GPS-less China

To use GPS in China,foreign teams will have to buddy-up with an official Chinese researcher in a "equitable partnership". Everyone from environmental scientists to at least one Olympic sailing crew are included. In 2007, China enacted harsher laws banning foreign data collection in the name of "national security". According to a the journal Nature the Chinese State Bureau of Surveying cited 759 cases of illegal geographical surveys and mapping in 2006 alone.

China is taking action. For example, the U.K.'s Royal Yachting Association is still waiting for the return of its $16,000 weather station from China's "secret police". According to Britian's Guardian newpaper, the device - which records humidity, wind strength and direction, and rainfall - is a common off-the-shelf unit. China claims it was a tool for "illegal meteorological surveys" by the RYA.
--Jason Kerkmans