New Delhi: In eastern Ladakh, the Chinese army is adopting new tactics against India on the Line of Actual Control (LAC). In this episode, now the People’s Liberation Army of China is recruiting people from Tibet and Nepal who have a good understanding of the Hindi language and are capable of getting intelligence. This has come to the fore in the latest intelligence input.
It has been said in this intelligence that, to increase this recruitment drive, officials of the Tibet Military District are visiting the university in search of Hindi graduates. The Tibet Military District is under the PLA’s Western Theater Command and oversees the lower part of the LAC which includes the border areas of India’s north-eastern states of Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh as well as Uttarakhand.
According to intelligence, this massive recruitment drive conducted by the Western Theater Command of the PLA is almost complete. Earlier in May, News18 reported that PLA officers from the Tibet Military District had visited several universities and schools in China to deliver lectures on issues such as career opportunities for Hindi speakers.
China’s emphasis on recruiting Tibetan citizens into the army
Defense sources in the country told News18 that China’s People’s Liberation Army has been focusing on recruiting as many Tibetans as possible instead of recruiting regular militia units. It has come to the fore in many intelligence inputs that the Chinese army had launched a campaign last year to recruit Tibetans into the army.
A source told News18 that it would be an added advantage for the Chinese military that the new recruits should speak Hindi as they can be deployed for interception jobs for various roles in the LAC. At the same time, according to another intelligence input, there are about 7 thousand active Tibetan Defense Forces in the Chinese army, out of which one thousand Tibetans, including 100 women, have been enrolled in the Special Tibetan Army Unit. After the conflict in Galwan Valley in June 2020, China has shown a spurt in the recruitment drive for Hindi speakers.
At the same time, the Indian Army is also training its soldiers in Tibetan and Chinese languages. Apart from other training institutes, several courses in the Mandarin language are also being run in the schools of Northern, Eastern, and Central Command. Earlier this month, the Indian Army started recruiting Chinese fluent people in the Territorial Army (TA).
