China's terrestrial frontier defense infrastructure takes shape

Frontier roads are like rainbow, frontier wires like knitting and frontier junctures like ironwork. Recently during a visit to the thousands-kilometer frontier of the motherland the reporter witnessed broad and smooth patrol roads stretching to the end of the sky, grand wire nettings winding their ways through the lofty and precipitous peaks and alert monitoring equipment constantly turning their "eyes" ---. China's terrestrial frontier defense infrastructure has taken shape.

China's terrestrial borderline is more than 22,000 kilometer long. Over the last ten years the government put special funds into it and has, in nine terrestrial border provinces and autonomous regions nationwide, built frontier defense patrol roads of 15,000-plus kilometers, frontier wire nettings of 4,600-plus kilometers, port iron fencings of 50,000-plus meters, more than 300 frontier monitoring and alarm systems and some accessory establishment such as border caution and management signs.

These newly-built frontier infrastructures changed the backward situation of China's terrestrial frontier defense infrastructure, improved the garrison conditions of frontier defense troops and greatly raised the garrison troops' ability of rapid response and handling emergencies. In the past the garrison officers and soldiers had to tramp over hills and dales on foot for days before arriving at the patrol posts. Now they can return from the frontier juncture thousands-kilometer away within a day.

Frontier defense infrastructure, particularly the construction of patrol roads has improved the out-of-the-way situation of the border areas and facilitated the production and living of the general public, opening a way for people in the border areas to get rich and become affluent. The frontier defense patrol roads in Yunan and Guangxi have ended the roadless history of 1,068 villages along the border and considerably improved the living standards of more than 500,000 people. Patrol roads in many northeast frontier areas have enabled famous, special and high-quality agricultural products, which previously could not be transported out for sale, to walk out of the mountains, with people's income being multiplied. The border wire nettings set up in regions such as Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Xinjiang effectively prevent the occurrence of people and animals crossing the border and expand the usable areas of farmland and grassland for inhabitants of border areas and the production and operation scope for farmers and herdsmen living along the border.

The construction of frontier defense infrastructure has boosted the further development of the friendly neighborhood relations between China and its neighboring countries. In recently years occurrences of people and animal crossing the border between China and neighboring countries have been reduced dramatically. Order in border areas has become more stabilized and atmosphere more serene.

By People's Daily Online