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China deploys PLA cooks, doctors to forge ties with Tibetans near India border

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China deploys PLA cooks, doctors to forge ties with Tibetans near India border

Rare details have emerged about how China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is helping residents of remote villages in building and maintaining infrastructure near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India as it pushes to develop dual-use habitats along the disputed border.

As part of its efforts to fuse civilian-military resources, the PLA has even deployed army cooks to teach local Tibetans how to make popular “Chinese dishes” in a village close to the India border.

The focus of a spot report in an official military portal this week was on Yumai, China’s last big border village, only kilometres away from the Upper Subansiri district in Arunachal Pradesh.

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Yumai, in Longzi county, is located in Tibet Autonomous Region’s (TAR) Shannan area, which borders India and Bhutan – it is considered China’s first “xiaokang” or “well-off village”.

It made headlines in China in 2017 when President Xi Jinping wrote a brief letter to a family of Tibetan herders saying he hoped they “will motivate more herders to set down roots in the border area like galsang flowers, and become guardians of Chinese territory”.

The village, home to a single family until a few decades ago, is said to have dozens of families now.

“In recent years, Yumai has inaugurated an asphalt road, and in quick succession built schools, health centres, police stations and other public service institutions and units, and more and more people have moved here,” the military portal news report said.

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The report did not mention the village population or why “more and more” people were moving to the remote location.

An August 2021 news report in the state-run China Daily newspaper, however, said the village then had 200 residents.

“The ‘three-person township’ expanded into a place that saw 20 residents in 1999 and 30 in 2009. Currently, it is recognised as a relatively well-off and beautiful place with more than 200 residents from 67 families. Villagers now take turns patrolling the border,” the China Daily report said.

Residents have opened at least “five homestays” with the help of personnel from the Tibet Military Region, part of the Western Theatre Command, which oversees the entire length of the Sino-India disputed border.

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The rooms have televisions, oxygen generators and wifi.

The PLA has deployed military cooks to teach hotel owners how to make Chinese cuisine, the report said.

Hotel owners said until recently they did not know how to make Chinese dishes like “twice-cooked pork” and “diced spicy chicken” for tourists from the rest of the country. They do now, the report added.

Military doctors are dispatched twice a week to the village and soldiers on patrolling duty in the area have been instructed to call on the elderly.

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The aim is clear – build a rapport with local Tibetans. “In Yumai, the military and civilians are one family,” the report said, quoting an officer as saying that a new chapter of deep friendship between the military and the civilians will be built.

Several villages have come up in the tri-junction between India, Bhutan and China, and a new village is said to have come up close to Longju, near Arunachal Pradesh, which witnessed the first clash between India and China in 1959, India-based Tibet expert Claude Arpi had told HT earlier.

The Chinese foreign ministry issued a strong statement last year when Indian media reports said it had built villages on the Indian side of the LAC, close to Yumai village.

“China’s normal construction on its own territory is entirely a matter of sovereignty,” the ministry had said in January, 2021, when asked about the new village.

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Last October, China passed a new law to strengthen land border protection amid the ongoing military tension along the disputed boundary with India, firming up the military-civilian role in defending the country’s borders.

The legislation, the first such law since new China was formed in 1949, formalised combining the military defence of China’s land borders with improving social and economic development in border areas.

It strengthened the PLA’s policy to work closely with civilians staying in border areas – for example, Tibetan villagers living along the border with India, Bhutan and Nepal – to work as the first line of defence.

Complete News Source : Hindustan Times

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HT Rewind 2024: Teja Sajja says HanuMan kicking off the year in style is the moment he’d been ‘waiting for’ | Exclusive

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December 21, 2024

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HT Rewind 2024: Teja Sajja says HanuMan kicking off the year in style is the moment he’d been ‘waiting for’ | Exclusive

