Republic of China Naval Academy

History of the modern Navy in China dates back to Tongzhi 5th year of the Qing Dynasty (1866A.D.), when Shen Bao-Zhen established an academy in Mawei, Fujian and started lecturing. That was 139 years from now. 　At the beginning of navy establishment in Qing Dynasty, a number of naval academies and shipyards were established in Mawei, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Weihaiwei, Yantai and Tianjin during the Tongzhi and Guangxu years. However, these schools failed to have unified planning, nor was there any long-term objective, because of the restriction of objective condition and the subject of the officials in charge. 　 It was not until the inauguration of the Republic of China that Dr. Sun Yat-sen proposed the formation of the Navy and the summon of maritime sovereignty, as he saw the origin of China prolonged weakness in its undefended coast which was subject to frequent foreign aggression. Nonetheless, China at that time was still troubled by serious civil war, where warlords occupied their separate regimes. Hence, naval academies run independently and separately, with neither unified organization nor standardized education system. Although naval academies such as Mawei, Qingdao, Wangpu, Dianlei, etc. had developed into well-equipped institutions with greatly improved education quality and that nurtured a large number of naval talents by the time before Sino-Japanese war, they were running under completely different systems.