China to Build Own Satellite Navigation System by 2015

Official handouts from the Chinese media announced the nation's intention of building its own network of positioning and navigation satellites, which would virtually make it independent of Western products such as the global positioning system (GPS), developed by the United States. A senior space technology official announced that the system would be used for both civil and military applications, and that it would enable citizens to find their way across any region of the globe, the officials Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

The director of astronautics at the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, Zhang Xiaojin, said that “The system will shake off the dependence on foreign systems.” This is but a part of China's larger stride to do as much as possible on its own, an attitude that is hard to embrace considering the fact that many inventions are perfected in the Western world, and that Chinese inventors and scientists are at a severe disadvantage in the technological race.

China's ambitious plans include the launching of 30 new satellites until the half of the next decade, out of which 10 will be introduced this year and in 2010. They will add to the five machines the nation already has in orbit, to set the basis for the future navigations system. Up to this point, the existing positioning satellites can only cover the surface of China itself, and Beijing is looking at extending this area to a global level.

With its plan, China takes on some of the most ingeniously-designed positioning systems in the world, including the GPS, the Galileo Positioning System belonging to the European Union, as well as the Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) of the Russian federation. Beijing officials expressed their belief that their Beidou Navigation System would be able to face these already-established systems head-on, and said that it could even emerge victorious from such a confrontation.