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In May 1993, as a member of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces student delegation,
I went on the National Defense University’s annual trip to the People’s Republic of China and visited the Guangzhou Naval Surface Warfare Ship Academy, outside the old Pearl River city of Canton, now Guangzhou.
The Academy provides basic military training similar to that offered at the U.S. Naval Academy. Founded in 1977, it has been reorganized several times and its curriculum upgraded to give its cadets the basic education they need to perform effectively as junior officers in the Chinese Navy surface combatant force.
We were greeted by a PL A Navy band and full honor guard of cadets and briefed by the Rear Admiral who commanded the Academy. Following the briefing and the customary exchange of mementos, we were given a tour throughout the main classroom building of their undergraduate school. The Commandant and Assistant Commandant, also a rear admiral, accompanied us. Our tour guides were civilian female instructors—wearing naval uniforms—who taught English at the
Academy and spoke excellent American-style English. Although the school is land-locked, it did exhibit a nautical flair in its buildings, campus layout, parade and athletic fields, and of course with the uniforms and dress of its spit- and-polish cadets.
The Academy enrolls promising
young seamen conscripts from the fleet, as well as civilians who have graduated from the senior middle schools (high schools). Approximately 1,000 students, including some female cadets, attend the four-year course. The cadets study political thought, science and culture, and naval professional subjects, and take part in physical training—all in a disciplined environment. They also study the design and organization of their
fleet’s combatant ships and small craft and learn how to employ the missiles and guns of their ships, including the ability to demonstrate appropriate command-and-control targeting abilities from over the horizon. Maintenance, amphibious, and logistics skills are taught at other naval schools. Great emphasis appears to be placed on acquiring celestial navigation, coastal piloting, and basic shiphandling skills.
Upon graduation, cadets are granted the scholar degree and posted to the PLA fleet as sublieutenants (lieutenant junior grade) fof a year of service on a destroyer-type ship. Following a successful year in the fleet, those chosen to become commanding officers will be appointed skippers of missile craft, torpedo boats, and other escort craft.
The Academy also provides specialty training for destroyer department heads and staff officers, as well as the prospective commanding officers of the numerous small combatants in the PLA Navy. Those selected for the destroyer department-head training must have three years of sea duty before attending the department- head curriculum for the requisite year. Upon graduation, these officers could be assigned to destroy-
The Guangzhou Academy trains junior officers for the steadily expanding People’s Liberation Army Navy, as well as providing specialty training for destroyer department heads and staff officers.
eJ'S’ Agates, or large auxiliary s ips as department heads or exec- utlVe officers.
The Academy also offers a postgraduate degree program, which ‘l es the junior officers completing
ofrr comi)atant crafr commanding 0 ‘icer tours and gives them addi- '°nal studies in naval tactical the- ary. commanding larger ships, or cadquarters operations. Upon comP etion, graduates eventually could ® assigned as commanding officers
guided-missile destroyers or Agates or to a major headquarters s aff officer position.
i ne classrooms were large and austere, with big wooden desks for e cadets. I noted a foreign lan- §Uage laboratory with audio train- |ng aids, a tactical training simula- 0r for multiple-ship maneuvering, jjn<1 a command-and-control ship- 0ard simulator for coordinating aussile attacks against an underway essel from a shore command post 0 a missile-launching ship—also ander way. Computers available for adet use were programmed to dis- P ay English as well as Chinese.
The Academy has ship-handling ra|ners similar to the civilian contactor-operated ship-handling fa- v! ’ty used by the U.S. Navy in Newport, Rhode Island. The Chi- J'ese facility was relatively rudimentary, but could give the cadets sense of confidence in their abil- y to judge relative motion and ^Peed through the water as they ^ udied practical ship-handling. As acently as 1985, when I was the ead, Seamanship and Shiphan- lng Training Department, Naval ^[flphibious School, Little Creek, ,rginia, we did not have a computer-aided helm, engine order- j-frgraph bridge simulator like e one at Guangzhou. In fact, the
U.S. Navy did not have full-time access to this type of shore-based, computer-aided pilot-house training capability until the mid-to- late 1980s.
Time did not permit us to visit other training laboratories where cadets studied antisubmarine warfare, surface torpedo attacks, and gunnery systems.
The art of celestial navigation was reinforced by an ingenious, Chinese-Navy designed, mechanical-device planetarium where cadets could shoot the stars and determine their position without looking at real stars outside. With the predominantly cloudy and seasonal monsoon-dominated weather conditions off the South China coast, the school’s emphasis on basic coastal piloting, radio navigation, and celestial training could keep a young commanding officer off the shoals.
The cadets have access to several soccer fields a track and field facility, a night-lighted general purpose field, and a large swimming pool with diving platforms. We were told there were some 300 instructors, including more than 70 associate and full professors and 100 lecturers in contact with the students. Some of these staff personnel are involved with directed research projects from other naval activities and academies. Naval engineering is not taught at Guangzhou, but the Academy apparently has earned a good reputation among its peers for its large number of research papers and translation services.
The cadets operate under the strict discipline as laid down by the central military commission and the Academy insists on developing its cadets morally, intellectually,
and physically. The system has provided the PLA Navy with large numbers of qualified commanding officers over the years. The graduates have participated in numerous national military projects, ranging from assignments at the South Pole doing polar research to visiting foreign nations to sea duty in the remote coastal regions of China.
The Guangzhou Academy is responsible for training the junior officer to stand a watch in the slowly, but steadily expanding PLA Navy. While much of the Chinese Navy may be considered relatively coastal by nature, it does have the training and capability to make lengthy blue-water excursions out-of-area. The Chinese were justifiably proud that they had sent several ships to Hawaii and had demonstrated their ability to make a major out-of-area deployment. This achievement and others were proudly displayed in the Academy museum.
We were unable to visit any PLA Navy ships, but the esprit de corps, friendliness, hospitality, and congeniality of our Chinese Navy hosts most certainly would be conveyed to any U.S. Navy ship making a port visit to mainland China. Reinstitution of military relationships, including high-level military visits, professional military education exchanges, and port visits would foster closer relations between our nations and in times of increased international tension could lessen potential problems.
Captain O’Neil, a surface warfare officer, is the commanding officer. Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek, Virginia. A frequent contributor to Proceedings, he attended the Industrial College of the Armed Forces 1992-1993.