Two years after the violent face-off with the Indian Army in Galwan, China is now recruiting a record number of Tibetans in the army along with increasing the infrastructure along the LAC. According to the Chinese state media, the people of Tibet are also happily applying for recruitment in the PLA. According to a report, 15.7 percent more Tibetans have been included in the PLA this year than last year in Lhasa. The PLA recruited 472 Tibetan youth in the first half of the year. Out of these, 240 are students studying in the college.
Special schools are being opened in China to give military education to Tibetan children between the ages of 6 and 9. Many such schemes are also being implemented for these Tibetans in the model village around the LAC so that they not only settle here but join the PLA and become the strength of the Chinese army. China feels that recruiting Tibetans into its army will help it in unification of Tibet. These soldiers can stand better near the LAC.
According to a report in The Print, in the last two years, the Chinese army had to stay in Ladakh for a long time amid tensions with India. Due to the cold, many soldiers of the regular army of China appeared weak, while the youth of Tibet proved to be stronger in these conditions.
After the confrontation with India, China has made a strategy to include more and more Tibetan soldiers in the PLA. For this, the army has been introduced on the pretext of a summer camp for school children in Ninchi, near the LAC. In these camps, children in the age group of 8 to 16 years are given military style training so that they can easily join the PLA.
China has prepared Mimang Cheton unit
On the other side of Sikkim, China is preparing its militia group by promising jobs to unemployed youth of Yadong and its nearby villages in Tibet. They are being deployed in those border areas from where trade takes place. China has prepared a special Tibet Army Unit. It is named Mimang Cheton.
In Tibetan it means for the public. They are being given the task of keeping an eye on the movement of the Indian Army by spying and monitoring the check post. They have neither been given any rank nor given any uniform. However, 70 years after China’s occupation of Tibet, the displeasure of Tibetans has not ended.