cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/32183144
Generated Summary below:
Video Description:
Iran has just shut off GPS across its territory — and switched to China’s Beidou satellite system. Why now? What does it mean for U.S. dominance in space-based navigation and warfare? In this episode of GVS Deep Dive, Najma Minhas unpacks Iran’s bold strategic pivot — and why it may mark the beginning of the end for America’s global GPS monopoly. From WhatsApp tracking scandals and drone warfare to China’s high-precision Beidou system and Belt & Road integration, this decision carries major military and geopolitical consequences.
Watch till the end to understand: Why GPS was always a tool of U.S. soft power
How the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis pushed China to develop Beidou
What makes Beidou uniquely powerful in battlefield environments
How Iran and the Global South are quietly building independence from Western tech
Will more countries ditch GPS and align with China’s Beidou system?
#GVSDeepDive #Beidou #IranGPS #ChinaTech #Geopolitics #SatelliteWars
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Najma tweets @MinhasNajma
Najma Minhas is Managing Editor, Global Village Space. She has worked with National Economic Research Associates (NERA) in New York, Lehman Brothers in London and Standard Chartered Bank in Pakistan. Before launching GVS, she worked as a consultant with World Bank, and USAID. Najma studied Economics at London School of Economics and International Relations at Columbia University, NewYork. She tweets at @MinhasNajma.
Generated Summary:
Main Topic: Iran’s decision to disable GPS across its territory and adopt China’s Beidou (Bato) satellite navigation system, and the implications of this shift for U.S. dominance in space and global geopolitics.
Key Points:
- Iran’s Shift: Iran has disabled GPS and adopted China’s Beidou, a geopolitical statement driven by concerns over cyber warfare, electronic jamming, and dependence on Western-dominated systems.
- Reasons for the Shift:
- Rising cyber warfare threats and tensions with the US and Israel.
- Geostrategic alignment with China, which offers technical superiority in some areas.
- A scandal involving alleged leaks of Iranian officials’ locations via WhatsApp and Instagram.
- GPS Origins and Dominance: GPS, built and controlled by the US military, became the backbone of global navigation. The US unlocked high precision for civilian access in 2000, fueling the growth of smartphones, Uber, and precision agriculture.
- China’s Beidou as a Competitor: China developed Beidou after realizing its military vulnerability during the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis. Beidou now rivals GPS, with more satellites and ground stations, offering better positioning accuracy in some regions and unique features like short message communication.
- Beidou’s Capabilities: Beidou offers high accuracy, anti-jamming protections, and short message communication. It powers over 1.5 billion users daily and is integrated into China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
- Implications for Iran: Beidou provides Iran with a secure, independent navigation network, enhancing the precision of its military operations and strengthening its economic resilience under sanctions.
- Future Trends: China aims to make Beidou the world’s go-to system by 2035. The US is upgrading its GPS system, but these upgrades offer only moderate improvements.
Highlights:
- Iran’s move is not just a tech upgrade but a geopolitical realignment, signaling a shift away from Western digital hegemony.
- Beidou is becoming a first-choice alternative for countries seeking political independence.
- The US Space Force acknowledges that GPS is lagging in updates.
- Beidou’s short message communication feature is a unique strategic capability not offered by GPS.
- The video poses the question of whether more countries will follow Iran’s lead and adopt Beidou.
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I’m guessing they banned it and switched to China’s system to spy on their citizens.
China’s system can’t be used for spying. It’s as passive as GPS. These things are harmless. No amount of control can be enacted through them.
Is it? I haven’t looked too much into it, I just assumed a newer system would have tracking built-in.
So now I’m even more confused about why Iran would care which system it uses, if both truly are passive.
GPS and similar systems are just big atomic clocks flying around the earth, shouting their time down to earth. A GPS (or other) device just needs to know the current time and the position of the satellites to calculate its own position.
The most control the US ever exercised over GPS was to encrypt the more precise parts of the satellite’s timestamps so that only military devices could get really precise positions. They stopped doing that when other systems went online. That was for the whole world, including its own citizens.
Cool, I looked into it and yeah, it seems like Beidou is incredibly similar to GPS, so it really shouldn’t matter. GPS seems to be a little more accurate for the average person, but otherwise they’re largely the same.