Table of Contents
What has happened?
- China has further cranked up efforts to recruit young Tibetans in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and local militias as well,
- As to act as guides along the border, even as it continues to consolidate its military positions and upgrade its airbases facing India.
Mandatory for Tibetan family
- Indian security establishment officials on Wednesday said latest intelligence reports also show,
- China has even made it “mandatory” for each Tibetan family to send at least one young male member for recruitment in the PLA,
- In some areas like the Ngari Prefecture of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).
- The PLA has also recruited over 70 Tibetan students, aged between 17 to 20, from various universities for admission in the military academy in TAR this year.
- “It is also engaging Tibetan residents of border villages, who have good topographical knowledge of the LAC, to work as guides to accompany its patrolling parties,” said an official.
Chumbi valley
- Earlier the PLA has simultaneously raised a new set of militias in the Chumbi valley, opposite Sikkim, under the Yatung County in the TAR.
- One of these militias is known as ‘Mimang Cheton’ (MC), which means ‘for the public’, and consists of local Tibetan youths trained by the PLA.
- At least two batches of MC, with around 100 youths in one batch, have been deployed at various locations in Chumbi Valley after having finished their training.
reason
- Most Chinese troops are from the plains and can’t perform well at high altitudes.
- The Chinese also realise it is best for them to recruit young Tibetans who are unemployed.
- It is not just about targeting India but also about gaining the sympathy of unemployed young men
Significance of this move
- The stepped-up recruitment of Tibetans and the increase in PLA activity in all sectors stretching from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh along the 3,488-km
- Line of Actual Control,
- Come ahead of the 12th round of corps commander-level talks between India and China.
- The military talks, after a long gap since the 11th round on April 9, will be held towards end-July or early-August in another bid to de-escalate tensions in the 14-month military confrontation in eastern Ladakh.
- “The stalled troop disengagement at Gogra and Hot Springs may be taken forward.
- But any resolution of the blocking of Indian patrols by the PLA in the Depsang region is not on the cards as of now,” said an official.
Other concerns
- The frenetic pace at which the PLA has converted its temporary structures, ammunition dumps, helipads and surface- to-air missile batteries across Ladakh,
- Into permanent positions as well as upgraded its major air bases like Hotan, Kashgar, Gargunsa (Ngari Gunsa), Lhasa-Gonggar and Shigatse for additional fighters and bombers,
- Clearly indicates China has no plans to de-escalate any time soon.
- There is also the renewed focus on the induction of Tibetans in militias as well as in the Special Tibetan Army Unit (STAU) under the PLA,
- With concerted drives being conducted in the TAR with an element of coercion, said officials.
Q) Special Frontier Force or Vikas battalions come under the direct purview of?
- Prime Minister’s office
- Cabinet Secretariat
- Ministry of Home Affairs
- Unit of Indian Army
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