The PLA at Home and Abroad - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

The most dramatic innovations in satellite applications
are in PLAN operations themselves. At a April
29 symposium to welcome the first deployment home,
General Political Department Director and CMC member
Li Jinai praised the PLAN for “active exploration
of the new ‘shore and ship integrated’ political work
mode.” This has entailed shifting from transmission of
political materials via “plain code telegraph” (明码电
报) (a process that once took as long as an entire day
during a month-long deployment) to more sophisticated
satellite communications. The deployment witnessed
many other firsts, including “a communication
satellite [being] used to provide 24-hour coverage for
the oceangoing formation . . . shipborne helicopters
[being] used to provide surveillance on battlefield situations,
and . . . the formation [being] connected to the
Internet.” 116 A web-based IP communication network
was developed to allow crewmembers to call any land
line or cell phone in mainland China. 117
In 2002, the PLAN sent Luhu-class guided-missile
destroyer Qingdao (#113) and composite supply ship
Taicang (#575), and 506 crew members on a global circumnavigation.
During their 132-days, 33,000 kilometers
voyage, “the Navy utilized telecommunications
technologies for the first time to send domestic and
international news to the formation.” The PLAN refers
to this new information transmission method as
“cross-ocean ‘information supply’” (“跨越大洋的 ‘信
息补给’”).
For the December 2008 mission, Wu Shengli and
Liu Xiaojiang, PLAN Commander and Political Commissar,
demanded “comprehensive coverage, all-time
linkage, and full-course support” (全面覆盖, 全时链接,
全程保障). The PLAN Political Department worked
with the PLAN Headquarters Communications De-
321