of Academia Sinica in Nanjing, working as an assistant researcher under the renowned scientist Zhao Jiuzhang.
When the Kuomintang lost the Chinese Civil War to the Communist Party and retreated to Taiwan, Zhao and Qian both chose to stay in mainland China.
[3] After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Qian and Zhao worked for the Institute of Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which was relocated to Beijing in 1954.
[4] Zhao was appointed the head of the newly established Satellite Design Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Qian the technical director.
[3] When Zhao committed suicide in 1968, the national government was alarmed and Premier Zhou Enlai personally intervened to restore order at the institute.