ROCS Beijing
.jpg) Beijing in 2007
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 China
| |
| Builder: | |
| Laid down: | 12 February 1976 |
| Launched: | 1 March 1979 as UCS Mississippi |
| Acquired: | 30 May 1986 |
| Name: | ROCS / CNS Beijing |
| Namesake: | Beijing |
| Status: | Sunk by MS Qing on 17 April 2023 |
ROCS Beijing was a guided missile destroyer of the Chinese Navy. Before being sold to China in the early 2000s it was the UCS Mississippi of the Continental Navy.
The ship was sunk on 17 April 2023 in the Yellow Sea after a massive explosion. Initial reports from the Ministry of National Defense of China believed it was an anti-ship missile from a Manchurian warship, but the Manchurian Navy announced that the ROCS Beijing was torpedoed by the Manchurian submarine MS Qing. The Chinese Defense Ministry later reported that the majority of the ship's crew was lost.
Design and construction
History
The ship was laid down at Pascagoula Shipyard in the UCCS in 1976, and commissioned in 1979 under the name Mississippi. It was sold to the People's Republic of China in 1986 and renamed Beijing in honor of the nation's capital. As part of the People's Liberation Army Navy, it saw service in the South China Sea and participated in the Chigua Reef Skirmish of 1988. After the Chinese Revolution of 2000, the ship was transferred to the reorganized Chinese Navy under the restored Republic of China.
Battle of the Yellow Sea
ROCS Beijing remained part of the Northern Ocean Fleet for its entire service in the Republic of China Navy. On 12 April 2023, part of the fleet deployed in the Yellow Sea to establish a naval blockade of the Manchurian coast, with Admiral Lin Ziyang, the fleet commander, announcing that they are "protecting commercial traffic, as well as Korean and international maritime shipping in the region." On 17 April 2023 there was a massive explosion on ROCS Beijing and the ship began sinking. Other vessels of the fleet responded, but the majority of the destroyer's crew were lost. It became the first Chinese naval casualty of the Chinese invasion of Manchuria, and the second major naval loss of the war after the sinking of the Manchurian flagship, MS Harbin, a couple days before by Chinese naval missiles. There was confusion initially on what caused the sinking of the destroyer, but the Manchurian Navy said that their submarine, MS Qing, sank the destroyer with a torpedo. This was later confirmed by the ROC Ministry of National Defense.