Anushka Saxena
April 22, 2025, marks 75 years since the establishment of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force Radar Troops (空军雷达兵). As noted in a 2020 Xinhua commentary, the Air Force Radar Troops are “The Republic’s ‘Eyes That See a Thousand Miles’.” This edition does a short debrief of some of the reportage surrounding their role and relevance in the PLA over the past few years.
On April 22, 1950, the first radar battalion of the Chinese military was established in Nanjing. Since then, the radar forces have been trained at the Friendship Pass radar station on China’s southwest border (one of the world’s largest and most high-tech border crossings, between China and Vietnam – also known as the Youyiguan Radar Station). As the above-cited Xinhua article recites, every new recruit’s first lesson is held beside a “rusted and battle-scarred radar shelter at the mountaintop outpost.” In this symbolic setting, recruits are taught to carry on the immortal “soul of the soldier” — “If the soldier is here, the post is here; if the soldier is here, the antenna turns; if the soldier is here, the intelligence flows” (point is, soldiers at the radar station get work done and train subsequent generations of radar troops).
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