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Type 632 Fulin Class (Coastal Tanker)

The total number of reported units [nearly 40] is not in-consistent with the 30 units usually attributed to this construction program. Possibly some units were moved between fleets and redesignated, or some other combination of the usual litany of pathetic excuses as to why such un-important and poorly attested programs manifest such loose ends. English language and Chinese WikiPedia are in perfect disagreement on unit listing [in the following list the English language source units are reported as "EN", and the Chinese units are "CN", just to keep the apples and oranges separate]. The English language wiki reports 14 units active as of 2019.

The 2015 ONI "China People’S Liberation Army Navy (PLA(N)) And Maritime Law Enforcement (MLE) 2015 Recognition And Identification Guide" reported 8 active FULIN I units [Bei You 555, 560, 563, 570, 573, 589, and Dong You 626, 629] and 4 active FULIN II units [Dong Shui 628, 643, 644, Nan Shui 938]. Of these, five units [Bei You 555, 560, 563, 570, and Dong Shui 628] were not otherwise attested in wiki sources. While the 2018 ONI Guide reported "All FULIN and FUZHOU Oil and Water tankers are believed to the decommissioned by ICOD" [Information Cut Off Date].

The provenance of both the Chinese and English langugage wiki entries is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. In conspicuous violation of wiki.rules prohibiting "original research" neither article provides footnotes of note. There is no such "scholarly apparatus" on the Chinese entry, and one of the two English language footnotes provides nothing beyond "fact-of". It seems probably that both entries were prepared by individuals with direct knowledge of the topic at hand.

Type 632 tankers in PLAN service are designated by a combination of two Chinese characters followed by three-digit number. The second Chinese character is You, meaning oil in Chinese, or Shui, meaning water, because these ships are classified either as oil and water tankers. The first Chinese character denotes which fleet the ship is service with, with East (Dong) for East Sea Fleet, North (Bei) for North Sea Fleet, and South (Nan) for South Sea Fleet. Thus, Dongyou = East Oil, Nanyou, South Oil, et. However, the pennant numbers may have changed due to the change of Chinese naval ships naming convention.