Image Credits: Wikipedia The Chinese Navy’s hospital ship, Auspicious Ark, departed for a humanitarian medical mission to Africa and South Asia. The ship left from a port in Qingdao, east China’s Shandong Province, for Mission Harmony-2026, the 12th iteration of Mission Harmony since 2010. The mission will last for more than 200 days in which the ship will visit several African and South Asian Nations to offer free medical services to local communities and also carry out cultural exchanges. The program aims to strengthen friendship and cooperation between China and the countries involved in the mission. It also focuses on building a global maritime community with a shared future and better implementation of the Global Security Initiative. Mission Harmony is an overseas humanitarian medical service program organised by the PLA Navy. The first 10 missions were carried out by Peace Ark, and the 11th mission, which began in 2025 and concluded in April 2026, was conducted by Silk Road Ark. This mission is the first overseas voyage for Auspicious Ark, which is Beijing’s third indigenously constructed and designed ocean-going hospital ship. The 10,000-tonne vessel has a medical team of 100 doctors and personnel from the PLA Northern Theater Command Navy and members from the Naval Medical University. The Hospital Ship is 178 m long and can reach a speed of up to 20 knots. It boasts a displacement of 14, 300 tonnes, offering stability for surgeries during high-sea conditions. The Auspicious Ark has 18 clinical departments and 5 auxiliary diagnostic units. It offers facilities for performing over 60 kinds of medical examinations, treatments, surgeries, orthopaedics, gynaecology, obstetrics, ophthalmology and many more. It has 8 operating rooms to support simultaneous surgeries and an onboard helicopter to enhance emergency medical rescue capabilities. The medical team will also disembark to provide outreach medical services to remote communities in need of treatments. A