China gives school pupils smart watches to track their location using BeiDou

• The watches send parents their children’s real-time movements, to within 10 metres

• It is the latest application of the country’s self-developed navigation system that aims to rival the American-developed GPS

China has given nearly 17,000 children free smart watches in the latest example of its expanding use of BeiDou, its answer to GPS.

Primary school pupils in the southern province of Guangzhou’s 60 primary schools received watches with built-in chips powered by China’s self-developed satellite navigation system, which sends their real-time location – and alerts in emergencies – to their parents’ mobile phones, Guangzhou Daily reported on Monday.

The watches can detect a user’s location with an accuracy of 10 metres, even when they are in a building or satellite signals are blocked, Zhu Yanjun, the leader of the project, was quoted as saying.

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