Exhibition opens in PLA Navy's birthplace to mark anniversay

Special
Report:China Marks 60th
Anniversary of Navy

TAIZHOU, Jiangsu, April 29 (Xinhua) -- An exhibition on the history of the
Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy opened in east China's Taizhou City
Wednesday, where the CPC-led force announced the establishment of its own naval
force on April 23, 1949.

Liu Xiaojiang, political commissar of the PLA Navy, and Jiangsu provincial
Communist Party of China chief Liang Baohua and Governor Luo Zhijun attended the
opening ceremony on Wednesday.

A large photo showing President Hu Jintao, general secretary of the
Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, state president and chairman
of the Central Military Commission, at an international fleet review at Qingdao
Port, Shandong Province, on April 23 is on display.

Over the past 60 years, the PLA Navy has fought more than 1,200battles,
sunk, damaged or captured over 400 enemy warships, and downed or damaged more
than 500 enemy planes, said Lu Jialing, hall curator.

The PLA Navy was based on a surrendered fleet of the Kuomintang (KMT)
warships in Taizhou 60 years ago.

Taizhou has named local schools and public sites after the PLA Navy, and in
2002, the PLA Navy named one of its missile destroyers after the city.

The venue of the exhibition is Taizhou's PLA Navy memorial hall, which was
built by the city government in 1996, with an investment of 11.5 million yuan
(1.7 million U.S. dollars).