Beijing has poured $9 billion into a space program called Beidou in an effort to eliminate China's dependence on the US-owned Global Positioning System (GPS).
A navigational program based on satellites orbiting the globe would allow China to be self-reliant for location data used in smartphones, car dashboards, guided missiles and more, reports Bloomberg. Tensions between China and the US — including an escalating trade war and allegations of corporate espionage — continue to mount.
All the satellites relaying data for GPS are owned by the US Air Force, which naturally makes Beijing a bit uneasy, says a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Maryland.
“They don't want to depend on the US GPS,” Marshall Kaplan told Bloomberg, adding, “the Chinese don't want to be subject to something that we can shut off.” The US Department of Defense launched its first GPS satellites in 1978 during the Cold War before opening them for public use in 1983.
Since then, the commercial market for GPS technology has grown by leaps and bounds. The global GPS market is forecasted to grow to $146.4 billion by 2025, according to a study by US-based research firm Grand View Research.
Enter Beidou Navigation Systems. Beidou is currently in use by China and some of its neighbors. With the influx of billions in cash to grow Beidou, Chinese President Xi Jinping seeks to make the celestial…
