Ten breakthroughs of China’s military diplomacy in 2014

In 2014, the Chinese military played a more active role in assuming the responsibilities of a major country, deepened its relations with the militaries of many countries, aired its voices more loudly, and carried out military drills in a more practical way. If we have to summarize China's military diplomacy in 2014 with one sentence, the best choice may be "military shows more major-country style".

NO.1 Unprecedented efforts in searching for missing Malaysia Airlines passenger plane

Event playback: The Malaysia Airlines MH370 lost contact with ground control soon after it took off in Kuala Lumpur on March 8 this year. The Chinese military immediately coordinated with the militaries of relevant countries and assigned troops to search for the missing plane.

Reason for listing: The Chinese military assigned 2,273 people and mobilized nine naval vessels, six ship-borne helicopters and five Air Force planes from March 8 to May 1 to consistently search for the missing plane at the Gulf of Thailand, southwest of Sumatra, the South Indian Ocean and other sea areas.

During that period, the Chinese military searched for a total mileage of 50,000 nautical miles, equivalent to travelling around the earth more than twice, searched about one million sq km of sea areas, scanned 12,676-sq-km underwater areas with sonar, and covered tens of millions of sq km with satellite surveillance.

The No.872 naval vessel carried out a 157-day-long normal search in the South Indian Ocean from April 27 to September 20, completing 63,574-km mileage and multi-beam topography measurement of 42,000 sq km. This is an unprecedentedly extensive and massive search undertaken by the Chinese military.

NO.2 PLAN held annual meeting of West Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS) for the first time

Event playback: The annual meeting of the 14th WPNS was held in Qingdao in April 22-23, 2014, which was joined by more than 150 naval leaders and representatives from 25 countries.

Reason for listing: Founded in 1987, the WPNS is now the only regular naval symposium of multilateral dialogue and cooperation in the Western Pacific region. This was the first time that the Navy of the People's Liberation Army (PLAN) held this symposium, at which the revised Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES) was passed, playing a positive role in safeguarding regional security and stability.

NO.3 Naval vessels had first round tour in Africa

Event playback: The PLAN vessel taskforce had a round tour in Africa from May 5 to June 20, 2014, visiting eight countries in succession, including Tunisia, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Cameroon, Angola, Namibia and South Africa.

Reason for listing: This is the first African round tour made by the PLAN taskforce. Of the eight countries it visited, seven of them were visited by PLAN vessels for the first time except South Africa.

2014 marked the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and many African countries. The African round tour made by the PLAN taskforce deepened mutual understanding and trust between China and the host countries and strongly promoted the new-type China-Africa strategic partnership.

NO.4 Mechanized joint exercises were closer to real combat

Event playback: The "Peace Mission" and "Joint Maritime" exercises are systematic China-foreign joint exercises with substantial influence in recent years. When the "Joint Maritime 2014" joint exercise was carried out in the sea area and air space north of the East China Sea in May 20-26 this year, China and Russia assigned 14 surface vessels of various types, two conventional submarines, nine fix-wing aircraft, and forces including ship-borne helicopters and special operation units.

The "Peace Mission-2014" joint anti-terror exercise of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was held at the Zhurihe training base in September 24-29, 2014. China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan assigned over 7,000 soldiers to the joint exercise.

Reason for listing: Compared with previous exercises, both joint exercises this year had new breakthroughs with notable progress in coordination and real-combat capacity.

During the "Joint Maritime 2014" exercise, China and Russia mixed up all of their participating vessels for the first time, organized the first beyond-visual-range (BVR) attack and defense drill with surface vessels serving each other, and organized the first back-to-back confrontation drill with submarines, vessels and airplanes serving each other. These "firsts" made the exercise much more difficult and highlighted the enhancement of core military capability.

Focused on exploring the new model of precise anti-terror operations, the "Peace Mission - 2014" joint exercise excelled previous ones in IT application and the level of information-based warfare. It was the first time that the Chinese military assigned reconnaissance-strike integrated unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and female special operational members to participate in the SCO joint exercise.

NO.5 PLAN participated in RIMPAC exercise for the first time

Event playback: The Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise is the largest-scale multilateral maritime joint military exercise in the world today. The "RIMPAC-2014" joint exercise participated by 22 countries was held in Hawaii from June 26 to August 1 this year. The PLAN assigned four surface vessels, two helicopters, one diving unit, one special operation unit and one medical unit to the exercise, totaling over 1,100 officers and men.

Reason for listing: The PLAN's first participation in the RIMPAC exercise was an important step toward building the new-type major-country relationship and military relationship between China and the US It will play a positive role in pushing China's friendly cooperation with the US and other Asian-Pacific countries and enhancing the PLAN's capability to carry out diversified military tasks.