Strategy, plans, priorities . In 2004, over 80 percent of Chinese
crude oil imports transited the
Straits of Malacca, with less than 2 percent transiting the
Straits of Lombok. The People's Liberation Army Navy has become more prominent in recent years owing to a change in Chinese strategic priorities. The new strategic threats include possible conflict with the United States and/or a resurgent Japan in areas such as the
Taiwan Strait or the
South China Sea. As part of its overall program of naval modernization, the PLAN has a long-term plan of developing a
blue water navy.
Robert D. Kaplan has said that it was the
collapse of the Soviet Union that allowed China to transfer resources from its army to its navy and other force projection assets. China is constructing a major underground
nuclear submarine base near
Sanya, Hainan. In December 2007 the first
Type 094 submarine was moved to Sanya.
The Daily Telegraph on 1 May 2008 reported that tunnels were being built into hillsides which could be capable of hiding up to 20 nuclear submarines from spy satellites. According to the Western news media the base is reportedly to help China project seapower well into the Pacific Ocean area, including challenging United States naval power. During a 2008 interview with the BBC, Major General
Qian Lihua, a senior Chinese defence official, stated that the PLAN aspired to possess a small number of
aircraft carriers to allow it to expand China's air defence perimeter. According to Qian the important issue was not whether China had an aircraft carrier, but what it did with it. On 15 July 2009, Senator Jim Webb of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee declared that only the "United States has both the stature and the national power to confront the obvious imbalance of power that China brings" to situations such as the claims to the
Spratly and
Paracel islands. Ronald O'Rourke of the
Congressional Research Service wrote in 2009 that the PLAN "continues to exhibit limitations or weaknesses in several areas, including capabilities for sustained operations by larger formations in distant waters, joint operations with other parts of China’s military, C4ISR systems, anti-air warfare (AAW), antisubmarine warfare (ASW), MCM, and a dependence on foreign suppliers for certain key ship components." In 1998 China purchased the discarded Ukrainian ship
Varyag and began retrofitting it for naval deployment. On 25 September 2012, the People's Liberation Army Navy took delivery of China's first aircraft carrier,
Liaoning. The 60,000-ton ship can accommodate 33 fixed wing aircraft. It is widely speculated that these aircraft will be the
J15 fighter (the Chinese version of Russia's SU-33). In September 2015, satellite images showed that China may have started constructing its first indigenous
Type 002 aircraft carrier. At the time, the layout suggested to be displacement of 50,000 tons and a hull to have a length of about 240 m and a beam of about 35 m. On 28 April 2017 the carrier was launched as
Shandong. Japan has raised concerns about the PLAN's growing capability and the lack of transparency as its naval strength keeps on expanding. China has entered into service the world's first anti-ship ballistic missile called
DF-21D. The potential threat from the DF-21D against U.S.
aircraft carriers has reportedly caused major changes in U.S. strategy. On 28 June 2017 China launched the first of a new type of large destroyer, the
Type 055 destroyer. The destroyer – the
Nanchang – is, with its length of 180 m and at over 12,000 tons fully loaded, the second largest destroyer class in the world after the American
Zumwalt-class destroyer. Eight destroyers to this design, rated by the United States Navy as "cruisers", have been built or are under construction. As of 2025, the PLAN's six
Type 094 submarines are assigned 72 warheads on
JL-3 ballistic missiles, representing 12% of
China's nuclear stockpile. It is unclear how many if any nuclear warheads are actively deployed on submarines, or held in storage on land. China plans to upgrade this sea leg of its
nuclear triad with the
Type 096 submarine. — at 2 million tons in 2024, behind only the
United States Navy (USN) — and the largest navy globally by number of active sea-going ships (excluding coastal
missile boats,
gunboats and
minesweepers) with over 370
surface ships and
submarines in service, compared to approximately 292 ships and submarines in the USN. However, the Chinese fleets are much newer and smaller in tonnage, as about 70% of their warships were launched after 2010 and consist mostly of newly designed
destroyers,
frigates and
corvettes with only a few
amphibious warfare ships and the
three commissioned aircraft carriers, while only about 25% of the American ships were launched after 2010 and majority of their tonnage are from its eleven 100,000-ton
supercarriers, 21 large
amphibious assault ships and experimental
capital ships such as the
Zumwalt-class destroyers. The dominance of Chinese
shipbuilding capacity (over 232 times greater tonnage than the United States, according to the
Alliance for American Manufacturing) have led the
Office of Naval Intelligence to project that China will have 475 battle force ships by 2035, while the USN will have 305 to 317, which would put the United States in a numerical and operational disadvantage especially in the West Pacific according to a
chair naval strategy professor at the
Naval War College. Additionally, in December 2025, the
US Defense Department revealed that China was planning on constructing 6
Type 004 carriers by 2035, which would give them a total fleet size of 9 aircraft carriers, outnumbering the 6 carriers currently deployed in the entire
US Pacific Fleet. A 2019 review found the USN fleet was able to deploy more "battle force missiles" (BFMs), defined as those missiles that contribute to battle missions, than the PLAN: USN fleet could deploy 11,000 BFMs, compared to 5250 BFMs for PLAN and 3326 BFMs for the Russian Navy.
