(TibetanReview.net, Apr17’24) — The move by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to recruit Tibetan youths into its ranks has the twin objectives of weaning them away from their traditional cultural environment to advance its drive to Sinicize the Tibetan population and to deploy them in the high-altitude border areas with India where Chinese recruits have suffered from altitude sickness, reported the ANI news agency Apr 16.
Following a PLA decision, the government of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) ordered Tibetan students to undergo compulsory military training from Class 8 or roughly, the age of 13, the report said.
Students refusing to join the training will be denied scholarships, higher studies and other openings, the report cited “sources” as saying. The order is stated to be part of the Military Development Course for Youth, with the purpose being to ensure young Tibetan men have military capabilities.
Previous reports, including from rfa.org, have said the military training for Tibetan students was being conducted during their vacations, with the agenda including indoctrinating them in the ideology and values of China’s ruling Communist Party.
A previous ANI report Aug 7, 2021 said Tibetan students were being sent for a two-week training to camps set up in Lhasa and Nyingtri.
The military training also targets other Tibetan youths whose training takes place close to the line of actual control (LAC)-border with India, to be followed by their deployment there itself later on.
The report said that in in Dec 2023 the PLA recruitment office in Khamba (Gampa? Chinese: Gangba) County announced that a lucrative career in the military awaited the Tibetan youths.
The recruitment age for Tibetan youths was stated to have been relaxed, with the range being 18-26 for them as against 18-24 nationally.
The Chinese government is stated to be keen to know how many Tibetans would apply for recruitment. The PLA’s recruiting centres in some of the counties were stated to be already collecting data about young men in TAR.
During the Ladakh standoff with India, the PLA noticed that a large number of its soldiers deployed from China suffered heavily from mountain sickness. Deploying Tibetan soldiers is seen as a solution to this problem, the report said.