Task Group 989 PLAN China Catat Dua Kunjungan Pertama Kapal Amfibia & Latihan ke Malaysia 2025, Perkukuh Diplomasi Pelabuhan China–ASEAN di Asia-Pasifik

China’s PLAN 989 Task Group Makes Dual First-Time Amphibious & Training Vessel Visit to Malaysia 2025 — Expanding China–ASEAN Port Diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific

PLAN’s 989 Task Group Docks in Malaysia

Mohd Hanif Ismail - : Dec 1, 2025 - : 2:52 pm

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China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN)’s 989 Task Group has completed a high-profile port call at Malaysia’s Port Klang, signalling the most substantial Chinese amphibious presence in the country to date and marking first-time visits to Malaysia for select ships within the task group. The deployment, framed by Beijing as part of its expanding maritime diplomacy in Southeast Asia, provides industry watchers with fresh insight into PLAN’s amphibious logistics, training pipeline, and regional influence across the Asia-Pacific.

The task group is led by Changbaishan (Hull 989), a Type 071 Yuzhao-class amphibious transport dock landing ship (LPD), one of PLAN’s principal expeditionary platforms. Displacing approximately 25,000 tonnes at full load and measuring roughly 210 metres in length, the vessel is engineered to support a mix of combat landing, HADR missions, and sustained littoral operations. The Type 071 design accommodates 600 to 800 fully equipped marines, a large internal well-deck for air-cushioned landing craft, and vehicle storage supporting amphibious armoured units. The configuration can deploy up to four Type 726 LCAC hovercraft, or alternatively conventional landing craft, and load out heavy vehicles including main battle tanks, armoured personnel carriers, and infantry fighting vehicles depending on mission profile. Aviation support is enabled by a stern helipad and enclosed hangar space sustaining multiple medium helicopters such as the Z-8 and Z-18 transport variants, routinely used by PLAN for troop lift and heavy cargo transfer. The ship also carries a defensive suite including close-in weapon systems (CIWS) and heavy machine-gun stations for port approach security, typical of PLAN’s amphibious group hardening doctrine.

The visit is particularly historic for Changbaishan, as this marks the first-ever deployment of a PLAN Type 071 LPD to Malaysia. Although the 989 Task Group itself previously visited Southeast Asia, it is the vessel’s inaugural physical docking in the Malaysian theatre, a strategic first for bilateral navy engagements of this scale and complexity.

Supporting the flagship is the training ship Zheng He (Hull 81), a purpose-built ocean-going cadet training vessel commissioned in 1987. The ship displaces around 6,700 tonnes, extends 132 metres, and hosts comprehensive navigation, damage-control, engineering, and seamanship classrooms on board. Zheng He is a cornerstone of PLAN’s academy training ecosystem, often carrying senior naval instructors and midshipman cohorts on long training deployments linked to diplomatic port visits worldwide. The platform is capable of limited logistical self-sustainment, armed for basic self-defence, and has garnered a global profile as PLAN’s most travelled training vessel. Unlike the two other ships in the group, Zheng He has previously visited Malaysia, making this its third participation in the group’s ASEAN outreach rotation — but still of interest to defence-industry analysts tracking PLAN’s multi-domain personnel pipeline.

The third component is Xiangqianjin-1 (Hull 88), described by Chinese defence channels as a comprehensive training and auxiliary support vessel. The ship acts as both a training extension and a logistics enabler when deployed alongside amphibious or academy groups. It displaces in the region of 10,000 tonnes, includes workshops, simulation rooms, medical facilities, and training compartments, while also supporting replenishment functions for long sailing rotations. Like Changbaishan, this is Xiangqianjin-1’s first ever visit to Malaysia, creating dual vessel firsts in one deployment cycle — a detail that reinforces Beijing’s intent to broaden naval familiarity, port interoperability, and soft engagement across ASEAN littoral states.

Broader geopolitical context magnifies the significance of this visit. China’s defence budget for 2025 grew by roughly 7.2 per cent to 1.784 trillion yuan (approximately US$249 billion), maintaining a decade-long modernisation trajectory heavily weighted towards naval expansion, amphibious capabilities, and near-to-far seas presence. The Asia-Pacific has been the centre of gravity for this strategy as PLAN progressively increases port diplomacy, replenishment exposure, dual-use logistics intelligence, and personnel cultivation from the South China Sea through the Strait of Malacca to the Western Pacific.

Malaysia, positioned at a strategic maritime crossroads with a rising data-centre economy, deep-draft port infrastructure, and long coastlines facing heavily trafficked shipping lanes, has quietly become a practical proving ground for large-dock naval diplomacy. Amphibious task group visits of this class require deep-water berthing, tug support, logistical provisioning, embarkation planning, hydrographic coordination, medical readiness scanning, and port-movement choreography, all of which carry direct implications for the commercial maritime-defence ecosystem. For contractors and suppliers in Asia-Pacific ports, this provides a live-case demonstration of facility demands associated with hosting amphibious platforms above 20,000-tonne displacement, from freshwater production to fuel uplift, communications testing, night-ops lighting compliance, cargo handling, emergency medical interfacing, and shuttle logistics for large trainee contingents.

More than 2,100 naval personnel and academy cadets embarked on this tour initially departed Qingdao on 15 November 2025 for a multi-nation Southeast Asian rotation. Chinese defence releases emphasised that the current Malaysia call is part of a friendly outreach initiative, clarifying that this is the first visit to Malaysia for some of the group’s vessels — a subtle but telling amendment in China–RMN naval familiarity building.

For the Asia-Pacific defence industry, the arrival of Changbaishan and Xiangqianjin-1 also signals a broader procurement ripple: amphibious ship visits often precede increased HADR drills, joint training cooperation, sonar-mapping exchanges, coastal-security dialogue, and future military port calls, influencing the regional industrial outlook for ship sustainment, maritime systems, coastal radar, dual-port logistics technology, hydrographic solutions, SOP alignment platforms, and offshore training frameworks.

Strategically, PLAN appears not merely to be “visiting” ASEAN ports, but bench-testing the region’s reception readiness for its amphibious profile, embedding operational normalisation under diplomatic optics, and cultivating port knowledge that may guide future HADR cooperation, logistics agreements, and security architecture engagements throughout Southeast Asia and the wider Indo-Pacific rim.