In conversation with Hindustan Times, Teja Sajja decodes the success of HanuMan and other Telugu films, talks about his upcoming projects, and more.
When Prasanth Varma’s superhero film HanuMan, starring Teja Sajja, was announced to be released alongside big films like Mahesh Babu’s Guntur Kaaram, Venkatesh’s Saindhav and Nagarjuna’s Naa Saami Ranga in January this year, no one expected the underdog to emerge on top. And yet, the film, made on a budget of under ₹50 crore, managed to collect over ₹300 crore at the box office worldwide in 25 days, becoming one of the highest-grossing Indian films for the year. (Also Read: Ranveer Singh met HanuMan actor Teja Sajja, complimented him even after his Prasanth Varma film Rakshas got shelved)

Ask Teja about the moment he realised his film had not just fought against the tide but also risen to the top; he tells Hindustan Times in an exclusive conversation, “Since I returned to acting (as a lead actor after being a child artiste since 1998), this is the moment I’ve been waiting for. When everything from the HanuMan teaser to the songs was grabbing attention, we knew we had hit a gold mine. But I don’t think we imagined it would cross the ₹300 crore threshold. We were so satisfied with the opening numbers; everything else was a bonus.”

‘Success has given me fear of disappointing people’

Teja acted in Zombie Reddy, Ishq and Adbhutham before HanuMan, but they are what you would call ‘critical successes’, adding to his repertoire as an actor who can perform. But things have changed for him now, says Teja, who is being picky about the roles he says yes to. “Success either makes you overconfident or gives you the fear of disappointing people; I have the latter,” he explains.

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Teja admits he wants to chart out his career in Hrithik Roshan’s footsteps, but not in the way you think. “I have such a fondness for Hrithik due to Koi Mil Gaya and Krrish. No matter how well he performed after that, these left a lasting impression on me; I’m sure 90s kids will agree,” he says, adding, “Similarly, I’ve realised that I have an audience in children now. I want to be conscious of that when I pick roles. I want to make films families can enjoy together.”

But despite people in places like Mumbai or Delhi recognising him, Teja says he’s clear that he wants to cater to the Telugu audience first. “I am conscious that I am making films for my playground – the Telugu states. This is the sensibility I have grown up with, and I don’t know if I can cater to everyone else. Will I promote my films in other languages? Sure. But I also can’t be part of films that aren’t authentic to what I know or understand,” he explains.

‘Rootedness has put us on the world map’

And authenticity seems to be the need of the hour. Be it Baahubali and RRR or the recently released Pushpa 2: The Rule, Kalki 2898 AD and Devara: Part 1, certain kind of stories seem to be finding success. “Rootedness and going local is proving to be such a boon for us, be it in Devara or Pushpa or HanuMan. Kalki 2898 AD was our version of a Hollywood film (the sci-fi concept) with actors from across languages in predominant roles; it put us on the world map,” reflects Teja.

However, the actor admits Tollywood went through a phase of Bollywood-inspired rom-coms and family dramas that worked in their favour for a while. “That wasn’t easy to replicate either, but it’s just that these local stories are what the audience seems most interested in now. It can’t just be chalked up to religion, too. It’s about the morals these films are hinged on, the fighting for righteousness, and how an underdog can find their strength. Introducing Mahabharata or Ramayana to a new audience in a cool way is just a perk,” he says.

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And it’s this rootedness that Teja says his next films, Mirai and Jai Hanuman (the sequel to HanuMan), will also have ample of. “Mirai is also a superhero film that caters to kids, but it’s not an origin story like HanuMan. It has a pan-Asian and Buddhist touch because the story is based on King Ashoka’s ideologies. I hope that I will get to deliver something new to the audience again. I will only feel like I’ve arrived if Mirai is equally, if not more, successful,” says Teja.

Rishab Shetty will headline Jai Hanuman, but Teja also looks forward to shooting that. “I can’t wait to be on that set; it’ll be exciting. Now that we know India is ready to watch our films, I want to step it up. I want to shift gears and shoot for at least two films in 2025,” he says. As for what he will do next, Teja says he wants to up the ante. “When I got a SIIMA award for Zombie Reddy as a debutant, I remember telling Prasanth this would be the last award I get. But now that I won a Radio City Cine Award for Best Actor, I hope more awards will follow,” he signs off cheekily.

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