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What’s new: An item demonstrating the U.S. isn’t the only country that is or should be concerned about Beidou and its use as a tool for hard and soft power.
Why it’s important:
- Beidou has surpassed GPS in many ways, including having more satellites in the skies and more ground stations in the territories for most of the world’s nations. China is actively using it as part of its belt and road initiative to gain influence. See the paper from the Belfer Center.
- This article also discusses its use in terrorist and military operations.
What else to know:
- At one time the U.S. aggressively used GPS as a hard and soft power tool.
- The U.S. could leapfrog China and lead the world again in PNT with the same kind of focus and whole-of-government effort that was initially brought to bear on developing and marketing GPS. This would require the U.S. to develop a GPS-centric resilient PNT triad package that allowed nations to use and cooperate with GPS, and provided a sovereign PNT capability.
China’s Beidou and security challenges for India
Other than Pakistan, China has also been promoting the adoption of its satellite navigation system in Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh
The April 22 Pahalgam terror attack has brought the spotlight on new and evolving security challenges confronting India; those stemming from the use of emerging technologies, especially spatial infrastructure.
Particularly concerning have been reports indicating that militants involved in the attack may have used China’s Beidou satellite navigation system (BDS) to co-ordinate and evade detection by Indian security forces. In the past, Indian agencies have found several militants killed in encounters to be in possession of devices connected to the BDS — this points to a disturbing new trend in the region’s security environment.
