The Iranian government has just made it official: they're gradually leaving America's GPS system in favor of China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System across key sectors like transportation, agriculture, and IoT. This isn't just some routine tech upgrade—it's a sign of major changes in technological influence in the Middle East.
The Iranian government recently officially announced its plan to gradually shift positioning services in key sectors such as transportation navigation, agricultural monitoring, and the Internet of Things from the U.S. GPS system to China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS)
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The Iranian government recently officially announced its plan to gradually shift positioning services in key sectors such as transportation navigation, agricultural monitoring, and the Internet of Things from the U.S. GPS system to China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS)
The BeiDou Navigation System, with its high-precision, strong coverage in Asia, and its autonomous control, has become Iran’s preferred choice.
Starting June 13, 2025 when Israel launched a brutal 12-day assault on Iranian nuclear facilities and military targets. During the period, GPS signals kept mysteriously vanishing across Iran and the Persian Gulf. Ships near Iranian ports started showing bizarre "circling" patterns on their tracking systems, while navigation apps in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem hilariously started telling users they were actually in Beirut or Cairo.
AP file photo
Iran admitted they were actively jamming GPS signals to counter drone and missile threats from Israel. But it backfired spectacularly, disrupting millions of internet users and thousands of businesses instead of actually protecting the country. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot while trying to dodge bullets.
Tehran's "Never Again" Moment: Why This Shift Matters
This pivot comes as Iran licks its wounds from getting hammered by Israeli strikes. Ali Akbar Dareini from Iran's Center of Strategic Studies put it bluntly—this decision stems from Iran's "painful experience" of relying on Western tech. The writing was on the wall during those 12 days in June when Iran discovered just how vulnerable they were to American-controlled infrastructure.
AP file photo
As Al Jazeera noted, "the era of blind reliance on American-controlled infrastructure is ending". Iran's basically telling the world they're done playing by Washington's rules and are ready to chart their own digital destiny.
Why BeiDou Actually Makes Sense (And It's Not Just Politics)
BeiDou isn't just some Chinese knockoff of GPS. It's actually superior in several key ways, especially in Asia. The system boasts 35 satellites providing global coverage, with civilian positioning accuracy of 1 meter in Asia compared to GPS's somewhat shabby 2-5 meters in the same region.
Iran sits right in BeiDou's sweet spot for coverage, meaning they'll get rock-solid signals from the Persian Gulf coast to their mountainous interior. Pakistan's already proven this works in practice—since signing their BeiDou deal with China in 2013, they've deployed ground stations in Karachi and Lahore that provide sub-meter accuracy for precision agriculture. We're talking about dramatically improved crop yields and water management—stuff that actually matters when you're trying to feed your population.
China's Space Silk Road Gains Another Major Player
The Iranian decision builds on years of cooperation between Tehran and Beijing in satellite navigation. The countries signed a memorandum of understanding in 2015 to establish BeiDou ground stations in Iran, addressing GPS coverage gaps. Their comprehensive 25-year cooperation agreement, signed in 2021, prominently features BeiDou applications as a key element of technological collaboration.
The BeiDou Navigation System, with its high-precision, strong coverage in Asia, and its autonomous control, has become Iran’s preferred choice.
BeiDou services and products now reach more than 140 countries and regions and have been incorporated into standards of 11 international organizations covering civil aviation and maritime operations. Countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia are already cozying up to Chinese tech while maintaining their American security partnerships.
As Professor Enrico Fadella of University of Naples L'Orientale said, "The Middle East today seems to be emerging as a new technological battlefield — not through bases or bombs, but through satellites and networks."
China's Foreign Ministry has been pushing the line that "China's BeiDou is also the world's BeiDou," and Iran's full embrace of the system certainly strengthens Beijing's hand in the global navigation game. For countries looking to reduce their dependence on American technological infrastructure, Iran just provided a very public blueprint for how to make the switch.
The bottom is about much more than just satellite navigation. It's about technological sovereignty in an increasingly multipolar world, and Iran just became China's latest—and perhaps most significant—convert in the Middle East.
Mao Paishou
** The blog article is the sole responsibility of the author and does not represent the position of our company. **
The New Year barely begins, and Washington drops a flashbang on global diplomacy. A sitting president is forcibly detained and taken out of his own country — a move that blows past diplomatic convention and rams straight into international law’s red lines. On Taiwan, the chatter instantly turns into self-projection, as some people try to shoehorn a faraway conflict into the island’s own storyline. Anxiety spreads fast.
