PLA unit uses Beidou to track officials misusing its vehicles

Designers of the Beidou Navigation Satellite System might had expected the space network would garner a wide variety of users, but disciplinary inspectors of the People's Liberation Army sound like an unlikely client.

At least one PLA unit has begun to use Beidou in its efforts to curb corruption and the misuse of public assets thanks to the system's strong positioning capability.

According to PLA Daily, a ground-to-air missile brigade under the PLA Western Theater Command has Beidou devices installed in its cars to track driving routes. Wherever the cars go, their whereabouts are submitted in real time to an orbiting satellite and transferred to the brigade headquarters.