I. BeiDou in the New Era
As China makes historic progress and undergoes historic transformations in the new era, BDS has also entered a new period of high-quality development, making further breakthroughs and reaching higher levels in its mechanisms and in the speed and scale of its deployment. It is a miracle created by China in the vault of the sky.
1. A Path of Independent Development
China has relied on independent innovation and taken a phased approach in developing BDS. Starting from scratch, the system has undergone steady improvements and upgrades, providing both active and passive positioning and expanding from regional to global coverage.
The three-step BDS strategy. China began to develop its own navigation satellite system in 1994. BDS-1 entered service and began providing positioning services in China at the end of 2000. At this point, China became the third country in the world with a navigation satellite system. BDS-2 was completed in 2012, providing passive positioning services to the Asia-Pacific region. In 2020, BDS-3 was formally commissioned to provide satellite navigation services worldwide. This marked the successful conclusion of the three-step BDS strategy.
Accelerated progress towards a global era. In December 2012, BDS-2 entered into service, marking a new stage of development. In March 2015, China launched the first BDS-3 experimental satellite. In November 2017, the first two Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites joined the BDS-3 system. The global deployment of the BDS configuration began to gather pace. In December 2018, China completed the primary deployment of 19 satellites. In June 2020, it completed the entire constellation deployment of 24 MEO satellites, three Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites, and three Inclined Geosynchronous Orbit (IGSO) satellites. The next month, BDS-3 began to provide global services, upgrading BDS to a worldwide system.
2. Better Services for the Whole World
In the new era, BDS will provide better services around the globe for the benefit of all humanity. To this end, China will intensify integration of different technologies, improve its capacity for diversified and specialized services, promote industries engaged in BDS applications, and reinforce international cooperation and exchanges on all fronts. Through this process, we can promote economic and social development, meet the people's desire for a better life, and share the results and benefits of BDS throughout the world.
Open services and greater compatibility. BDS provides open, free satellite navigation services, and its ability to serve the public across the world is being constantly improved. Through active international cooperation and exchanges, China calls for and works towards greater compatibility and broader sharing among different navigation satellite systems.
Innovation and upgrading. Under the innovation-driven development strategy, China is building up its capacity for independent development based on innovation. BDS is consistently being upgraded by adopting new and emerging technologies such as the latest communication technologies and low earth orbiter navigation augmentation. Efforts are also under way to incorporate non-satellite navigation technologies into its scope.
Quality services. BDS ensures stable and uninterrupted operation, shows strength in specialized services, and delivers high-quality satellite navigation services to users worldwide. In order to foster a more enabling environment for BDS-related industries, China has improved relevant standards, policies and regulations, intellectual property rights protection, and dissemination and promotion.
Sharing for the common good. China will expand BDS applications and promote higher quality in related industries, so that the system will be incorporated into every aspect of society and facilitate work and daily life. China shares the progress of its navigation satellite system with the rest of the world, with the goal of benefits for all.
3. BeiDou Spirit in the New Era
The BDS development team have worked hard through successive generations to surmount all difficulties in their research. In the new era, they have fostered a 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. It also makes a fine addition to the CPC's long line of inspiring principles.
Independent innovation as the core competitive advantage. China has maintained independence in the research, design, construction and operation of BDS, keeping core technologies in key fields firmly in our own hands. This is the approach we have taken in confronting challenges and overcoming difficulties in the development of BDS.
A global vision of openness and inclusiveness. The world is becoming increasingly open and integrated. By making BDS available worldwide, China honors its commitment to helping people of all countries share the opportunities and fruits of development. This clearly demonstrates China's farsighted vision and its will to share the best it has to offer.
Unity of purpose for success. BDS is the fruit of the cooperation and dedication of its developers, the support of the whole nation, and the collaboration among all parties concerned. It embodies China's great tradition of working together and the Chinese people's deep love for their country.
The constant pursuit of excellence. China is striving to make BDS one of the best navigation satellite systems in the world by achieving excellence in technology, construction, management and services. It is designed to become one of China's most recognizable brands in the new era.
4. Outlook for the Future
In the years to come, China will further upgrade BDS technologies, functions and services. The goal is to create a comprehensive spatiotemporal system that is more extensive, more integrated, and more intelligent, and that provides flexible, smart, precise and secure navigation, positioning and timing services. In doing so, China will help improve people's wellbeing and promote human progress.
In building a more powerful BDS, China will create its own smart and distinctive system for operation, maintenance and management, and gain a competitive edge in services such as short message communication, ground-based and satellite-based augmentation, and international search and rescue. By steadily improving the quality and increasing the scope of its services, BDS will build the capacity to provide global decimeter-level positioning and navigation with high integrity, thereby delivering better services to users worldwide.
China will promote large-scale BDS applications and encourage their market-oriented, industrialized and globalized development to offer a broader range of public services of higher quality. We will further unleash market potential, expand application scenarios, increase application scale, create new mechanisms and dynamics, improve the industrial system, strengthen international industrial cooperation, and forge a fuller, more resilient industrial chain. The goal is to share our achievements in BDS development with people all over the world for their benefit.
We will establish a comprehensive national system for positioning, navigation and timing services, develop a variety of navigation methods, and pursue cross-sector innovation in cutting-edge technologies, synergy of different methods for higher performance, and multi-source information fusion and sharing. We will extend BDS services to provide underwater, indoor and deep space coverage, and offer integrated spatiotemporal information services that are based on unified reference and seamless coverage, and are flexible, intelligent, secure, reliable, convenient and efficient. This will contribute to building a global community of shared future and make the world a better place to live.
