Defence
Chinese PLA Deploys Tibetan Troops Along The LAC To Match Indian Army's Special Frontier Force
PLA troops from all services train for military parade in Beijing. (Representative image)
Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has now posted Tibetan troops in patrols in eastern Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) .
The majority of the troops in the patrol, however, are still mainland Han Chinese soldiers.
The Chinese had started recruiting Tibetan troops after the Indian Army's Special Frontier Force (SFF), comprising predominantly Tibetan refugee troops outsmarted and captured strategic heights in Kailash Range in the intervening nights of August 2020 in Eastern Ladakh.
Tenzin Nyima, a Tibetan soldier of SFF, who was a part of the operation to capture Kailash heights, died in a mine blast. His funeral, complete with military honours, including the firing of a volley of shots by ceremonial guard, was perhaps the first public acknowledgement by India of the force.
A report by ET quoting an official said, "The Tibetan soldiers are now visible as part of the patrols of their border defence troops but the majority continue to be mainland Chinese soldiers".
The Chinese have faced issues with regular mainland troops, as they are not attuned to the high-altitude icy-cold environment of the Himalayas.
"These new recruitment drives are happening because units with Han Chinese troops are suffering serious health problems such as severe mountain sickness and high altitude pulmonary edema," an Indian medical service expert in high altitude sickness stated refering to the recruitment drives that started in February 2021.
The Tibetan troops, on the other hand, are able to effortlessly scale the icy-Himalayan heights and suffer no breathing and mountain sickness issues.
Earlier, there were reports that the Chinese has mandated that every Tibetan family send atleast one member for recruitment in the PLA.
However, most of the troops are mixed Tibetans — children of Tibetan mothers and Han Chinese fathers. "Most of them are children of ex-PLA Han Chinese soldiers who got married to Tibetans," intelligence officials said.
The Chinese have attempted to recruit Gurkha soldiers in the PLA, as well.
"They have failed to get Gurkhas because they are tied to the Indian army for historical and emotional reasons, so they have to find Tibetans because an average Chinese soldier cannot match our boys in the high Himalayas physically," Lt Gen J.R. Mukherjee, former Chief of Staff in India's Eastern Army said.
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