(TibetanReview.net, May09’19) – Anxious to ensure that its growing naval might reflects its past territorial gains and future ambitions, China has named one of its latest naval destroyers after Tibet’s capital Lhasa and is to name an upcoming acquisition after Taiwan’s capital Taipei, according to a globaltimes.cn report May 6.
The report said that at the maritime parade in Qingdao, East China’s Shandong Province in late April to celebrate the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s 70th anniversary, the PLA Navy confirmed that it has named its first Type 055 destroyer Nanchang, the capital city of East China’s Jiangxi Province.
Citing Upolitics, a public WeChat account run by Beijing Youth Daily, the report continued that one of the three other Type 055 destroyers will be named Lhasa.
The report continued that with other provincial capital names being used by other destroyers, the naming of the Nanchang and Lhasa left only Nanning and Taipei available.
The report cited military experts as saying that China was running out of provincial capitals to name new destroyers, and it might have to turn to other big domestic cities, reflecting the country’s rapid naval development in recent years.