On January 2nd, 2019 (local time), the 31st Chinese naval escort taskforce successfully escorted three foreign ships including the "Hexu Huanle" into the safe zones in western Gulf of Aden .
As of December 24, 2018, the Chinese navy has sent 31 escort fleets, 100 ships, 67 shipborne helicopters and more than 26,000 soldiers to escort more than 6,600 Chinese and foreign ships over the past decade.
China's naval fleets have escorted 3,400 foreign ships over the past 10 years, around 51.5 percent of the total escorted, according to a Ministry of National Defense statement.
On the morning of December 24, the 31st Chinese naval escort taskforce arrived in the waters at the eastern Gulf of Aden as scheduled after an uninterrupted voyage of 15 days and nights, where it met the 30th escort taskforce.
The 31st fleet from the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy has left the port city of Zhanjiang in south China's Guangdong Province for the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia to escort civilian ships.
A Chinese naval fleet of three warships returned to a naval base in Zhoushan, on Thursday after ending escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters.
