AXHUers Engage With Public Affairs Series

# 1

A Chinese Navy Veteran Returns To AXHU Campus

—to contribute “cool” services to the Nation and world peace  

Six years ago, LI Tin-tin, a second-year Logistics Management undergraduate of AXHU School of Business, was enlightened and encouraged by opportunity to read an article of commentary report and determined to serve in the noble engagements with PRC national defence and to make her longtime pursuit and aspiration come to life.

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Later, Li concluded her active military service at Chinese Navy in 2021. That year, she aged 24 and resumed her third-year academic career at AXHU. Over the past five years, the cute, amiable but strong-willed girl of character spearheaded any challenges on the voyage and staged an exceptional life experience modeling for the youth of AXHU.

Gloriously, Li was awarded the “2021 Anhui Provincial Starry College Student of Self-Improvement” by both the Chinese Communist Youth League (CCYL) Anhui Provincial Committee and the Anhui Students’ Federation.

In 2016, Li was enlisted in the naval unit of battle flotilla, Eastern Theater Command Navy of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). And she actively served on a replenishment ship commissioned to operate an array of important maritime military exercises, participated in the 32^th naval escort in the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia, as well as successfully completed the regional reconnaissance, surveillance, observation or boarder patrol. During that, she was conferred the “Outstanding Compulsory Serviceperson,” “Badge of Naval Escort Hero,” and “Silver Medal” (“Bolang Cup” Military Competitive Sports).

As a starry college student consisted of the Generation Z, also known as Zoomers, (birth years about from 1995-2015), she advocates, “With continuing efforts, transformative intelligence, scientific cognition and optimal approaches of self-fulfilling, the youth of China should actualize personal value in some way and take responsibility to safeguard the shared future of overseas compatriots and peace-loving people across the world.” One year later (2022), identified with a “Go-to” style of clear-cut, shoulder-length hair, a black canvas knapsack on her back, understanding and comforting voices...on campus, the young girl veteran is taking a bulk of her leisure time after classes to archive her reminiscences about her military service and write from a different perspective inside study room—“Let’s develop and become a confident, fearless, tactical “warrior” either braving the cruel modern warfare or facing any challenges or uncertainties or tough realities in everyday life...” 

Option with heart

That year, upon transition from the second-year to third-year academic study, Li was suddenly moved by a quote—“What a laurel wreath of glory we will have been crowned is to undertake a small or big part of our national missions and to gain international or national recognition!”—in an article. Since its inception, the romantic girl was deeply impressed by the stills from social media: the PLA soldiers and rescue workers searching survivors among the quake-stricken ruins in 2008 in Wenchuan, Southwest China’s Sichuan Province, and gorgeous PLA female soldiers processions through the Tiananmen Square at 2015 China Victory Day Parade on the 70^th anniversary of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression of the Second World War. So she became more resolute and confident to make her dream come true in the near or far future. As originally hoped, with both her families’ deep love and faculty & classmates’ heart-felt congratulations, Li bade farewell to her beloved hometown where she was born and raised up, and was preparing her military career in the year of 2016.

Through the demanding progression smoothing from the romantic “Ivory-tower” existence to the tough “Crucible-like” military camp, as a member of newly-recruited cadets, Li should take a minimum of time to change and adjust herself to a sharply different life pattern, physically and psychologically. In the beginning, even an item of the physical readiness training (400-meter run) of the Cadet Basic Training seems to become a big obstacle challenging the incoming cadets. However, with the intent of imposing rigorous regulations and “inflexible” standards, such as 3-5 kilometers weight carrying race, the new iron-willed military soldiers of physical fitness excellence are being inspired and honed to develop day by day. At the closing ceremony, all the members of the New Soldiers Company conclude their “First Class” and feel proud of what they overcome and achieve over the past three months, and their eyes are welling up with joyful tears. From then on, every one builds a strong confidence and maximizes preparedness for other sequenced training and tasks.

