Prasun K. Sengupta

For the Peoples’ Liberation Army’s Navy (PLAN), April 23 became a red-letter day. President Xi Jinping, also General Secretary of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Commission presided over the commissioning ceremony of the sixth Type 09-IV ballistic missile-carrying SSBN Changzheng (Long March) 18 (hull number 421), the third Type 055 guided-missile destroyer (DDG) Dalian (hull number 105), and the first Type 075 helicopter carrier (LHD) Hainan (hull number 31) at Sanya in Hainan Island.

President Xi Jinping at the commissioning ceremony at Sanya, Hainan, on April 23

April 23, incidentally, was also the PLAN’s 72nd anniversary. This was the first time in the PLAN’s history that three vessels had been commissioned on the same day. The last time Xi attended the commissioning ceremony of a PLAN warship was in December 2019, when the Shandong (hull number 17)—the navy’s second aircraft carrier and the first such vessel wholly designed and built in China—was commissioned at the Longpo naval base in Sanya, which alon