Naval Vessels Naming Regulation (Chinese: 海军舰艇命名条例; pinyin: Hǎijũn Jiàntǐng MÌngmíng Tíaolì) is a regulation which concerns the naming of vessels of People's Liberation Army Navy. It was published by PLAN on November 18, 1978, and was revised on July 10, 1986.
Nomenclature
The regulation states that surface combatants above cruiser class (i.e. battleships and aircraft carriers) shall be named by the State Council on a case-by-case basis while others are named after geographical locations:
A distinct difference between PLAN and most western navies is that unlike its western counterparts, PLAN does not use ship prefixes internally. However, a system of ship prefixes similar to that of west has been developed by many internet sources for similar classification: