Image: CNBC/YouTube
What’s New: Growing concern that China’s BeiDou is technically superior to GPS and serves much of the world better.
Why It’s Important:
- China is actively marketing and subsiding use of BeiDou over GPS for infrastructure around the world
- China has a soft power advantage over the US,
- China could be building the ability to access/alter/deny/control infrastructure of nations that adopt BeiDou.
What Else to Know:
- The video is based on Sarah Sewall’s paper published by Harvard’s Belfer Center.
- The President’s PNT Advisory Board has told the administration that:
- BeiDou is technologically superior to GPS.
- The administration should recognized the importance of PNT and build a resilient national PNT architecture
- If the US did build a resilient national PNT architecture we could market that around the world. This would:
- Make nations independent of China, the U.S. and space
- Eliminate China’s soft power advantage with PNT
- Prevent China from controlling international infrastructure.
