The Beidou Navigation Satellite System is intended to replace China's reliance on the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS).

China flipped the switch on a satellite navigation system Tuesday, which will provide initial positioning, navigation, and timing operational services to China and the surrounding region, according to the state-run Xinhua News.

The Beidou Navigation Satellite System is intended to replace China's reliance on the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS). Officials starting building Beidou in 2000 and since then, the country has launched 10 satellites, the most recent of which went up in November, Xinhua said. Six more satellites will launch in 2012; work is not expected to be complete until 2020.

Xinhua said Beidou is compatible with the U.S. system, as well as the EU's Galileo Positioning System and Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS).

As the Wall Street Journal noted, the U.S. can technically block access to its GPS system if there is a conflict, but has never done so.

But the Journal also pointed to the development of an antiship ballistic missile by Chinese officials that could hit a moving aircraft carrier up to 1,700 miles offshore. Beidou could be used with other tech to locate the whereabouts of U.S. ships in the region.

It could also provide China with an advantage regarding territorial disputes, the Journal said.

In late October, that U.S. government satellites were compromised at least four times in 2007 and 2008, possibly at the hands of Chinese computer hackers with ties to the country's military.

Also that month, the Department of Defense , dubbed the Phoenix Program, that would salvage working parts from retired or dead satellites and reuse them on other projects.