From the International Herald Tribune:
In the latest of a series of setbacks for the Galileo navigation satellite project, a European bid to create an alternative to the U.S. Global Positioning System, China is set to claim a frequency that the European Commission wants to use for a security-oriented portion of the service.
Talks between European and Chinese officials have failed to resolve the dispute, adding another obstacle to Europe’s hopes of challenging the GPS network’s global monopoly, just as China and Russia are moving ahead with competing programs of their own.
It is not the first time that Europe and China have clashed over Galileo. In what, at the time, the European Commission touted as a coup, China committed €200 million, or $270 million, in 2003 to participate in the development of the Galileo constellation of 30 satellites. But it was forced out of major decision-making in 2007 because of security concerns and the collapse of the financing plan for the program, which was to include public and private money.