China’s BeiDou navigation system achieves breakthroughs, in-depth applications in various sectors

China's BeiDou satellite navigation system has achieved major breakthroughs and in-depth applications across a wide of range of sectors, significantly boosting production efficiency.

China's satellite navigation and positioning services industry, centered on the BeiDou navigation system, registered a 7.39 percent year-on-year growth to reach 575.8 billion yuan (about 80 billion U.S. dollars) in its total output value in 2024, according to a white paper released on Sunday.

The white paper released by the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and Location Based Services (LBS) Association of China reported that by the end of 2024, the total number of satellite navigation patent applications in China surpassed 129,000, maintaining the country's global leading momentum in this field.

The white paper showed that over 410 million satellite navigation terminals were sold in China in 2024, including 294 million BeiDou-enabled smartphones. Sales of other positioning terminal devices and systems, including the Internet of Things, wearables, vehicles, and high-precision applications, exceeded 120 million sets.

With the continuous growth of satellite navigation equipment sales, many Chinese navigation map suppliers have officially switched to prioritizing BeiDou positioning.

"Eleven major digital mapping service providers in China deliver more than one trillion location services and guide four billion kilometers of automobile running per day. The high-precision lane-level navigation of BeiDou has basically covered all urban and township roads across the country," said Liu Dake, vice president of the GNSS and LBS Association of China.

BeiDou has also achieved significant breakthroughs across a wide of range of sectors including transportation, power and mass consumption, significantly enhancing the capability level of high-precision positioning services, according to the white paper.

In transportation, over 13.5 million BeiDou-enabled devices were used in road transport, postal and express delivery automobiles and rail systems by the end of 2024. Meanwhile, at ports, autonomous trucks using BeiDou navigation system enhanced operational efficiency by 25 percent.

In the energy sector, over 500,000 BeiDou-supported devices are adopted, providing reliable and precise high-precision location services for inspection equipment, which has significantly enhanced the efficiency of electricity transmission and hazard identification, according to the white paper.

The agricultural machinery equipped with the BeiDou navigation system has also helped farmers improve efficiency and promoted smart planting across the country.

In Nanniwan, a high-quality rice production base in Yan'an City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, BeiDou-supported unmanned transplanters have been put into use for the first time this summer.

Compared with traditional ones, these unmanned transplanters can not only control the distance between plants within centimeters, but also reduce the number of manpower from some five persons to just one.

The Nanniwan base also adopted drone fertilization during this year's cultivation season, comprehensively enhancing the farming efficiency.

"It used to take three to five workers three to five days to fertilize the field. With drones, the operation can be completed in just one morning, greatly improving the utilization rate of the fertilizer," said Xian Lei, a technician at the base.

In addition to domestic applications, the overseas market of BeiDou navigation system has also continued to expand.

As a core supplier of global satellite navigation systems recognized by the United Nations, BeiDou has joined the standard systems of 11 international organizations in the areas of civil aviation, maritime affairs and mobile communications. More than 30 African countries including Nigeria, Tunisia and Senegal have built BeiDou Continuously Operating Reference Stations.

The market size of China's low altitude economy has so far exceeded 500 billion yuan, and is expected to reach two trillion yuan by 2030. The BeiDou navigation system will be integrated with cutting-edge technologies such as 5G communication and artificial intelligence for more efficient utilization in the years to come.

China’s BeiDou navigation system achieves breakthroughs, in-depth applications in various sectors

A video featuring a former member of Unit 731, a notorious Japanese germ-warfare unit during World War II (WWII), was released on Thursday in northeast China's Harbin, revealing details of how the unit used meteorological data to conduct horrific bacterial experiments on human beings.

The video was released by the Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army, in which former Unit 731 member Tsuruo Nishijima detailed how the unit used meteorological data to carry out a bacterial dispersal experiment.

The video was recorded in 1997 by Japanese scholar Fuyuko Nishisato and donated to the exhibition hall in 2019, according to the hall, which was built on the former site of the headquarters of Unit 731 in Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang Province.

Jin Shicheng, director of the Department of Publicity, Education and Exhibition of the exhibition hall, said that Nishijima joined Unit 731 in October 1938 and served in the unit's meteorological squad. The squad was not a simple observation section but rather an auxiliary force supporting the unit's field human experiments by measuring wind direction, wind speed, and other conditions to ensure optimal experimental results, according to Jin.

Nishijima confirmed in the footage that "the meteorological squad had to be present at every field experiment." He testified to the "rainfall experiments" conducted by Unit 731, which involved aircraft releasing bacterial agents at extremely low altitudes.

At a field-testing site in Anda City, Heilongjiang, Unit 731 aircraft descended to about 50 meters above the ground. They sprayed bacterial culture liquids onto "maruta" -- human test subjects -- who were tied to wooden stakes. Each experiment involved about 30 people, spaced roughly 5 meters apart. After the experiments, the victims were loaded into sealed trucks and transported back to the unit, where their symptoms and disease progression were recorded over a period of several days.

"Unit 731's bacterial weapons were dropped by aircraft from a height of 50 meters in the open air. Therefore, the meteorological squad needed to observe wind direction and speed, which directly affected the precision and accuracy of the bacterial weapons deployment," said Jin.

Nishijima recounted the harrowing experience of the human test subjects.

"They were fully aware that inhaling the substances would certainly lead to death, so they closed their eyes and held their breath to avoid breathing them in. Their resistance prevented the experiment from proceeding. To compel them to comply, they were forced at gunpoint to open their mouths and lift their heads," said Nishijima.

These experiments, disguised as "scientific research," were in fact systematic tests of biological warfare weapons conducted by the Japanese military. The data generated from these inhumane activities became "research findings" shared among the Japanese army medical school, the medical community, and the military at large.

"At that time, the entire Japanese medical community tacitly approved, encouraged, and even participated in the criminal acts of Unit 731. The unit comprised members from Japan's medical and academic sectors who served the Japanese war of aggression against China. Thus, Unit 731 was not just a military unit but represented an organized and systematic criminal enterprise operating from the top down," said Jin.

Unit 731 was a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base established in Harbin as the nerve center for Japanese biological warfare in China and Southeast Asia during WWII.

At least 3,000 people were used for human experiments by Unit 731, and Japan's biological weapons killed more than 300,000 people in China.

Video offers details of Japan's germ-warfare crimes in northeast China