Australia is playing a role in helping China develop its rival global positioning system that will be used for guiding missiles and other military technology, according to a leading expert.

New Zealand academic Anne-Marie Brady — who says she has faced a campaign of harassment and intimidation for her research on the Chinese Communist Party — said the "BeiDou" alternative to the American-controlled GPS carries significant benefits for the Chinese military.

BeiDou is China's rival to American GPS. Credit:Sanghee Liu

A tracking station in Perth has been a key factor in the global advance of the BeiDou satellite navigation system, Professor Brady said, with the Western Australian infrastructure the first to be established in the critical Pacific region.

"Australia is playing a small part in helping China to get a GPS system as effective as the US system," she told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.