China's BDS sees rapid applications across various sectors

China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) has seen thriving applications at home and abroad across a wide range of fields, making unremitting Chinese contribution to the progress of human society.

China launched the two final backup satellites of BeiDou-3 navigation system on Thursday morning, enhancing its stability and laying foundation for the next-generation navigation system.

These latest satellites, the 59th and 60th in the series launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province, were elevated into the skies by a Long March-3B carrier rocket, marking a significant step in China's advancement of its homegrown satellite navigation system.

Nowadays, BDS has become a strong support for efficient operations of such sectors as transportation, public security, disaster relief and reduction.

"Our BDS has basically achieved the industrialized development. We have achieved lane-level navigation, which ensures driving safety and provides convenience for users. The applications of precision agriculture, such as unmanned harvesting, all make use of our BDS, which has produced very good benefits. At the same time, it has also entered large numbers of families, providing various services for the mass consumption," said Yang Changfeng, chief designer of the BDS.

According to statistics, as of 2023, there were more than 7.9 million road vehicles, more than 47,000 ships, and more than 40,000 postal and express delivery vehicles using the BDS, and nearly 8,000 BDS terminals of various models were used in the railway field.

There were more than 100,000 agricultural machines installed with BDS-powered autonomous driving system by 2023. More than 5 million shared bicycles equipped with domestic BDS high-precision positioning chips have been deployed, covering over 450 cities across the country.

Meanwhile, the BDS is gaining traction among global consumers, with the technology and its applications having stood the test of time.

China also plans to expand the application of BeiDou to emerging areas such as industrial internet, the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Internet of Vehicles (IoV), while continuing to use the technology to empower the transformation of traditional industries.

Initiated in 1994, BDS is a global navigation satellite system constructed and operated independently by China.

The construction of BDS-1 and BDS-2 was completed in 2000 and 2012, respectively. When BDS-3 was completed and put into service on July 31, 2020, China became the third country to have an independent global navigation satellite system.

China's BDS sees rapid applications across various sectors

U.S. stocks ended lower while Asian shares gained after the U.S. Federal Reserve announced a 0.5-percentage-point interest rate cut on Wednesday.

U.S. stocks ended lower on Wednesday after the Fed's rate cut. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 103.08 points, or 0.25 percent, to 41,503.1. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 54.76 points, or 0.31 percent, to 17,573.3. The S and P 500 sank 16.32 points, or 0.29 percent, to 5,618.26.

In Chinese security markets, A-share investors were more receptive to the Fed's rate, hoping it might lead to a similar move by the People's Bank of China. The Shanghai Composite Index gained almost 0.7 percent on Thursday, while the Shenzhen Component Index surged by about 1.2 percent.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index climbed 2 percent on Thursday.

Japan's Nikkei rose by 2.13 percent on Thursday, while in South Korea, the Kospi turned positive with a modest gain of 0.17 percent.

The U.S. Fed cut interest rates by 50 basis points on Wednesday, bringing the benchmark interest rate to a range of 4.75 percent to 5 percent, the first rate cut in four years.

In its policy statement, the Fed said the decision reflected greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 percent and that it judges the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals are roughly in balance.

In addition to the U.S. Federal Reserve, multiple central banks and monetary authorities have either decided or will announce their interest rate decisions on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Central Bank of Brazil moved in the opposite direction to the Fed on Wednesday, raising interest rates by 25 basis points to 10.75 percent. It was the first interest rate hike in two years to tackle emerging inflation risks.

On Thursday, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority slashed its base rate by 50 basis points to 5.25 percent.

Norway's central bank, Norges Bank, has kept the policy rate at 4.5 percent as policymakers agreed a restrictive monetary policy is still needed to bring inflation down to target.

The Bank of England is set to announce its interest rate decision on Thursday. The market expects policymakers to hold rates steady amid persisting inflation pressure.

That is also the case for the Central Bank of Türkiye as it awaits further evidence of an improvement in inflation.

The South Africa Reserve Bank is expected to cut rates for the first time in four years as inflation in August fell to its lowest in more than three years.

Wall Street reacts coldly while Asian shares gain after Fed rate cut