China gets paranoid about Coca-Cola GPS

In the latest bit of international shenanigans, the Chinese government has been harassing the Coca-Cola company due to their use of GPS.  Apparently, certain officials believe that the soda company’s marking of certain locations is actually a cover for spy operations, mapping out sensitive areas such as military installations.  The employees of Coca-Cola are, naturally, denying any such spying activities.

The main attack comes from officials in the YunnanProvince, a location near areas of the Chinese border that are in dispute with countries such as India, Pakistan and Bhutan.  As drivers have been cruising around and making their deliveries, they use the GPS systems to mark out better routes and thus improve their efficiency.  Chinese law, however, has some very strict rules regarding the use of any sort of devices that can be used to map or survey.

In their defense, Coca-Cola has said that they’re doing nothing more than using the GPS devices that everyone else buys in China and that accusations of spying are a bit off the deep end.  Still, they’ve stated that they’re willing to jump through whatever hoops the Chinese government puts in their way to prove their innocence. 

And it looks like Coke is winning out, although the investigation is still technically underway.  The Coca-Cola company is a pretty big money-maker in the country, so the government is likely going to speed the resolution of this one along.  Some are saying that the whole affair is little more than annual posturing by the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation (NASMG).  They make it a point to target a couple of foreigners every year when they publically grandstand their department’s progress.  Coke makes a nice high-profile target when they boast of how well they’re doing their job.

It’s also possible that they really are that paranoid about the company working in secret for the U.S. government.  Considering the hacking and cyber security disputes that have been going on recently, including one that involves Coca-Cola being hacked by reportedly Chinese sources, any allegations of espionage could be taken seriously.  So Coke may not be completely out of hot water just yet.

Chinese Coca-Cola photo courtesy of Anna Frodesiak via Wikicommons