Backgrounder: Brief history of China's People's Liberation Army Navy

• Source: Xinhua
• [10:20 April 16 2009]

BEIJING, April 15 (Xinhua) -- More than 40 naval vessels will join a grand international fleet on April 23 in a display to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of China's People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).

The PLAN is mainly composed of submarines, surface ships, aircraft, Marine Corps and coastal defense wings.

Following is a brief history of the development of the PLAN based on PLAN reports:

April 23, 1949 -- Mao Zedong, then chairman of the Chinese People's Revolutionary Military Committee, and PLA commander-in-chief Zhu De asserted that the country "must build its own air forces and navy in order to boost national defense." The day was later regarded as the birthday of the PLAN.

The early PLAN traced its lineage to 183 units of the Kuomintang's coastal defense fleet abandoned, defected or surrendered to the PLA.

* November 22, 1949 -- The PLAN established the Dalian Naval Academy.

* 1949-1955 -- The PLAN set up the surface ship force, coastal defense force, aviation, submarine force and Marine Corps, and established the objective of building a light maritime combat force.

The PLAN set up its first flotilla of frigates in November 1949,first artillery battalion in 1950, first flotilla of torpedo boats in 1951, first flotilla of destroyers and submarines and the first division of naval air force in 1954.

In the country's first five-year plan from 1953 to 1957, China spent an enormous amount of money purchasing a number of aircraft, coastal artillery, and combat ships including destroyers, submarines, and torpedo boats. The country also bought technologies and materials from overseas countries to build modern frigates in the middle of the 1950s.

By 1955, the PLAN boasted more than 800 vessels, 515 aircraft, and 600 anti-aircraft guns.

From the 1950s to the end of the 1970s, the main task of the PLAN was to conduct inshore defensive operations.

* 1951 -- The PLAN set up 13 coastal artillery regiments by the end of 1951.

* 1953 -- Mao Zedong declared that "China's navy must have jumbo ships" while visiting the Luoyang frigate.

* 1954 -- The PLAN set up its first division of Marine Corps in December 1954. The division was cancelled in 1957.

* 1955-1960 -- The PLAN established the Donghai Fleet, Nanhai Fleet and Beihai Fleet, successively.

* 1957 -- The PLAN established ten academies and six preparatory schools and had provided professional training for more than 14,900 military officers and 21,500 soldiers by the end of 1957.

* 1960s -- The PLAN gradually replaced its coastal anti-aircraft guns with missiles.

* 1971 -- China launched its first self-designed conventional powered submarine.

* 1974 -- The PLAN's first nuclear submarine was put into service.

* Post-1978 -- The reform and opening-up drive in 1978 helped China upgrade its technology levels. The PLAN also accelerated its modernization process.