China's Space Silk Road
Update: November 5, 2022
Yesterday on November 4, 2022, China's State Council Information Office released the White Paper "China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System in the New Era " - laying out how China plans to refine and internationalize its BeiDou (BěiDǒu 北斗 - Northern Dipper after the Big Dipper) Navigation Satellite System (BDS) by improving its operation management, promoting sustainable development of BDS-based applications, and upgrading its governance in the coming years. The White Paper comes after, on June 23, 2020, the last BDS satellite was launched, completing the BDS.
?A Long March-3 rocket, starting from Xichang, Sichuan province, Source: China Daily Hong Kong
Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are the foundation of geo-spatial positioning and thus important for providing position, navigation and tracking, for both civil and military purposes. By today, only the U.S. (GPS), Russia (GLONASS), the EU (Galileo) and China (BDS) have own operational global navigation satellite systems.
BDS was built and is operated as a component of China’s national security and economic and social development strategy, and has become an important element of the country's infrastructure, providing high-accuracy, positioning, navigation and timing services. The idea of an own Chinese navigation satellite system dates back to the 1980s. The BDS project was formally launched in 1994 and started to become operational in 2000 with the first generation Beidou-1 system. As a national key technical project, BDS is of significant importance for China`s Going Global strategy[1] and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)[2] . Within the BRI strategy, BDS can be considered as part of the Space Silk Road[3] . The concept was introduced in 2014 by the International Alliance of Satellite Application Services (ASAS). The Space Silk Road aims at creating an entire range of space capabilities including satellites, launch services, and ground infrastructure and supporting industries and service providers going global.
China has formulated a three-step strategy for developing BDS
On June 16, 2016, China's The State Council Information Office published the White Paper "China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System[4] ", stating that BDS serves the needs of the country's national security and economic and social development. As a space infrastructure of national significance, BDS should provide "all-time, all-weather and high-accuracy positioning, navigation and timing services to global users". Since 2018, BDS offers an alternative to U.S. GPS for countries along the BRI and since 2020 is fully in service, providing global coverage.
China`s path to develop a fully operational GNSS followed a three-step logic:
Main goals of China`s BDS program (own compilation)
BeiDou is the backbone of China`s autonomous driving industry, Source: China Daily
BDS is a significant economic factor
BDS is important for China to become independent from U.S. GPS but also to gain higher shares in the growing global GNSS market, including related devices and services. Satellite navigation is a flourishing global business. The GNSS market comprises products (receivers and devices) and services using GNSS-based positioning. In particular due to the growth of location-based services but also "smart city"[6] or smart agriculture applications, wearables and technologies such as high-speed trains, drones or autonomous driving, the global GNSS market grows rapidly. According to the European Union Agency for the Space Program, the installed GNSS base will grow from 6.5 billion units in 2021 to 10.6 billion units in 2031, and the GNSS downstream market revenues from both devices and services will grow from EUR 199 billion in 2021 to EUR 492 billion in 2031 with a CAGR of 9.2% (with the Asia-Pacific region accounting for 27.6 percent of devices revenue and 45.7 percent of services revenue by 2031).
According to the White Paper "China's BeiDou Navigation Sattelite System in the New Era", by the end of 2021, there were more than 1 billion terminals using the BDS positioning function in China. BDS had been installed in more than 7.8 million road transport vehicles. Approximately 8,000 BDS terminals were in use on the country’s railway network, and more than 100,000 agricultural machines were equipped with self-driving systems based on BDS. BDS-based services in health care, epidemic prevention, remote monitoring and online services sectors were worth about EUR 28 billion. With regard to internationalization, BDS has been supported by products from international chip manufacturers, including smartphone device suppliers, and, in 2021, 324 million Chinese smartphones supporting BDS services were shipped, accounting for 94.5 percent of China's total.
BeiDou powered Drone, Source: Mitch Nielsen (Unsplash)
BDS is of high importance for the Belt and Road Initiative
China`s goal is to further boost production and export of BDS based products and related services and increase the share of BeiDou in the global GNSS market. This covers mainly the sectors of smart phones, vehicle-borne terminals and wearable devices.
