The US was the first country to operate a global positioning system in the early 1970s. To break US monopoly on global positioning, 15 countries from Europe band together to develop the Galileo system in March 2002[1] . Then US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz warned EU defence minister against developing an alternative global positioning system to the US GPS[2] , and threaten to shoot down satellites that they launch. Europe was able to withstand US pressure at that time, and even roped in China in 2003 to help with the Galileo project[3] . China contributed approximately €230 million in funding to the Galileo project, but got played out when pro-US European leaders came to power from 2005 onwards. China was effectively excluded from the Galileo project on grounds of 'National Security'[4] (sounds familiar?), and finally had enough of Europe's flipflop and decided to go it alone in 2006.
So…did the US try to stop China? You bet. The US had already demonstrated its ability to take down a satellite with ASM-135 ASAT missile back in 1985[5] , and thus ready to destroy any Chinese positioning satellite put into space... until they witnessed this event on 11th Jan 2007 [6] :
China had successfully conducted an anti-satellite test with a kinetic kill vehicle SC-19[7] . This sends a message to the US that if Chinese satellites were destroyed, they will not hesitate to bring down US satellites as well.
After ensuring space deterrence against the US, China began launching operational BeiDou satellites into space, and completed the constellation for global coverage on 23 June 2020 with the last BD-3 satellite successfully launched into orbit[8] . ********************************************** 台灣817越早認清事實,才會面對現實;只有台灣817,沒有美國817!