To carry forward Beidou spirit in new era

A completion and commissioning ceremony for China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS-3) was held in Beijing on July 31. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee attended the ceremony and officially announced the commissioning of the system.

It marked the completion of China’s independent, open and compatible global navigation satellite system, and the BDS-3 has entered a new stage of global services to benefit all human beings.

Global navigation satellite system is a vital spatial infrastructure that concerns both national strategies and people’s livelihood. To build an independent global navigation satellite system is an important major strategic decision made by the CPC Central Committee, the State Council and the Central Military Commission. General Secretary Xi has attached high importance on the construction of the system and made important instructions.

The completion and operation of the BDS-3 mark a significant milestone in China’s efforts to boost science and technology and advance the country as a major power in space. The system is a major contribution to the global public-service infrastructure as well as a remarkable strategic achievement of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. Carrying generations of efforts of Chinese aerospace experts, and the persevering spirit of the Chinese nation, it has a profound and far-reaching significance for promoting the building of a modern socialist China and a community with a shared future for mankind.

The system is developed by a massive science force that has overcome tremendous difficulties and made painstaking contributions, and will serve the innumerable people and benefit generation after generation.

Since getting official approval in 1994, generations of aerospace scientists have made unremitted efforts to complete their mission of making China stronger through aerospace and scientific technology, with a sense of responsibility to put national interests, the cause of the CPC and loyalty to Chinese people above everything. They have overcome unimaginable difficulties, making a new exploration in an unfamiliar area and starting from scratch to develop high-end technology. They illuminated the BDS-3 with their conviction, and made the constellation shine in the universe and serve both China and the rest of the world. From the three-step strategy to adopting a technological development path different from other countries, and to launching a total of 30 satellites with 18 rockets, the BDS-3 demonstrates the ambition of the Chinese nation to develop independently and manifests the political advantages of the country’s socialist system to concentrate resources to accomplish large undertakings.

Beidou is so far China’s largest complicated space-based system that covers the widest area, features the best services, and has the closest relation with people’s daily lives. More than 300,000 scientists, engineers and technicians from over 400 domestic institutes, universities and enterprises have been involved in Beidou’s development and construction. They have always been carrying forward the BeiDou spirit of the “independent innovations, unity and collaboration, overcoming difficulties, and the pursuit of excellence.” It is another spiritual milestone on the journey of the Chinese aerospace scientists to make China a scientific power, a legacy of the manned spaceflight spirit. The BDS-3 is also a valuable spiritual treasure that features distinctive characteristics of the times, spurring Chinese scientific workers to keep making efforts and building a magnificent power for the Chinese people to realize the Chinese dream.

General secretary Xi pointed out that China is willing to share the achievements of the BeiDou system with other countries, and promote the development of global satellite navigation systems. The BDS-3 is now providing services for over a hundred million users in Belt and Road countries and regions, and its products have been exported to more than 120 countries and regions.

As long as China carries forward the Beidou spirit in the new era, stay true to its original aspiration, keep its mission in mind, make unremitted efforts and keep moving forward, it will be able to make greater contribution to realizing its two centenary goals and the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, as well as offer better service for global satellite navigation systems and contribute wisdom and power for benefiting the mankind.