Our priority is to expand BDS from China to the frontline of the Belt and Road Initiative, and Optics Valley BeiDou is a pioneer. China-made smartphones, such as Huawei smartphones, will be good platforms for BDS to go overseas as they carry Chinese chips. (Li Deren, professor state key laboratory, Wuhan University)
Since many years, China is an established player in the global satellite launch industry and is frequently carrying satellites for other countries such as Algeria, Bolivia, Nigeria or Venenzuela into orbit. But the promotion of BDS and related services in countries along the BRI is a relatively new chapter in China`s space infrastructure development. The implementation of BDS-related infrastructure in countries along the BRI can be considered as the backbone foundation for gaining higher shares in the GNSS market and related services. More than 30 Belt and Road countries, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar and Indonesia, have signed agreements to embed BDS domestically and more than 120 countries[11] are using China’s Beidou system for purposes such as monitoring traffic at ports or guiding rescue operations. Many countries authorize China to build ground stations, which improve BDS`s accuracy and reliability. On November 5, 2021, the First China-Africa BDS Cooperation Forum took place.
?Pakistan's reliance on US satellite navigation statement GPS ends as now China’s domestically developed Beidou Navigation Satellite System has started to cover entire Pakistan.“ (Times of Islamabad[12] )
To expand BDS infrastructure and to improve BDS services, China set up development cooperation plans with various countries.
Selected BDS related cooperations (own compilation)
Conclusion
China`s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System is an important and complementary component of the GNSS, increasing position, navigation, and tracking accuracy. At the same time, BDS as part of China`s Space Silk Road is of significant strategic importance. For China, the launch of satellites and the provision of BDS services are tools to gain influence in third countries and to eye shares in the regional satellite navigation industry and location-based service markets. BDS and China`s goal of its widespread implementation and application in BRI countries are influencing the balance of power, in particular in the Asia-Pacific region. BDS is a next step towards space becoming a more important part of geopolitical and economic competition (also considering new players such as Starlink). The White Paper "China's BeiDou Navigation Sattelite System in the New Era" plays an important role by laying out the future roadmap for improving BDS operation management, promoting sustainable development of BDS-based applications, and upgrading BDS governance (including, among others, the update of BDS systems and management, the promotion of technological innovation through system reform, the advancement of the rule of law in satellite navigation, the advancement in compatibility and interoperability of different navigation satellite systems, standardization, the promotion of international cooperation and academic exchange, the fostering of talent, and the promotion of BDS-based applications).
More information here:
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC)
领英推荐
China Satellite Global Services Alliance (CSGSA)
China Satellite Navigation Office (CSNO)
Institute of Space & Earth Information Science (ISEIS)
International Alliance of Satellite Application Service (ASAS)
?Sources:
[3] https://spacewatchme.com/2017/08/swmethemes-chinas-space-silk-road-middle-east-indian-perspective/
[11] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/01/tech-war-chinas-beidou-gains-market-share-challenges-us-gps.html ?
Magister Artium (M.A.)
2 年Denkbar w?re auch chinesischer Asteroidenbergbau, vgl. analog: https://www.transastracorp.com/apis-spacecraft
climate policy | sustainable mobility | cities | innovation
3 年Great article! Lovely to read. I worked in the first plan of Baidou in 1999 - 2000 when I studied in Tsinghua, to simulate coverage of 3 satellites + 1 GEO satellite as China didn't have the budget for the full deployment. I was very pleased to see great progresses made - particularly comparing with EU's Galileo. Baidou plays an important role also in the logistics sector, particularly for dangerous goods transport. Some lessons should be learnt here; & I would love to see that European researchers and policy makers learn good practices from China.
Co-founder & MD @ eTOC GmbH | We are your bridge between the East and the West | We support your international expansion to China, SEA and other APAC regions.
3 年Thanks for sharing
well written.