The Type 054 has a stealthy hull design with sloped surfaces, radar absorbent materials, and a reduced superstructure clutter.

It retained the HQ-7 SAM, an improved version of the French Crotale, from the preceding Type 053H3; the HQ-7 had a ready-to-fire 8-cell launcher, with 16 stored in the automatic reloader.

Wenzhou was launched in November 2003 at the China State Shipbuilding Corporation in Shanghai.

[citation needed] In late June 2013, Wenzhou and Fuzhou were formed into small-scale combat operations, and in the form of shift duty, a real-force confrontation exercise in a complex electromagnetic environment was carried out in a certain sea area.

[2] In mid-September 2013, Wenzhou went to a certain sea area to perform combat readiness patrol missions, patrolling offshore derricks, and conducted training in non-war military operations such as temporary seizures, tracking and surveillance.