Life Changing

Unexpectedly, in the coming days, the “dual stresses” arising from the seasickness and inadequate physical fitness capacity (resulting from psychological tensions) in the real world quench her original ideas and courage shortly after boarding on warship. Moreover, she will have to overcome the severe climate conditions and insomnia symptom on the sea, and therefore her field-work performance collapses in a worsening situation.

Aligned with the baseline of physical fitness requirements and the pressing demand of intellectual capacity in a shorter period of time, Li must command the necessary military knowledge and skills along with other associates on board, who are mostly first-year or second-year undergrads pursuing his or her academic career at the top-rated universities of China several months ago, to fulfill the specific planned programs, e.g., International Morse Code, a tricky, capstone learning and training for the upcoming real-world military operations on the sea—to capture, identify, and recognize the “Signals” with naked eyes and then respond in time without any mistakes or negligence under the ever-changing climatic conditions. Nevertheless, she considered, “The glorious, but challenging, assignment enables me to transcend and move forward, which is deeply entrenched in individual unremitting efforts, enterprising spirit and strong willpower.”

Afterwards, the escort mission to the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia is scheduled to the firsties, which will become their first-ever blue-water engagement with the PLA’s naval affairs for international peacekeeping. Being full of “confidence, duty, and honor,” the flotilla launched its commissioned voyage sailing through the Miyako Strait to the India Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean..., during which the crew frequently received the heartfelt appreciation and admiration in fits and starts on the other end of radio waves—“Chinese Navy, Thank you very much!”—, greeting from the merchant ships across countries on the international waterways. “We are surprised at China Speed, we will learn from Chinese wisdom, and we admire the world-leading strengths of Chinese Navy...,” a guest foreign ambassador celebrated at the welcoming banquet hosted by the Chinese Embassy at Mozambique. Several years later, she clearly recalled with a deep love to the Nation (during an media interview), “At that moment, the positive recognition and praises from the international friends impress and drive those young soldiers of China. And I feel very proud of our country, our people, and our national defence power in the new era.”

Since then, Li has developed a toolkit of creative problem-solving skills, internalized her professional identity and fully integrated into the military unit as a far-sighted, intellectual and “Self-concept” female soldier on the replenishment ship. Through 5-year military life, Li has become a member of modern soldiers of professional excellence characterizing with filial piety, social responsibilities, decision-making courage, ice-breaking awareness, and future outlook on innovation & development in scientific ways.

Return to AXHU

On Sept 1, 2021, the 24-year-old girl featuring a quality of soldierly virtue came back and retook her third-year and fourth-year academic study for AXHU degree programme, and also obtained a different kind of self-esteem, belongingness, and self-actualization at the same time, benefiting from the support of her families and friends and the assistance of faculty, students and staff, re-adjusting herself into regular campus life, shuttling between classrooms and library, throwing herself into all kinds of discipline competitions and cultural and sports events inside and outside of the school.

Currently, the college life of her is coming to a close at AXHU, Li argues, “The continued education at home or abroad (prepping for her master’s program) is my first option in the next year. As far as my own career development after graduation is concerned, I want to engage in the major-related businesses to expand the potentials in the areas of logistics management, maritime transport, international shipping, etc., if possible (which is actually originated from a military visit several years ago, during which Li witnesses the state-of-the-art infrastructure and techniques of logistics in a foreign harbor).” Today,  she is mapping for another destination and gets ready to sail a new voyage in life.

Dream-led progressions

Hereby, as both a fourth-year and veteran, she advises the upcoming generations at the institutions of higher education, “When any people is trapped into a dilemma or even troubles, he or she intentionally (or intuitively) turns to the accessible “counselors” nearby for an ideal “ANSWER” to follow up, the best choice is however to listen to one’s own “heart voice.” To conclude, she cites a philosophically heuristic motto by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646/1716)—“We live in ‘the best of all possible worlds’.”

Serving as a pillar for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and for the welfare of those peace-loving people of the world, LI Tin-tin, an ordinary AXHUer, is pledging with her original aspiration and steadfast endeavour to write a new splendid chapter in the new era.