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China Navy
Although naval personnel comprised only 12 percent of PLA
strength, the PLA Navy ranked in 1987 as the third largest navy in
the world. In 1987 the Navy consisted of the naval headquarters in
Beijing; three fleet commands--the North Sea Fleet, based at
Qingdao, Shandong Province; the East Sea Fleet, based at Shanghai;
and the South Sea Fleet, based at Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province--
and about 2,000 ships. The 350,000-person Navy included Naval Air
Force units of 34,000 men, the Coastal Defense Forces of 38,000,
and the Marine Corps of 56,500. Navy Headquarters, which controlled
the three fleet commands, was subordinate to the PLA General Staff
Department.
China's 1,500-kilometer coastline was protected by more than
100 diesel-powered Romeo- and Whiskey-class submarines, which could
remain at sea only a limited time. Inside this protective ring and
within range of shore-based aircraft were destroyers and frigates
mounting Styx antiship missiles, depth-charge projectors, and guns
up to 130mm. Any invader penetrating the destroyer and frigate
protection would be swarmed by almost 900 fast-attack craft. Stormy
weather could limit the range of these small boats, however, and
curtail air support. Behind the inner ring were Coastal Defense
Force personnel operating naval shore batteries of Styx missiles
and guns, backed by ground force units deployed in depth.
In 1949 Mao asserted that "to oppose imperialist aggression, we
must build a powerful navy." The Naval Academy was set up at Dalian
in March 1950, mostly with Soviet instructors. The Navy was
established in September 1950 by consolidating regional naval
forces under General Staff Department command. It then consisted of
a motley collection of ships and boats acquired from the Guomindang
forces. The Naval Air Force was added two years later. By 1954 an
estimated 2,500 Soviet naval advisers were in China--possibly one
adviser to every thirty Chinese naval personnel--and the Soviet
Union began providing modern ships. With Soviet assistance, the
navy reorganized in 1954 and 1955 into the North Sea Fleet, East
Sea Fleet, and South Sea Fleet, and a corps of admirals and other
naval officers was established from the ranks of the ground forces.
In shipbuilding the Soviets first assisted the Chinese, then the
Chinese copied Soviet designs without assistance, and finally the
Chinese produced vessels of their own design. Eventually Soviet
assistance progressed to the point that a joint Sino-Soviet Pacific
Ocean fleet was under discussion.
Through the upheavals of the late 1950s and 1960s the Navy
remained relatively undisturbed. Under the leadership of Minister
of National Defense Lin Biao, large investments were made in naval
construction during the frugal years immediately after the Great
Leap Forward. During the Cultural Revolution, a number of top naval
commissars and commanders were purged, and naval forces were used
to suppress a revolt in Wuhan in July 1967, but the service largely
avoided the turmoil. Although it paid lip service to Mao and
assigned political commissars aboard ships, the Navy continued to
train, build, and maintain the fleets.
In the 1970s, when approximately 20 percent of the defense
budget allocated to naval forces, the Navy grew dramatically. The
conventional submarine force increased from 35 to 100 boats, the
number of
missile-carrying ships grew from 20 to 200, and the production of
larger surface ships, including support ships for oceangoing
operations, increased. The Navy also began development of nuclearpowered attack submarines (SSN) and nuclear-powered ballistic
missile submarines (SSBN).
In the 1980s the Navy was developing into a regional naval
power with some blue-water capabilities. Naval construction
continued at a level somewhat below the 1970s rate. Modernization
efforts encompassed higher educational and technical standards for
personnel; reformulation of the traditional coastal defense
doctrine and force structure in favor of more blue-water
operations; and training in naval combined-arms operations
involving submarine, surface, naval aviation, and coastal defense
forces. Examples of the expansion of China's blue-water naval
capabilities were the 1980 recovery of an intercontinental
ballistic missile (ICBM) in the Western Pacific by a twenty-ship
fleet, extended naval operations in the South China Sea in 1984 and
1985, and the visit of two naval ships to three South Asian nations
in 1985. In 1982 the Navy conducted a successful test of an
underwater-launched ballistic missile; in 1986 the Navy's order of
battle included two Xia-class SSBNs armed with twelve CSS-NX-4
missiles and three Han-class SSNs armed with six SY-2 cruise
missiles. The Navy also had some success in developing a variety of
ship-to-ship, ship-to-shore, shore-to-ship, and air-to-ship
missiles. In the late 1980s, major deficiencies reportedly remained
in antisubmarine warfare, mine warfare, naval electronics
(including electronic countermeasures equipment), and naval
aviation capabilities.
Data as of July 1987
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