Topic summary
People's Liberation Army Navy
The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is the maritime service branch of the People's Liberation Army. The world's largest navy by number of vessels, it maintains more than 700 warships and support vessels as of 2024. Composed of the Surface Force, the Submarine Force, the Coastal Defense Force, the Marine Corps and the Naval Air Force, the PLAN has a total strength of 384,000 personnel, including 55,000 marines and 50,000 naval aviation personnel. PLAN units are deployed among the North Sea, East Sea and South Sea fleets, under the Northern, Eastern and Southern PLA theater commands, respectively.
The PLAN was formally established on 23 April 1949 and traces its lineage to maritime fighting units during the Chinese Civil War, including many elements of the Republic of China Navy which had defected. Until the late 1980s, the PLAN was largely a brown-water navy mostly in charge of coastal defense and patrol against potential Nationalist amphibious invasions and territorial waters disputes, roles now largely relegated to the China Coast Guard. The collapse of the Soviet Union ended a tense border confrontation, and China shifted towards more forward-oriented foreign policy in the 1990s. This included renewed attention to the PLAN, moving toward a green-water navy operating in the marginal seas within the range of coastal air parity.
In the 21st century, the PLAN has modernized, transitioning to a blue-water navy, aiming to operate up to the Pacific's second island chain. China operates 68 submarines, a similar number to the United States Navy, and of which 12 are nuclear-powered. China has commissioned three aircraft carriers since 2012; its latest, the Fujian, is its first indigenously designed and CATOBAR-capable carrier. The PLAN's Type 094 submarines are assigned 72 warheads on JL-3ballistic missiles, representing 12% of China's nuclear stockpile.