Three new vessels at Sanya Naval Base are commissioned into the PLAN. (CCTV)
Coinciding with the 72nd anniversary of its founding, on 23 April the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) commissioned three warships emblematic of its naval ambitions – a Type 075 LHD, a Type 055 guided-missile cruiser and a Type 094 SSBN.
Commissioning three capital vessels in one go is unprecedented, and their total tonnage comes to at least 60,000t. Such a figure eclipses the naval fleets of several regional countries such as the Philippines.
Chairman Xi Jinping attended the commissioning ceremony at Sanya Naval Base on Hainan Island, with all three entering the navy’s South Sea Fleet.
Alarmingly, a headline in
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