social development by adopting Chinese PNT into precise agriculture, monitoring of vehicles and ships, and aiding with civilian-focused services across more than 100 countries in Africa, Asia, and Europe. BeiDou provides all-time, all-weather, and high-accuracy PNT services to users domestically, in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as globally and consists of 49 operational satellites. The PRC’s military uses BeiDou’s high-accuracy PNT services to enable force movements and precision guided munitions delivery.
BeiDou has a worldwide positional accuracy standard of 10 meters; accuracy in the Asia-Pacific region is within 5 meters. In addition to providing PNT, the BeiDou constellation offers unique capabilities, including text messaging and user tracking through its Regional Short Message Communication service to enable mass communications among BeiDou users. The system also provides additional military C2 capabilities for the PLA.
The PRC intends to use its BeiDou constellation to offer additional services and incentives to countries taking part in its BRI emphasizing building strong economic ties to other countries to align partner nations with the PRC’s interests. In 2021, China predicted Beidou products and services will be worth $156 billion by 2025, and potentially export BeiDou products to more than 100 million users in 120 countries.
Human Spaceflight and Space Exploration Efforts. Following uncrewed missions that began in 1999, China became the third country to achieve independent human spaceflight when it successfully orbited the crewed Shenzhou-5 spacecraft in 2003. In 2011, China then launched its first space station, Tiangong-1, and in 2016, it launched its second space station, Tiangong-2. In 2020, China conducted its first orbital test of the New-Generation Manned Spaceship, which is expected to replace the Shenzhou series of crewed spacecraft. In 2022, China successfully launched the Mengtian Chinese Space Station laboratory module into orbit, completing the three-module Chinese space station.
China has also taken on a greater role in deep space exploration and space science and has made notable accomplishments during the past several years. The PRC has demonstrated its interest in working with Russia and the European Space Agency (ESA) to conduct deep-space exploration. China was the third country to place a robotic rover on the Moon and was the first to land a rover on the lunar far side in 2019, which is communicating through the Queqiao relay satellite that China launched the year before to a stable orbit around an Earth-Moon Lagrange point. In May 2021, the PRC landed the Zhurong rover on Mars, the first Chinese rover to operate on Mars. This rover has provided China with valuable scientific data of the Martian surface and underground.
Space Launch Capabilities. The PRC is improving its space launch capabilities to ensure it has an independent, reliable means to access space and to compete in the international space launch market. The PRC continues to improve manufacturing efficiencies and launch capabilities overall, supporting continued human spaceflight and deep-space exploration missions—including to the Moon and Mars. New modular SLVs that allow the PRC to tailor an SLV to the specific configuration required for each customer are beginning to go into operation, leading to increased launch vehicle reliability and overall cost savings for launch campaigns. The PRC is also in the
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OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China
