China News Service:

Mr. Ran, you published the first whitepaper on BDS six years ago. You have now published another whitepaper on BDS. How have things changed and progressed in the second white paper? Thank you.

Ran Chengqi:

Thank you. The first edition of the white paper was published on June 16, 2016. At that time, BDS-3 was in rapid development. Six years later, we published the white paper on BDS again at a time when BDS-3 had been completed and the three-step BDS strategy had been fully concluded. More importantly, the white paper on BDS in the new era aims to present the progress of BDS and China's achievements and vision in developing BDS. It also aims to share our ideas and experience. Both white papers were developed alongside national development in the new era and aim to serve national rejuvenation.

Today, we release this white paper to update to the public about the latest overall situation of the commissioned BDS. First, BDS-3, the configuration that covers the entire globe, has developed into a world-class navigation satellite system featuring innovative designs in constellation configuration, technical system, services and function. Its technical system, signal design, and service functions are the most advanced and powerful in the world. Second, BDS in the new era can provide a wide range of quality services and conduct real-time global monitoring on a regular basis. The promised positional accuracy of BDS is 10 meters. But we have managed to improve it to within 5 meters. In some areas, it could be 2 to 3 meters. The timing accuracy we promised is 20 nanoseconds, and now we achieved 10. Third, BDS in the new era is under ever-improving management. I mentioned just now that the top priority is to ensure an around-the-clock stable operation of BDS. Its system performance has been constantly improved during this process. Disclosing relevant information, we have also worked to ensure that BDS remains open to the whole world. Fourth, BDS in the new era has deeply integrated into the country's overall economic development and the world's economic domain, injecting strong momentum to growth and benefiting the world and humanity. 

Two of the most important parts in "China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System in the New Era" highlight that BDS has entered a new era and its governance should be further modernized. We could interpret these two points from the following perspectives.

First, the three-step BDS strategy, particularly the complete construction of BDS, demonstrates the BeiDou Spirit of independent innovation, openness and inclusiveness, unity of purpose, and pursuit of excellence. It is a telling example of China's national spirit centered on patriotism and defined by reform and innovation in the new era. Independent innovation is the core competitive advantage. There would be no such top-class global navigation satellite system if we hadn't kept innovating on our own strength since the beginning of the endeavor. By embracing openness and inclusiveness, we have stayed true to our original aspiration of building a BDS for China and the world. Unity of purpose is the code to the success of BDS. It is an institutional advantage of socialism with Chinese characteristics to pool resources for major endeavors and forge ahead in unity. The constant pursuit of excellence is always on our agenda. We have worked hard to catch up and even harder to surpass and lead. That's how we turned BDS into one of the best navigation satellite systems in the world. 

Second, the vision for BDS is fully elaborated. We have built a new generation of BDS that is more advanced, powerful, and capable of providing much better services than before. Next, we will construct an integrated space-time system featuring a more ubiquitous network, deeper integration, and greater intelligence, which will help improve people's well-being and promote the development and progress of humanity. In simple terms, in spite of the fact that BDS is already quite good, we plan to develop a space-time system centering around it, which boasts unified standards, seamless coverage, ensured security and reliability, high efficiency, and great convenience and diversity. 

Third, we demonstrate to the public the modernized satellite navigation governance. We need to balance considerations and seek development. We will coordinate the domestic rule of law with foreign laws, accelerate the formulation of related regulations, participate in the global governance of satellite navigation, and ensure the standardized and sustainable development of BDS. 

Fourth, BDS specialized services are publicized. It can provide seven types of services, including positioning and six other distinctive services. It is worth mentioning that the system's high-accuracy service and short message communication service are dashing into our lives and displaying the application strength of BDS. I may offer you more information on it later. 

That's all I have to say. Thank you.