Family members of some crew members of the “Harmony Mission-2025” task see them off at the dock. Photo by Wang Junchuan
QUANZHOU, September 5 — Reported by Cui Xiaoyang and Tang Lei: On the morning of September 5, the Chinese Navy hospital ship “Silk Road Ark” set sail from Quanzhou, Fujian Province, to the South Pacific and Latin America to carry out the “Harmony Mission-2025”.
This is the first overseas mission for the “Silk Road Ark” hospital ship since its commissioning in 2024. It aims to enhance friendly cooperation between China and relevant countries, provide more public security products for the international community, and better practice the concepts of a community with a shared future for mankind and a maritime community with a shared future.
The task force crew is mainly composed of naval medical support forces from the Southern Theater Command, with additional medical support forces drawn from the Joint Logistics Support Force, the Northern Theater Command Navy, and the Naval Medical University. The hospital ship is equipped with 14 clinical departments and 7 auxiliary diagnostic departments, capable of performing over 60 types of examinations, treatments, and surgeries including general surgery, orthopedics, obstetrics and gynecology, and ophthalmology. A shipborne ambulance helicopter on board has forward emergency rescue capabilities.
During the medical service period, the hospital ship will provide free diagnosis and treatment for common and frequently occurring diseases to local people, personnel of Chinese institutions, and overseas Chinese, through both on-board treatment and dispatched medical teams for巡回诊疗 (tour diagnoses). It will also conduct activities such as courtesy calls, professional seminars, and cultural and sports exchanges with relevant countries.
The “Silk Road Ark” hospital ship is China’s second self-designed and built 10,000-ton class standardized oceangoing hospital ship. Its main tasks include medical rescue and evacuation of casualties at sea, providing巡回诊疗 (tour medical services) for troops stationed on islands and reefs and their residents. It can also conduct international humanitarian medical services, major disaster emergency救援 (rescue), and foreign military medical exchanges and cooperation.
The “Harmony Mission” is an overseas humanitarian medical service task led by the Chinese Navy. Since 2010, ten “Harmony Mission” tasks have been carried out, all undertaken by the “Peace Ark” hospital ship. “Harmony Mission-2025” is the 11th such mission. The “Silk Road Ark” hospital ship plans to visit more than ten countries including Nauru, Fiji, Tonga, Mexico, Jamaica, Barbados, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and Papua New Guinea. The “Harmony Mission-2025” is planned to last 220 days, making it the longest mission in the “Harmony Mission” series.
