I wouldn't want to be navigating critical transportation during a dispute between China and the United States with this track record (would you?):
http://fortune.com/2018/08/28/china-has-been-withholding-bir...
https://www.wired.com/story/australias-ban-on-huawei-is-just...
https://nypost.com/2018/09/19/chinas-social-credit-system-is...
It's precisely the fear of having navigation turned off that led to nations launching their own GPS alternatives. More satellites is better for critical transportation if one nation (be it China or US) wants to turn disable their system for civilians.
Eventually most mobile devices will contain a single chip that supports GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou, and other smaller regional GNSS's. They all rely on somewhat similar technology so it's mainly a software problem.
Re:China's GPS 'rival' Beidou
by liftbigweights on Monday October 22, 2018 @05:03PM
(#18278485)
> "We are likely to see an increased bifurcation of the world into two camps - 'pro-China' and 'pro-US'", says Blaine Curcio, founder of Orbital Gateway Consulting
Why just two? If our stranglehold on the world breaks, the EU and Russia are easily capable of carving out their sphere of influence.
People really underestimate how populous and wealthy and powerful the EU is.
It's strange how the narrative changes in such a short time period. Just 10 years ago, I remember people talking of "chimerica" as if the US and china were going to merge into a single world ruling entity.
The EU is wealthy but has limited power projection. Only France and the UK can realistically be considered great powers, and even then not on the scale of the US, China, or Russia.
France and the UK? What about Germany?
In term of military power mostly I guess.
It's the only EU nations with nuclear weapons, aircrafts carrier, nuclear submarines, ...
Correct. Germany is an economic powerhouse, but lacks military might and therefore power projection.
Why do some people view it as a with-us-or-against-us problem? Combining beidou with GPS gives a better accuracy. Some competition and collaboration in the GPS field can benefit us as a whole.