Territorial disputes Spratly Islands dispute The
Spratly Islands dispute is a
territorial dispute over the ownership of the
Spratly Islands, a group of islands located in the
South China Sea. States staking claims to various islands are Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, and People's Republic of China. All except Brunei occupy some of the islands in dispute. On 14 March 1988, Chinese and Vietnamese naval forces
clashed over
Johnson South Reef in the Spratly Islands, which involved three PLAN frigates. In February 2011, the Chinese frigate
Dongguan fired three shots at Philippine fishing boats in the vicinity of . The shots were fired after the frigate instructed the fishing boats to leave, and one of those boats experienced trouble removing its anchor.
Diaoyu Islands dispute The
Diaoyu Islands dispute concerns a territorial dispute over a group of
uninhabited islands known as the Diaoyu Islands in China, the
Senkaku Islands in Japan, and Tiaoyutai Islands in Taiwan. Aside from a 1945 to 1972
period of administration by the United States, the archipelago has been controlled by Japan since 1895. The People's Republic of China disputed the proposed U.S. handover of authority to Japan in 1971 and has asserted its claims to the islands since that time. Taiwan also has claimed these islands. The disputed territory is close to key shipping lanes and rich fishing grounds, and it may have major oil reserves in the area. On some occasions, ships and planes from various mainland Chinese and Taiwanese government and military agencies have entered the disputed area. In addition to the cases where they escorted fishing and activist vessels, there have been other incursions. In an eight-month period in 2012, over forty maritime incursions and 160 aerial incursions occurred. For example, in July 2012, three Chinese patrol vessels entered the disputed waters around the islands. Military escalation continued in 2013. In February, Japanese Defense Minister
Itsunori Onodera claimed that a Chinese frigate had
locked weapons-targeting radar onto a Japanese destroyer and helicopter on two occasions in January. A Chinese
Jiangwei II class frigate and a Japanese destroyer were three kilometres apart, and the crew of the latter vessel went to battle stations. The Chinese state media responded that their frigates had been engaged in routine training at the time.
Other incidents , 22 July 2011 During the 1974
Battle of the Paracel Islands, China, which previously controlled some Paracel Islands, defeated
South Vietnam, coming to control the entire achipelago. According to the
United States Naval Institute, it is one of the PLAN's most significant naval battles and amphibious operations, with lessons for future Taiwan and South China Sea operations, and is touted in China as the country's first victory against what it considers a foreign navy (i.e. not part of the Civil War or
Taiwan Strait Crises). On 22 July 2011, following its Vietnam port-call, the Indian amphibious assault vessel was reportedly contacted 45 nautical miles from the Vietnamese coast in the disputed South China Sea by a party identifying itself as the Chinese Navy and stating that the Indian warship was entering Chinese waters. According to a spokesperson for the
Indian Navy, since there were no Chinese ships or aircraft were visible, the INS
Airavat proceeded on her onward journey as scheduled. The Indian Navy further clarified that "[t]here was no confrontation involving the INS
Airavat. India supports freedom of navigation in international waters, including in the South China Sea, and the right of passage in accordance with accepted principles of international law. These principles should be respected by all." By 15 July, the frigate had been refloated and was returning to port with no injuries and only minor damage. During this incident, the 2012
ASEAN summit took place in
Phnom Penh, Cambodia, amid the rising regional tensions.
2011 Libyan Civil War In the lead-up to the
2011 Libyan Civil War, the
Xuzhou (530) was deployed from anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden to help evacuate Chinese nationals from Libya.
Yemen conflict During the
Yemen conflict, in 2015, the Chinese Navy diverted
frigates carrying out anti-piracy operations in Somalia to evacuate at least 600 Chinese and 225 foreign citizens working in Yemen. Among the non-Chinese evacuees were 176 Pakistani citizens, with smaller numbers from other countries, such as Ethiopia, Singapore, the UK, Italy, and Germany. Despite the evacuations, the Chinese embassy in Yemen continued to operate.
Ream Naval Base In July 2019, US officials stated that they had seen a secret agreement that would allow the People's Liberation Army Navy exclusive access to about one-third of the Ream naval base for up to 30 years. This would give Beijing a new base near the
South China Sea. The existence of the agreement was denied by Cambodian authorities who called it "fake news". ==Equipment==