In part one of this short series on China’s maritime diplomacy, we discussed the history of China’s naval goodwill visits and the possible benefits of them, namely, to improve China’s public image, to foster relations with host governments, and to demonstrate the PLA Navy’s progress in modernisation. It was also suggested that goodwill visits could allow PLA naval vessels to visit prospective bases overseas.
One element of China’s maritime diplomacy not discussed in detail, however, was the so-called ‘Harmonious Missions’ conducted by the PLA Navy’s 300-bed hospital ship Daishan Dao (岱山岛), also known as Peace Ark (和平方舟) during peacetime.
Since 2010, Peace Ark has successfully completed nine Harmonious Missions, totalling over 250 days moored in the ports of more than forty countries, primarily to provide free medical services, from outpatient visits and physical examinations to surgical treatment, CT scans, ECG scans, lab tests, and more.
The diplomatic significance of the Harmonious Missions should not go underestimated. The provision of free medical services is an effective way of cultivating a positive public image. It can also help improve bilateral relations with the host government. In addition, because hospital ships are non-combat vessels, Peace Ark’s visits are non-threatening and may be more favourably received by some countries.
Initially, the geographic reach of Peace Ark’s Harmonious Missions were limited to one area, such as the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, or the Caribbean. For example, for Harmonious Mission-2010, Peace Ark visited Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania, Seychelles, and Bangladesh, all of which are accessible from the Indian Ocean.
As time went on, however, the missions became more ambitious. For example, Harmonious Mission-2017 saw Peace Ark depart from Zhoushan in China, travel to Djibouti via Sri Lanka, circumnavigate the continent of Africa, cross the Indian Ocean to East Timor before returning to China.
The mission had eight official port calls for the purposes of providing medical services, with two replenishment stops in Sri Lanka and Spain (medical services were still provided in Sri Lanka1). According to analysis of the mission, an average of more than 1000 patients were received onboard every day2.
Whilst most countries have been visited by Peace Ark just one time, there are some countries that have been visited multiple times, such as Indonesia, Vanuatu, and Tonga, who have all been visited three times each.
China is not the only country that uses its hospital ships on goodwill missions. For example, the US sends its hospital ships USNS Mercy and Comfort on missions as part of the ‘Pacific Partnership’ and ‘Continuing Promise’ missions, which began in 20063 and 2007 respectively4 .
Unlike the Pacific Partnership, which focuses solely on regions around the Indo-Pacific, and Continuing Promise, which focuses on Latin America, Peace Ark’s Harmonious Missions are not conducted within a specific region. This makes it easier to speculate the possible political motivation for each mission by assessing the choice of destination.
For example, in 2023, Peace Ark journeyed to the South Pacific for its first multi-stop Harmonious Mission since 2018. For eight weeks between July and August, Peace Ark toured the Pacific Islands visiting Kiribati, Tonga, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands, before heading to East Timor as its final stop. Whilst the mission only had five scheduled stops, it was clear that the mission had political significance.
Observers were quick to point out that Kiribati and the Solomon Islands both cut ties with Taiwan in 2019 in favour of China5. The Solomon Islands have also begun cooperating with China on security issues, with the two countries signing an agreement in 2022.
Zongyuan Zoe Liu, writing for the Council on Foreign Relations, suggested that this could open the door for a Chinese naval base there, however, plans for a Chinese base have been denied by both governments6.
According to Euan Graham at the International Institute for Security Studies, “[t]he primary driver behind the agreement is China’s long-term strategy of displacing the United States as the predominant power in the Western Pacific”7.
It is not as if the US is entirely absent from the region, however. Indeed, Pacific Partnership 2023 from August to November this year saw the USS Pearl Harbor (a Harpers Fairy-class dock landing ship) and USS Jackson with (an Independence-Class littoral combat ship) make port calls in Vietnam, the Philippines, Samoa, Malaysia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Tonga8.
In addition to this, USNS Mercy - one of the US’s hospital ships - is also currently in the South Pacific for the Pacific Partnership 2024-1. The vessel has already visited the Marshall Islands and Solomon Islands, and it will soon head to Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia9.
Dr Eileen Natuzzi from Georgetown University’s centre for Australia, New Zealand and Pacific studies argues that “[b]oth the Peace Ark and Mercy hospital ship programs add new levels of escalating tension between the United States and China – military medical mission competition”10.
Natuzzi also points out that a “large white hulled ship arriving off the coast of a Pacific Island country is big public relations”, which helps explain why both the US and China choose to conduct these missions.
With the return of China’s Harmonious Missions in the post-covid era, it will be interesting to see where China decides to visit next. It is possible that next year Peace Ark will visit the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam in an attempt to foster goodwill in the South China Sea.
Alternatively, Peace Ark may organise a tour of Central America to visit Honduras as a gesture of goodwill, following the country’s decision in 2023 to cut relations with Taiwan and establish relations with China.
Regardless of where Peace Ark journeys to next, its chosen destination will likely have significance for China’s diplomatic ambitions.
References
Note: sources for the Harmonious Mission destinations will be added to the web version of this article.
https://web.archive.org/web/20221007204446/https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2017-08/07/content_30359994.htm
Tang B, Han Y, Liu X, et al. BMJ Mil Health 2023;169:e44–e50 doi:10.1136/bmjmilitary-2020-001659
https://web.archive.org/web/20231025120805/https://www.dvidshub.net/feature/PacificPartnership
https://web.archive.org/web/20220816065120/https://www.dvidshub.net/feature/continuingpromise
https://web.archive.org/web/20230920153304/https://maritime-executive.com/article/china-s-hospital-ship-visits-nations-that-stopped-supporting-taiwan
https://web.archive.org/web/20231107234912/https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/china-solomon-islands-security-pact-us-south-pacific
https://web.archive.org/web/20231001005336/https://www.iiss.org/online-analysis/online-analysis/2022/05/china-solomon-islands
https://web.archive.org/web/20231125231907/https://fj.usembassy.gov/pacific-partnership-concludes-final-2023-mission-in-the-kingdom-of-tonga/
https://web.archive.org/web/20231017082222/https://www.pacom.mil/Media/News/News-Article-View/Article/3554388/navy-hospital-ship-departs-for-pacific-partnership-2024-1/
https://web.archive.org/web/20230920000017/https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/military-hospital-ships-china-us-are-plying-across-pacific-islands-growing