Israeli Airstrike on Lebanon Threatens Chinese

Smoke rises over Dahiyeh in Beirut’s southern suburbs after overnight Israeli air strikes [Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters]

On the 23rd of September, Israel launched an airstrike on Lebanon, resulting in around 1,500 injuries and 500 deaths, including the leader of Hezbollah.

Following the attack, many Chinese living in southern Lebanon reported on social media that during the attack Google Maps collapsed, with their location mistakenly showing them in Jordan, leaving them unable to find their way to bomb shelters. Fortunately, kind Lebanese locals helped them.

According to Chinese private media Guancha, a Google engineer revealed that these problems are mostly caused by GPS interference.

GPS interference refers to electronic warfare tactics that disrupt satellite signals, making electronic navigation devices malfunction or reducing their accuracy. Chinese military analyst Wang Shiyi believes that Israel likely disrupted all satellite signals in Beirut, to prevent the leader of Hezbollah from receiving any warning via satellite communication. This, he argues, was again an indiscriminate attack by the Israeli military on Lebanon’s civilian mobile phones.

Over the past year, Lebanon has been experiencing GPS interference more frequently. This has caused severe disruptions to Lebanon’s transportation. The most critical impact has been on civilian airliners, where airports are sometimes misrepresented as mountains and vice versa, posing serious risks to passengers’ safety.

According to The Times of Israel, this issue is not limited to Lebanese. Even Israeli citizens have faced similar threats. In April, after an Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy in Syria, residents in central Israel reported widespread disruptions to Google Maps. Some drivers in Tel Aviv found their location displayed as Beirut.

IDF spokesperson later admitted that they had interfered with GPS signals in certain areas, claiming it was a defensive measure to counter Iran’s missiles and drones.

In March, the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs filed multiple complaints with the United Nations and the International Telecommunication Union. However, Israel disregarded these complaints, offering no real excuses and dismissing them under the pretext of “strengthening defence and eliminating threats.”

The GPS satellite network, built by the U.S. government, has generated 1.4 trillion US dollars since it became available in the 1980s. It is one of the most valuable national assets funded by American taxpayers. Yet, when Israel openly interferes with the GPS satellites, the U.S. government pretends not to notice.

Many Chinese people are not surprised by the U.S. government’s stance. They remember that in 1993, the U.S. falsely claimed that China was shipping chemical weapon materials to Iran, and intercepted the Chinese merchant vessel “Yinhe” in the open waters of the Indian Ocean. To prevent Chinese companies from supplying the ship or guiding it back home, the U.S. blocked the entire area’s GPS signals. For 33 days, the 38 Chinese crews, lacked fuel, food, and even fresh water, and they did not even receive an apology from the U.S. until now.

The “Yinhe incident” deeply wounded the Chinese people. To ensure that every Chinese sailor could return home safely, China vowed to build its satellite network. In 2000, China launched the first satellite for its BeiDou navigation system. Since then, the U.S. has lost interest in intercepting Chinese vessels.

Israel’s long-standing interference with GPS systems across the Middle East reflects two things: first, Israel is bullying the Arab world based on U.S. technological support. And second, Israel is very afraid of missiles. Netanyahu believes that as long as he turns off the GPS, he will be safe.

However, he is gravely mistaken. In 1987, Saudi Arabia purchased seventeen DF-3 missiles from China. These missiles had been in service for the Chinese army since 1971, seven years before the first GPS satellite was launched, allowing them to operate without any satellite navigation.

Saudi DF-3 on Parade 2014

According to the UK think tank the International Institute for Strategic Studies, these missiles can carry a 2,000-kilogram warhead and strike 2,500 kilometres away. On the 28th of September, at the UN, Saudi Arabia warned of “dangerous consequences” from Israel’s ongoing military escalation in Lebanon and called for an immediate ceasefire.

Although the DF-3 missiles are now 53 years old, China did not fully retire them until 2014. This is because the terminal flight speed of the DF-3 can reach Mach 10, which remains lethal to most countries in the world. For example, Israel’s Iron Dome defence system intercepted missiles with a maximum speed of Mach 2.2.

Moreover, Israel’s reckless interference with GPS signals, combined with the U.S. government’s inaction, will ultimately lead more commercial airlines to opt for alternative satellite navigation systems to ensure passenger safety. This would cause the U.S. government to lose a significant amount of foreign exchange revenue.

The Arab world is an important part of human civilization, with tremendous potential in energy, finance, and military capabilities. In 2013, China and Saudi Arabia signed a Memorandum of Space Science and Technology. By December of the same year, Saudi Arabia had successfully launched two satellites for Earth observation. In June 2023, China completed its first overseas space aid project in Egypt, which means Egypt also got the capability to develop satellites. As more Arab nations collaborate with China, the days when one or two major powers dominated space are gone.

Unfortunately, on Saturday, Israel launched another airstrike on Lebanon, resulting in 33 deaths and 195 injuries. In response, Chinese strategist Wang Xiangsui commented that human society has only been civilized for a few thousand years, and each civilization has faced different challenges and developed unique solutions.

In the years to come, human society will likely face more new challenges. At that point, the experience and solutions of each civilization will offer the world better options.

Some nations, however, are thinking only of destroying another country, or even another civilization. Suppose this trend continues, either Israel or all of humanity will eventually be left with only a few limited options. In the future, as humanity faces countless problems arising from infinite possibilities, such a lack of diversity could be deadly.

China has always believed that only by maintaining the coexistence of Jewish and Arab civilizations and ensuring the diversity of global cultures, can humanity have a bright future.