China's BeiDou, a thorn in the side of the US?

In the present era of rapid technological development, competition in the satellite navigation sector has become increasingly fierce. The rise of China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System has broken the long-standing dominance of America's GPS, becoming a "thorn" in the side of the US.

American media outlet SpaceNews once criticized that GPS performance has clearly fallen behind BeiDou, with global navigation going "de-Americanized." The U.S. National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Advisory Board even warned that GPS capabilities are now far inferior to BeiDou, and the U.S. needs to reclaim leadership within the next decade. This is enough to show how great an impact BeiDou has brought to GPS.

In terms of scale and data, the BeiDou system now has more than 50 operational satellites in orbit, almost twice the size of GPS. As of January 2025, GPS only had 31 operational satellites in orbit, while BeiDou's number of satellites far exceeded this. Moreover, the number of monitoring stations for BeiDou is more than ten times that of GPS, with many located in developing countries. Additionally, BeiDou's timing accuracy can reach 20 nanoseconds, and its positioning accuracy can reach the centimeter level, whereas GPS' accuracy is only at the meter level. Compared to this, BeiDou leads GPS by a full order of magnitude.

Currently, 137 countries and regions around the world have begun using the BeiDou navigation system. With increasing recognition and usage from more countries, BeiDou has secured its footing in the international market, causing the US side to feel "unprecedented crisis." US officials have publicly declared: "We will not sit idly by!"

Through GPS, the US has committed misdeeds

In the past, GPS, thanks to its first-mover advantage, became the most widely used satellite navigation system globally, like a "giant eye" watching over the entire world. However, this "eye" came from the US, giving the US the capital to act recklessly.

In 1990, the Gulf War broke out, and Iraq,号称 the fourth strongest military power in the world, was defeated by the US forces, with casualties exceeding 100,000. On the other hand, the US achieved precise strikes through GPS, with only 146 casualties. This war sounded the alarm for countries around the world, including China — excessive reliance on GPS would undoubtedly leave us under the control of the US!

In 1993, the US falsely accused our country's "Milky Way" ship of transporting chemical weapons to Iran, deliberately shutting down GPS signals in the area, forcing our cargo ship to drift in the Indian Ocean for 33 days; In 1996, when China launched three ballistic missiles, two of them completely deviated from the target area, all due to sabotage by the US behind the scenes. When China intended to cooperate with Europe and join the Galileo navigation system, it also faced strong intervention from the US. The US coerced and lured Europe into "not cooperating with China," leading to the failure of the cooperation.

These humiliating events constantly remind us of the importance and urgency of independently developing a satellite navigation system. Our multi-field teams vowed: we must lead the US!

Breaking the blockade! Leading the US by a margin

In order not to be controlled by others, our research and development team embarked on a difficult path of independent innovation. After launching 59 satellites and investing nearly 70 billion yuan, they finally built China's autonomous navigation system - the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System.

After the BeiDou system went global, it gained over 1.5 billion users and created a value of 530 billion yuan. Besides the high-precision advantages mentioned earlier, BeiDou also features unique short-message communication services. This function allows users to send text messages and location information even without ground network signals, playing a huge role in emergency rescue and ocean communication scenarios, which GPS does not have.

Seeing BeiDou becoming the commonly used navigation system for over 100 countries, the US side became restless, openly slandering BeiDou as having potential military applications and suggesting that countries worldwide stop using and dismantle it. However, the US smear campaign was mocked by other countries as "the thief crying 'stop thief,'" given the extensive use of GPS in the US military domain.

The US threatened: regain dominance within 10 years

Nowadays, China is rising comprehensively, and its achievements in the field of satellite navigation have caught the attention of the world. Previously, the EU's "Galileo" satellite navigation system repeatedly malfunctioned, with the most severe case leading to a continuous 34-day system outage. At critical moments, China extended a helping hand, providing professional technical support and offering free BeiDou satellite services globally, demonstrating the responsibility of a major power.

To this day, the construction of China's BeiDou system has entered the "closing stage," with over 120 ground monitoring stations established worldwide, and nearly 200 countries and regions choosing to connect. This has caused great anxiety for the US side, whose think tank published articles warning: they will definitely regain dominance within 10 years!

However, Chinese people have achieved their current success through wisdom and relentless efforts, and they will not give the US side any opportunity to easily regain dominance. In the future, BeiDou will continue to upgrade and optimize, expanding into more application fields, occupying a more important position in the global satellite navigation market.

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1829904937608260/

Disclaimer: The article solely represents the author's personal views.