ABSTRACT
The tempo of naval construction dropped off markedly, as did the navy's operating budget. The period through mid-1975 was quiescent, marked only by the navy's seizure of the Paracel Islands from South Vietnam in January 1974. Young School-type naval construction managed to survive, and even to thrive, during these otherwise lean years. The construction of missile patrol boats continued briskly. The key to maintaining a Chinese naval presence in distant waters was logistics. The most concrete evidence of a Chinese commitment to buy foreign naval hardware surfaced in 1981. The nationwide budgetary cutbacks of 1980 clearly struck at the Chinese navy, however much the naval and national leadership may have wanted to expand and modernize China's naval power. Naval modernization "must include making various kinds of preparations for handling advanced weapons" and laying foundations in organization, management, leadership, combat doctrine, tactics, discipline, the sciences, political awareness, and patriotism.
