The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy hospital ship, “Peace Ark” set sail from a military port in Zhoushan in east China’s Zhejiang Province on Sunday morning for Mission Harmony-2024 to visit three countries, including Sri Lanka.

Chinese media reports said that this is the 10th Mission Harmony for “Peace Ark” since its commissioning in 2008. The “Peace Ark” will offer free diagnosis and treatment for common and prevalent diseases to local residents, people in Chinese institutions, and overseas Chinese through onboard clinics and dispatched medical teams.

There are over 100 personnel on board the maritime hospital, featuring 17 clinical departments and five auxiliary diagnostic departments.

The scheduled visit would not be in contradiction with a one-year moratorium declared by Sri Lanka on foreign research ships visiting the country that started from January this year.

Sri Lanka, in January, declared a moratorium on foreign research ships entering its waters for a year, amid concerns from India over Chinese research vessels docking in its neighbourhood.

The Foreign Ministry, in January, said that the moratorium relates to all countries and will allow local researchers to build capacity to be on par with their foreign counterparts in joint research.

Chinese ships have docked in Colombo in recent years for research, based on agreements between agencies in China and Sri Lanka.

Last October, Chinese research ship Shi Yan 6 docked in Colombo port for several days, while in 2022 the Navy vessel Yuan Wang 5 docked at Hambantota, in southern Sri Lanka. There were fears in India that these vessels could be used to monitor the region.

Meanwhile, the Bastille Post Global yesterday said the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy hospital ship “Peace Ark” is composed of more than 100 medical personnel, who are mainly selected from the Naval Medical University, with others from the joint logistic support force as well as the medical servicemen of the Navy under the eastern, southern and northern theatre commands.

The ship also carries a shipboard ambulance helicopter, with rapid forward emergency rescue capabilities.

“This mission is a vivid practice of the Chinese military to provide high-quality medical services to the people of relevant countries and public health products to the international community. It is of great practical significance to publicize Chinese-style modernization and the concept of peaceful development of our military, to demonstrate the open and confident image of the Chinese Navy, and to effectively test the far-sea medical support capability of the military,” said Su Qinfeng, a serviceman of the Mission Harmony-2024.

This mission will be the longest voyage and the largest number of countries visited by the “Peace Ark” among the harmony missions.

The “Peace Ark” is the country’s first independently designed standard ocean-going hospital ship, with a length of 178 meters, the maximum width of 24 meters, and a full load displacement of over 14,000 tonnes.

The cutting-edge vessel is equipped with a resuscitation room, X-ray room, computerized tomography (CT) room, laboratory, blood preparation room and medical information centre. It also has advanced medical facilities and a complete nursing system, with intensive care ward, serious injury ward, burn ward, general ward, isolation ward, etc.

The modern maritime hospital ship also boasts a telemedicine consultation system, and a medical equipment configuration equivalent to a Grade 3A hospital, which is the highest level in the classification of hospitals in the Chinese mainland.

The “Peace Ark” has travelled more than 290,000 nautical miles and visited 45 countries and regions, providing humanitarian medical services to over 290,000 people and conducting more than 1,700 surgeries.