BEIJING, May 29 -- "The Chinese naval hospital ships will help the Chinese military materialize the vision of building a maritime community with a shared future and provide the world with more high-quality public security goods," said a Chinese defense spokesperson at a regular press conference on Thursday.

Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang, spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, made the remarks in response to a media query on the commissioning of China's third large hospital ship PLANS Ark Auspicious (Jixiang). According to media report, it marked the deployment of large ocean-going hospital ships to the Chinese PLA Eastern Theater Command, South Theater Command and North Theater Command respectively.

The spokesperson said that PLANS Ark Auspicious is the third 10,000-ton-class ocean-going hospital ship domestically designed and built by China. It features a combat-oriented layout and is equipped with advanced medical equipment.

The spokesperson added that, PLANS Ark Auspicious, together with Ark Peace and Ark Silk Road, not only forms the backbone of maritime medical support, but also undertakes the tasks of international humanitarian medical services, emergency medical rescue in major disasters, and foreign military medical exchanges and cooperation.