|HT|
A high-altitude, wind-swept military cemetery in Xinjiang which houses the tombs of more than 100 Chinese soldiers who died fighting Indian troops during the 1962 war and at Galwan Valley last year is being renovated to serve as a base for patriotic education. The desolate cemetery was designated a Communist Party of China (CPC) “education base” in September and large-scale renovation work of the graveyard is currently ongoing, a report published by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) portal said last weekend.
The designation of the Kangxiwar Martyrs’ Cemetery as a patriotic education base and its renovation was hastened after a Chinese travel blogger managed to enter the site in July and click smiling selfies, triggering an online furore in China.
On November 15, the blogger was jailed for seven months for dishonouring dead soldiers.
The cemetery is likely the first such “patriotic education base” in connection with Sino-India military history.
“Patriotic education” or “demonstration” bases are a strategic part of the ruling CPC’s efforts to spread party propaganda in the country, especially this year, the CPC’s 100th anniversary.
(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)