Sunday marks the 68th anniversary of the establishment of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy.
On April 23, 1949, the leading organ of the navy of the East China Military Area Command was set up in Baima town of east China's Jiangsu Province.
Since its establishment, the Chinese navy has been speeding up its process of modernization, in terms of both the quality of its equipment and the skills of its personnel.
Following is a brief history of the development of the PLA Navy:
The PLA Navy force consists of about 235,000 personnel and is organized into three fleets – East Sea Fleet, South Sea Fleet, and Beihai Fleet – which were set up between 1955 to 1960.
Participating in international peacekeeping has also become an important task for the Chinese navy. Since the navy started escort missions in December 2008, China has sent out 26 batches, 86 ships, nearly 22,000 personnel, and escorted more than 6,300 Chinese and foreign ships.
The PLA Navy is mainly composed of surface ships, submarines, aircraft, coastal defense wings and Marine Corps.
