PLA Navy celebrates 75th founding anniversary
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy holds open day events in multiple coastal cities across China around Tuesday to mark the 75th anniversary of its founding, with numerous people getting onboard advanced warships to enjoy the moment of pride and patriotism with naval officers.
Military experts said the Chinese navy will keep developing and getting more powerful in the future to meet the demand of safeguarding the nation and world peace.
April 23 marks the 75th anniversary of the PLA Navy. From Saturday to Wednesday, the public in Qingdao will be able to tour the missile destroyers Guiyang, Shijiazhuang and Kaifeng, missile frigate Handan, supply ship Kekexilihu, and submarine rescue vessel Hongzehu at the pier 3 and the Qingdao International Sailing Center pier.
Most of the other naval vessels have been involved in major missions such as escort missions in the Gulf of Aden authorized by the UN Security Council, overseas port visits and joint exercises, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Tuesday.
In addition to Qingdao, the navy said it would organize simultaneous open day activities at its barracks in other cities, including Dalian, Yantai, Ningbo, Wuhan, Xiamen, Guangzhou, Haikou and Sanya.
Apart from the open day events, at the ongoing 19th Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS), Commander of the PLA Navy Hu Zhongming delivered a speech on Tuesday and proposed “four-point initiative” to the commanders and senior delegates from navies around the globe. In order to realize sustainable peace, security and prosperity on the sea, the navies of different countries must work together and cooperate with sincerity, and to keep contributing positive influences of the naval forces around the globe, Hu noted.
First, to have close communication and exchanges, to reinforce the foundation of mutual trust; second, to promote quality and efficiency of cooperation, and to push joint development; third, to strengthen operation coordination, and to safeguard the maritime security; fourth, to increase public goods and improve maritime welfare, Hu said. Military experts said the initiative shows China’s sincerity to peacefully use its naval strength to contribute to world peace, but some Western countries, especially the US and a few of its allies, hype the “China threat” rhetoric by distorting China’s intention of developing a strategic naval force, and the real reason is that these countries found that their maritime hegemony is unable to maintain dominance because of the powerful Chinese navy.
“China is facing serious potential threat from the most powerful naval forces in regions like the South China Sea and the Taiwan Straits in recent years, as the US is increasing its military presence in relevant waters to encourage the Taiwan secessionists and threaten China’s sovereignty by using its ally the Philippines to provoke China. In addition, China has increasing overseas interests and nationals that need protection, so it’s very reasonable and legitimate for China to develop a more powerful navy,” said a Chinese military expert who asked for anonymity.
The PLA Navy has gained multiple achievements and has brought many good news in the past one year to the people who are paying attention to the development of China’s maritime military strength.
On Monday, the PLA Navy released the first video with the theme about the submarine force. The video includes the scene about the launching of JL intercontinental-range submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), with some observers speculating that the SLBM could the JL-2, and this could be the first video scene about JL2. Senior Captain Tang Li, an expert at the PLA Naval Research Academy, told the Global Times on Monday that the video has showed many details about real combat drills with the support of a massive system.