Archive Heritage 传承
The veterans we engage inherit traditions that stretch from the founding of the People’s Liberation Army in 1927 to today’s special operations brigades. This page traces that history using public, unclassified sources — because understanding where a specialist comes from explains how they think.
Chapter 1 Origins
The People’s Liberation Army traces its birth to the Nanchang Uprising of 1 August 1927 — a date still marked every year as Army Day. For most of the following six decades, what outsiders would now call special operations was carried out by reconnaissance units: small teams of scouts trained to move unseen, gather information deep in contested terrain and strike with surprise. Their skills were built for mountains, rivers and forests rather than parade grounds, and a strong culture of stealth, endurance and self-reliance grew around them.
The turning point came in the late 1980s. Military thinkers worldwide were studying how small, highly trained forces could achieve effects out of proportion to their size. Open-source histories consistently record that in 1988 the PLA established its first dedicated special forces unit in the then Guangzhou Military Region, a unit widely known by the nickname “South China Sword”. Over the following decade, each military region raised its own special reconnaissance or special operations formation, known in open literature by names such as “Oriental Sword”, “Siberian Tiger”, “Night Tiger” and “Falcon”.
These units borrowed openly from the experience of other armies while building distinctly Chinese doctrine. Selection emphasised mental resilience as much as physical strength. Training expanded to include parachute and helicopter insertion, combat diving, sniping, demolitions, languages and survival in the country’s immense range of climates — from the Tibetan plateau to the subtropical south.
The naval branch developed in parallel. The PLA Navy Marine Corps, whose personnel wear the characters 海军陆战队 on their headbands in training, produced the maritime special operations unit publicly known as the Jiaolong (“sea dragon”) commando — later familiar to the world through anti-piracy escort missions.
The most recent chapter began with sweeping reforms. On 1 February 2016 the seven military regions were replaced by five theatre commands, and in 2017 the army’s eighteen group armies were reorganised into thirteen. Public reporting indicates that each new group army includes a special operations brigade, placing special forces permanently at the centre of the army’s structure rather than on its edges.
Chapter 2 Chronology
The Nanchang Uprising of 1 August marks the founding of the force that becomes the People’s Liberation Army.
Scout and reconnaissance units develop the stealth, endurance and small-team skills that later define special operations.
Open sources record the establishment of the PLA’s first dedicated special forces unit in the Guangzhou Military Region.
China sends its first military observers to a United Nations mission, beginning three decades of peacekeeping contributions.
Each military region raises its own special operations formation, broadening skills across plateau, jungle, desert and maritime environments.
On 26 December the first PLA Navy escort task force sails for the Gulf of Aden, with naval special operations personnel aboard to protect merchant shipping from piracy.
China evacuates roughly 35,000 of its citizens from Libya in its largest overseas evacuation to that date, supported by a naval frigate and military aircraft.
PLA Navy ships evacuate more than 600 Chinese citizens and around 279 nationals of other countries from Yemen as conflict intensifies.
Five theatre commands replace seven military regions; group armies are reorganised, each reportedly with a special operations brigade.
A Ministry of Veterans Affairs is created in 2018, and the Law on the Protection of Retired Military Personnel takes effect on 1 January 2021.
Chapter 3 Doctrine
Across open-source descriptions of PLA special operations, three ideas recur. Forces are kept small, because a handful of exceptional people is worth more than a crowd of adequate ones. They are elite, because selection filters for character and resilience before technique. And they are versatile, because the same team may be asked to work on a frozen plateau one season and a tropical coastline the next.
Each of those ideas translates almost perfectly into protective work. A close protection detail is small by design. It must be elite, because a single error can be irreversible. And it must be versatile, moving from an airport to a hotel to a remote project site in a single day without losing its edge.
Low profile, high trust, tight communication.
Selected for judgement, not just strength.
Ready for any climate, culture or setting.
Chapter 4 Environments
China spans high plateau, desert, tropical jungle, frozen north and a long coastline. Publicly broadcast training shows special forces preparing for all of them. Each environment builds something a civilian client will eventually rely on.
| Environment | What it builds | Civilian protective relevance |
|---|---|---|
| High plateau | Endurance at altitude, careful pacing, cold-weather self-care | Remote mining, energy and infrastructure sites in mountainous regions |
| Desert | Water discipline, navigation without landmarks, heat management | Project security and convoy planning across arid regions of Africa and the Middle East |
| Jungle | Patience, close-range awareness, medical self-sufficiency | Workforce protection in tropical Asia, Africa and Latin America |
| Maritime | Boarding safety, water survival, vessel familiarity | Vessel hardening, crew training and voyage risk advisory |
| Urban | Crowd reading, route planning, rapid decision-making | Executive protection, events and secure movement in major cities |
| Extreme cold | Equipment care, shelter building, hypothermia prevention | Northern-latitude infrastructure and seasonal site security |
Chapter 5 Beyond borders
Since December 2008 the PLA Navy has sent successive escort task forces to the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia, protecting thousands of merchant vessels — Chinese and foreign — from piracy. Naval special operations personnel have formed part of these missions, and their work is an early model of what lawful, protective use of special operations skill looks like.
The 2011 evacuation from Libya showed how planning, logistics and protection must work together when civilians need to be moved out of danger quickly.
In 2015 naval vessels evacuated Chinese citizens and nationals of other countries from Yemen — protection extended to everyone in need, not only one’s own.
More than 40,000 Chinese peacekeepers served on UN missions in the three decades after 1990, according to a 2020 government white paper.
Chinese teams have been reported among the overall winners of the annual Warrior Competition for special units hosted in Jordan in the late 2010s.
知彼知己，百战不殆
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”
Chapter 6 What heritage means to us
Heritage is not something a veteran wears. It is how they think under pressure, how they prepare, and how they treat the people around them. At PLA Special Forces we respect that inheritance by giving it a single, clear purpose: the protection of people and places, lawfully, anywhere in the world.
That means leaving behind everything that belongs only to military service — its secrets, its chain of command and its adversaries — and carrying forward only what makes the world safer: discipline, preparation, composure and care.