Source: Xinhua News Agency 2026 05/18

From cities to mountainous regions, smartphones provide stable, lane-level navigation; in uninhabited areas, smartwatches transmit information via satellite; and on vast tracts of fertile farmland, unmanned agricultural machinery operates with “centimeter-level” precision… China’s Beidou Satellite Navigation System continues to empower industries across the board with unprecedented depth and breadth.

On May 18, the *2026 China Beidou Spatio-Temporal Industry Development White Paper* was released in Beijing. According to data from the white paper, in 2025, the total output value of China’s satellite navigation industry reached 629 billion yuan, representing a year-over-year increase of 9.24%.

In the face of the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, Beidou is also undergoing transformation and making significant strides.

According to the white paper, China’s satellite navigation industry is currently undergoing an upgrade toward the Beidou spatiotemporal industry. With the Beidou Satellite Navigation System at its core, the industry is deeply integrating cutting-edge technologies such as mobile communications, indoor positioning, and artificial intelligence to build an integrated technology system that is “space-ground integrated, seamlessly covered, and intelligent and efficient.”

“If the digital economy were a high-speed train, Beidou would be its ‘rails’ and ‘timetable,’” said Zhang Huifeng, president of the China Association of Satellite Navigation and Positioning. He added that Beidou will not only provide information on “where you are,” but also support “when, under what conditions, and how to make intelligent decisions.”

In the agricultural sector, the integration of “Beidou + IoT/remote sensing” has established a unified smart agriculture system, enabling unmanned agricultural machinery in Heilongjiang to achieve a plowing accuracy of better than 2.5 centimeters during the 2025 spring plowing season and boost operational efficiency by more than 30 percent.   In the transportation sector, the integration of Beidou with 5G and inertial navigation technology has enabled unmanned container trucks at the Port of Tianjin and the Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan to dock with centimeter-level precision, boosting port operational efficiency by more than 30%.

In the energy sector, State Grid Xinjiang Tacheng Power Supply Company has adopted a “Beidou + drone” model to conduct transmission line inspections, significantly improving efficiency and greatly alleviating the shortage of frontline inspection personnel.

On April 9, 2026, a seeder equipped with the Beidou navigation system was sowing barley in Gansu (drone photo).

Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Wang Chao)

In the consumer sector, Beidou has become even more deeply integrated into daily life. Whether it’s hailing a ride, ordering takeout, or searching for restaurants, people are benefiting from Beidou services.

By the end of 2025, the total number of Beidou-enabled terminal devices of all types in use will exceed 2.2 billion units (including smartphones); the number of wearable devices supporting Beidou positioning will exceed 160 million; more than 100 million passenger vehicles will be equipped with in-vehicle devices featuring BeiDou positioning and navigation capabilities, providing core support for lane-level navigation and intelligent driving…

At the same time, the total number of enterprises and institutions involved in China’s Beidou space-time industry has now exceeded 30,000, with a workforce of nearly 2 million people, forming a highly qualified and specialized pool of industry talent.

China’s Beidou is also the world’s Beidou.

According to the white paper, Beidou system services and related products have been exported to more than 140 countries and regions. In countries participating in the “Belt and Road” Initiative, the market share of related applications and products has reached 58%. From the smart port at Chinchay in Peru to precision agriculture in Africa, products equipped with BeiDou technology have become a major force in the global spatiotemporal services sector.

During this year’s National Two Sessions, a senior official from the National Development and Reform Commission stated that as the “15th Five-Year Plan” gets underway, China will continue to implement the Beidou Large-Scale Application Project and work toward expanding the Beidou industry’s scale to exceed 1 trillion yuan within five years.   Guided by Beidou, the stars illuminate our journey. A more ubiquitous and intelligent Beidou satellite navigation system is striding toward us.