Chinese Type 071-Class Amphibious Ships Accompany Dedicated Training Ships In Unescorted Training Deployments Around South China Sea

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The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has immense manpower needs and must, therefore, constantly train new personnel to replenish its ranks. To do so, the PLAN possesses two purpose-built training ships, an auxiliary training ship, as well as a tall ship/sailing ship. While it is customary for Chinese and foreign training ships to undertake solo deployments that entail stops at foreign ports, the PLAN has, in recent months, bolstered its ability to train its midshipmen by assigning a Type 071-class landing platform dock (LPD)—a large amphibious warship—to accompany its purpose-built training ships on training deployments in an around the South China Sea. Beyond the novelty of employing Type 071-class LPDs in this role, these deployments notably do not feature the assignment of one or more PLAN destroyers or frigates, or even a modest PLAN Type 056A-class corvette, as an armed escort.

The Chinese military recently announced that a three-ship formation composed of the purpose-built training ship Zheng He (81), the Type 071-class LPD Chang Baishan (989), and the large troopship Xu Xiake (88) with over 2100 embarked sailors and midshipmen—naval officers in training—departed Qingdao for a training deployment that will include ports of call in Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia. This follows the recently concluded 45-day training deployment of the purpose-built training ship Qi Juguang (83) and the Type 071-class LPD Yimeng Shan (988) to the South China Sea that included ports of call in Hong Kong, Cambodia, Thailand, and Singapore.

The PLAN’s willingness to dispatch such large numbers of personnel on minimally armed ships on fairly distant deployments without armed escorts is suggestive of muted Chinese threat perceptions in and around the South China Sea. While these multi-ship training deployments are formally characterized as such, in June 2025, a solitary Type 071-class LPD made a solo trip across the South China Sea to Brunei after having participated in a bilateral training event with Cambodia, which itself constituted a solo trip to a foreign port. It remains to be seen whether the PLAN’s eight large Type 071-class LPDs, which have ample berthing to accommodate hundreds of midshipmen, will regularly undertake such training deployments, which will inherently affect the readiness of the PLAN’s LPDs and associated Type 075-class landing helicopter docks (LHDs) to quickly sortie out to sea with a full complement of embarked PLAN Marine Corps personnel in times of crisis and war.

As for the PLAN’s fleet of training ships, it remains to be seen whether the large troopship Xu Xiake (88) and its sistership Lee Daoyuan (89) will become a regular presence at foreign ports in support of training deployments. These troopships have historically been primarily used to provide accommodations for personnel involved in the development of China’s growing aircraft carrier force. More generally, the purpose-built training ship Zheng He (81) was commissioned 38 years ago and may be replaced in the near future. It is possible, even likely, that one or more new training ships will be built to operate alongside the much newer purpose-built training ship Qi Jiguang, which was only commissioned in 2017. If and when such a development comes to pass, the PLAN will be able to maintain its LPDs in reserve so as to fulfill their primary function of undertaking rapid sorties out to sea with a full complement of embarked PLAN Marine Corps personnel in times of crisis and war.