China honours Nanchang destroyer as ‘role model’ and hails role in ‘fending off foreign military provocation’

The Type 055 stealth warship was sent to monitor a foreign carrier group during a 2022 exercise in the Pacific, according to state media

The ship was reported to have tracked foreign warplanes throughout the incident in the Pacific ‘in the face of long-time, high-intensity harassment’

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The Nanchang was the PLA Navy’s first Type 055 Renhai class destroyer to enter service. Photo: PLA Navy

Published: 8:00pm, 8 Jan 2024Updated: 8:07pm, 8 Jan 2024

China’s Communist Party has honoured one of its most advanced guided-missile destroyers as a “role model of the times” for a series of missions, including an incident where it “fended off foreign military provocation” during a combat drill.

The People’s Liberation Army Type 055 destroyer, which was commissioned in 2020, was given the title on Sunday by the Communist Party Central Committee’s Publicity Department, according to state news agency Xinhua.

The ship is part of the strike group led by the country’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning.

In a training mission with the Liaoning, the Nanchang consecutively maintained combat status for more than 20 days and fended off foreign military provocations head-on, the report said.

During a training exercise in the western Pacific in 2022, the Nanchang was ordered to sail out to face directly a carrier formation from an unnamed foreign country, according to the state broadcaster CCTV.

It was the first time the destroyer had encountered such a formation and “in the face of long-time, high-intensity harassment”, it “expanded the depth of defence, ensured the space for manoeuvre and effectively fulfilled the sacred duty of guarding the carrier formation”, CCTV said.

“When the foreign military aircraft gradually made approaches, our early warning and detection systems tracked and locked on them through their entire courses. We firmly and strongly fended off foreign military provocations,” Zhou Yinlong, a crew member, told the broadcaster.