China offers freebie in strategic push

• China has shown its willingness to offer its neighbouring countries, use of its home-grown satellite navigation system free of charge. The strategic move, has already garnered interest from a number of countries including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Thailand.
• The Chinese officials had intended to widen use of the Beidou satellite network, which already has 16 satellites serving the Asia-Pacific and has been promoted as an alternative to the American Global Positioning System (GPS). The focus will be on countries in the Asia-Pacific region, and particularly in South and Southeast Asia, where the satellites offered the highest accuracy.
• China has already agreed deals with Pakistan and Thailand on use of the Beidou network. Also it had consultations with Sri Lanka, for which it has already launched a satellite, and Bangladesh, over cooperation on satellite use. While China was open to any country using the system, so far there was no specific cooperation between the Indian and Chinese governments.
• China’s deepening cooperation with these countries prompted the Indian government, earlier in 2013, to push ISRO in being more active in providing technological assistance to countries in the neighbourhood in launching satellites.
• The system, which was first launched in 2011 for use only by the government and military, has over the past year begun to be widely deployed for civilian uses domestically with 80% of passenger buses and trucks in China using the system. For China, granting use of its 16-satellite Beidou network which would be expanded to 35 satellites by 2020 to provide global coverage offers an added advantage.