“For non-war military activities, time is tight, the task is heavy and the seas are unfamiliar,” Feng told CCTV. “Putting these items to the test helps us test our ability to perform diversified military tasks.”
Such training allowed the Chinese navy to carry out more humanitarian work, he said.
CCTV said the simulation exercise tested the crew’s performance under time constraints and logistical challenges during evacuation missions.
The footage suggested the drills were held at the PLA naval base in Zhanjiang, in China’s southern Guangdong province, the headquarters of its South Sea Fleet.
Simulated security and identity checks under way as part of the mock evacuation. Photo: CCTV
China has been using humanitarian missions such as evacuation and peacekeeping missions to improve the image of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at home as well as overseas. In an English-language promotional video released last year for an international audience, the PLA described itself as a “peace-loving army”.
In May, the PLA Navy sent a supply ship and a Type 052D destroyer to Sudan to evacuate more than 1,000 Chinese as well as Brazilian and Pakistani nationals fleeing a deadly power struggle between rival generals.
It was the navy’s third such evacuation mission, after Libya in 2011 and Yemen in 2015 – with both crises triggered by civil war.
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