BEIJING: The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy celebrated its 72nd birthday on Friday.
A US-shot image has become the “Easter egg” of a commemorative photo gallery published by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy on its 72nd birthday on Friday. Experts said it reveals the PLA Navy’s “blue ocean” path and that the US Navy should not be surprised about increasing encounters with the Chinese Navy in the future.
According to the content from the abstracts of the photo gallery published on the PLA Navy’s WeChat public account on Friday, the PLA Navy is trying to show its 72 years of transformation, from small fishing boats to an independently built aircraft carrier, through 72 photos since 1949.
The “Easter egg” that appears in the photo collection is an image released by the US Navy on April 11, which recorded two US officers sitting on the USS Mustin watching China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier a few thousand meters away in a very relaxed manner even with one officer’s feet up.
The picture was seen as a provocative sign by some observers, amid the increasing tensions in the Taiwan Straits and the South China Sea, as some media said it shows US Navy treating its Chinese counterpart “lightly.”The caption for the picture on the PLA Navy’s birthday gallery, however, describes it simply as “the PLA navy’s aircraft carrier Liaoning having a close encounter with a US navy destroyer in the Philippine Sea,” pointing out that the Liaoning’s patrol was a routine exercise.
Meanwhile, the US Navy’s caption reads “the captain and the executive officer of the USS Mustin observe the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning in the Philippine Sea on April 4.”
“The people’s navy is guarding the vast maritime frontiers of the motherland with greater strength,” reads the PLA Navy photo gallery.
– The Daily Mail-Global Times News exchange item