Maduro in cuffs, in a US federal courtroom — the raid’s image problem. (AP)
The South China Morning Post says the US action against Venezuela ignites a fierce debate on the island. Some commentary links the raid to the PLA’s recent encirclement drills around Taiwan, arguing parts of those exercises look, at least in form, like the US’s so-called “decapitation operations”: essentially a leadership-targeting operation. Some American scholars also warn this kind of play could set a dangerous precedent and invite copycats.
“Justice Mission-2025” rolls on as the Eastern Theater Command drills.
That debate doesn’t stay academic for long. It pumps up the island’s unease, with some people asking whether the same kind of military method could one day be copied and pasted into the Taiwan Strait. Even if it mostly lives in public talk, a high-tension political environment turns speculation into something that feels like risk.
People on the island don’t read the US move the same way. A small minority treats it as a US power flex, packed with intel integration, precision strike, and long-range reach. But the more clear-eyed view is harsher: such action chips away at the basic consensus of international order — because if major powers can raid at will and topple other countries’ leaders for their own aims, “rules” stop acting like rules.
Anxiety turns into politics
That worry quickly lands in Taiwan’s political arena. On Jan 5, multiple Taiwan legislators pressed Deputy Defense Minister Hsu Szu-chien at the legislature, asking how he views the US action against Venezuela and whether the PLA might replicate a similar model in the Taiwan Strait. Hsu doesn’t answer head-on. Rather, he merely mentioned preparing and drilling for all kinds of sudden contingencies.
Then he pivots to money. He urges the legislature to pass military budget appropriations quickly and plays up the urgency of delays eating into “preparation time.”
That kind of sidestep, unsurprisingly, only deepened public unease.
SCMP, citing multiple security experts, says the DPP authorities try to play down the association — but outsiders don’t fully rule it out. The reason, those experts argue, is the PLA’s continuing push to improve its ability to shift from exercises to real combat. On the island, that alone works like an anxiety amplifier.
Back in the real world, the PLA Eastern Theater Command has been running “Justice Mission-2025” exercises since Dec 29 last year. Official statements spell out the purpose: a stern warning to “Taiwan independence” separatist forces and external interference, and a move aimed at safeguarding national sovereignty and unification. The message is public and clear, there’s no gray area.
Some US think-tank voices pull a more confrontational takeaway from the US action. American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Hal Brands warns the US raid on Venezuela could create a “demonstration effect,” and he speculates China would watch those tactics closely. Some military commentators on the island seized the moment to hype fears, claiming the mainland might act during a “window” when US power is stretched thin.
That line of talk sounds like analysis, but it functions like a panic pump. US scholar Lev Nachman even says bluntly on social media that if a sudden military action hits the Taiwan Strait, the island could suffer “instant collapse” — not just militarily, but as a psychological shock to society.
KMT Chairperson Cheng Li-wun, in an interview, points to Donald Trump repeatedly stressing a shift of strategic focus toward affairs in the Americas. She says the Venezuela incident should be examined through the framework of international law, and she calls for disputes in any region to be resolved by peaceful means rather than force.
Cheng also reiterates the KMT position: uphold the “1992 Consensus,” oppose “Taiwan independence,” and urge Lai Ching-te to clearly oppose “Taiwan independence,” not touch legal red lines, and avoid continuously raising cross-strait conflict risks.
Rules talk meets reality
International reaction also turns critical of Washington’s approach. Multiple governments and regional organizations speak up quickly, condemning the action as a violation of the UN Charter, which explicitly prohibits using force to threaten or violate another nation’s territorial integrity and political independence. The telling part is the silence: the Western countries that often talk about “international rules” either zipped their mouths, or danced around the question this time.
Reuters says that even though China, Russia, and others clearly condemn the US behavior, the Trump administration is unlikely to face strong pressure from allies as a result. That selective muteness, by itself, drains the credibility of the international order.
On Jan. 5, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian commented again, saying the US actions clearly violate international law and the basic norms of international relations, and violate the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. China calls on the US to ensure the personal safety of President Maduro and his wife, immediately release them, stop subverting the Venezuelan government, and resolve issues through dialogue and negotiation.
