China Finishes Building Its Last Border Village Near Arunachal Pradesh Border
Karma Ngawang 
Credit: Tibetan Review
NEW DELHI: According to TibetanReview.net China has announced that it has finished building the last of five new border villages in Tibet’s Metog county. This village, named Guoxing, sits just a few kilometres away from the Line of Actual Control (LAC) near the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
While Chinese state media describes the project as a way to reduce poverty and help people move away from dangerous, landslide-prone mountains, security experts are looking closer. They point out that these villages are part of a larger plan to place civilians close to the border to strengthen China’s territorial claims.
What is Inside the New Village?
The Guoxing settlement has moved hundreds of people into modern homes. The area is being turned into a busy tourist spot near the famous Mount Namcha Barwa.
To help people make a living, the local government has introduced special farming projects. For example, they handed out thousands of pots of a valuable medicinal plant called dendrobium for families to grow and sell. Many of the business owners and shopkeepers moving into these new border towns are immigrants from other parts of China, backed by government support.
Tourism and National Security
The Chinese government is actively encouraging domestic tourists to visit the area for its rainforests and mountains.
Visitors have openly talked about how having people living and traveling in these remote areas helps the country. Some tourists noted that having busy towns and crowds of people acts as a way to secure the border, believing that a populated frontier is harder to challenge.
For India, this ongoing development is a clear sign of how quickly China is building up its side of the border. While India has also been working hard to build better roads and tunnels in its border regions, the growing towns and permanent settlements across the line show that Beijing is playing a long-term game to cement its footprint in the Himalayas.
About the Author
Lobsang 
Jun Hao 
Rinchen Tashi 