China has now its own satellite navigation system called Beidou. Beidou is an alternative to Global Positioning System (GPS) and it is providing location, timing and navigation data. The purpose to the project that started at 2000 is to make China’s military independent from foreign technology, in this case US government’s GPS. Beidou has now ten satellites and another six will be added in 2012. Beidou currently covers China and surroundings, with this six additional satellites it will cover most Asia and by 2020 and with 35 satellites will have global coverage. Alternative systems are Russian Glonass and European Galileo. Beidou is compatible and interoperable with the other systems. The entire Beidou project will cost $25 billion by 2035.
Source: [BBC]