China has started recruiting Tibetans in People’s Liberation Army (PLA) for deployment at LAC. It has been made mandatory for every Tibetan family to send one member to the PLA.
China has made it mandatory for every Tibetan family to send one member to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in a bid to strengthen its military deployment along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India.
The recruitment is being made after a ‘loyalty test’ of the Tibetan youths, sources told India Today TV.
The Chinese are making every possible effort to strengthen their presence along the Line of Action (LAC), especially in extreme weather areas such as Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh, sources said.
“The Chinese Army has started this project to induct one member each from the loyal families of Tibetans who would be deployed permanently at the LAC with India,” government sources told India Today TV.
Sources further said the Chinese army is recruiting Tibetan youths in its territory and training them for operations along the LAC with India.
“We have been receiving intelligence inputs that the Chinese army is recruiting Tibetan youths for carrying out special operations along the LAC with India and they have been holding regular exercises to prepare them for such operations,” sources said.
The Tibetan youths have been inducted into the Chinese forces after making them go through several loyalty tests — which include learning the mainland Chinese language and accepting the supremacy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over any other belief, the sources said.
The major thrust of recruiting Tibetan youths into the Chinese army began in January-February this year after China saw how Tibetans-in-exile have performed while serving in the special frontier forces of the Indian Army.
The Tibetan youths bring multiple advantages for the Chinese army as they are expected to bring in greater acceptance of the Chinese rule among local population in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) as well as ease the pressure off the Chinese mainland soldiers in deployment in the mountainous regions such as Ladakh.
“The recruitment of the Tibetans is an apparent bid by the PLA to copy India,” sources said.
The Indian Army’s regular units, along with the special frontier force of the Cabinet Secretariat, managed to surprise the Chinese army on the southern bank of Pangong Tso (lake) last year when they physically occupied the Mokhpari, Black Top and other heights in the view of Chinese aggression along the LAC.
India and China have been in a military standoff since April-May last year and are yet to find a de-escalation formula. Tensions still prevails at the certain friction points including Hot Springs-Gogra heights.
The Indian and Chinese sides have held multiple rounds of talks at both military and diplomatic levels but without much success except for the limited mutual withdrawal of soldiers by the two sides on both northern and southern banks of the Pangong Tso.