Ten Thousand Li of Borderlands Transformed — A Survey of High-Quality Development in Border and Coastal Defense Construction in the New Era
Editor's Note: Chairman Xi has profoundly observed that advancing the modernization of border, coastal, and air defense is an intrinsic requirement of national defense and military modernization, an essential component of using high-level security to guarantee high-quality development, and of great significance for comprehensively advancing the great cause of building a strong nation and national rejuvenation through Chinese-path modernization (中国式现代化).
Along the motherland's more than 22,000 kilometers of land borders and more than 18,000 kilometers of continental coastline stand national gateways and ports of entry, customs facilities and air ports, border defense posts, and border towns, where generation after generation of border guards have written their devotion to family and nation with loyalty. In recent days, the PLA Daily dispatched multiple teams of reporters to the ten-thousand-li frontier — from the snow-covered plateau to the southwestern borderlands, from the vast northern frontier to the expansive South China Sea — to witness firsthand the new achievements in border security and stability, the new face of high-quality development in the border regions, and the new atmosphere of openness and cooperation along the frontier.
Beginning today, the PLA Daily launches the "Journey Along Ten Thousand Li of Borderlands" (万里边疆行) column. We invite your attention.
Ten Thousand Li of Borderlands Transformed
— A Survey of High-Quality Development in Border and Coastal Defense Construction in the New Era
■ Liu Yintang, PLA Daily Correspondent Jia Qilong
[Caption] Recently, the Xiaobaiyang (Little White Poplar) Post of a border defense company under the Xinjiang Tacheng Military Sub-district conducted an education activity. Pictured: a veteran soldier introduces the post's history to new recruits. Photo by Hu Heng.
The moon shines bright over the frontier; devotion to family and nation runs deep.
Along the motherland's border stretching for ten thousand li, watchtower after watchtower stands tall and unyielding, road after road winds and extends, and village after village along the border takes on a new look.
There was a time when "borders hard to defend, border areas hard to enrich" was the true reality for many border regions. Today, from the snow-covered plateau to the grasslands of the northern frontier, from the southwestern borderlands to the forests of the northeast, a magnificent tableau of "border defense consolidated, border areas secure, border residents prosperous" (边防固、边境安、边民富) is gradually unfolding. Border and coastal defense construction in the new era has long transcended the purely military-defensive domain and is advancing resolutely toward deep integration of "consolidating the border, invigorating the border, and enriching the people" (固边、兴边、富民).
From "Dispersed Management" to "Clenching the Fist"
The strength of border defense lies in its forces; the strength of its forces lies in the system.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, the Party Central Committee, the State Council, and the Central Military Commission (CMC) have coordinated and aligned the results of Party and state institutional reforms with reforms to the military's scale, structure, and force composition, and have continuously optimized the structure of China's border and coastal defense forces in accordance with the principles of clear responsibilities, rational structure, leanness and effectiveness, and integrated linkage. This profound transformation has brought about a historic reshaping of the border and coastal defense force system.
In Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, a civil-military combined pilot mission for strengthening and consolidating the border is exploring a "five-in-one" (五位一体) border control system in which the Party committee sets the direction, the government coordinates overall, the military serves as the backbone, the police handle governance, and the people form the foundation. The combined strength of the Party, government, military, police, and people in strengthening and consolidating the border is a unique advantage of China's border and coastal defense and a concrete practice of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics in the border and coastal defense domain. In recent years, under this framework, the military and civilian sides have continuously improved supporting measures, organically unifying border invigoration with people's enrichment, while building a three-dimensional security barrier along the border and enabling border residents to live ever more prosperous lives.
On the motherland's northern frontier, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has built a three-tier border defense work organization and management system at the regional, league, and banner levels, forming a joint-defense command and coordination mechanism among the provincial military district system, border defense forces stationed in the region, People's Armed Police (PAP) units, and immigration management agencies, and establishing a working pattern of military-police joint logistics, police-civilian joint defense, and inter-service coordination.
In recent years, border and coastal defense reserve forces have closely aligned with the diverse mission requirements of the new era, reshaping their organizational models and continuously expanding their functional missions, forming a construction pattern in which standing forces and reserve forces are arranged in echelon and complement each other. Along the land border, specialized militia units for border reconnaissance, blockade and alert, and emergency repair are routinely built up and strengthened.
Border regions along land and coast have developed a series of mature practices in the selection, recruitment, management, and preferential treatment of border protection personnel (护边员) and border patrol personnel (巡边员). The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region routinely organizes border protection personnel to conduct border patrols and policy outreach, and vigorously promotes models such as "border police stations" (边境警务站), "border protection relay stations" (护边驿站), and "horseback patrol teams" (马背巡逻队).
"In the past, patrolling the Gobi, what we feared most was heatstroke and dehydration. Now, the 'border police stations' and 'border protection relay stations' are our safe havens — they have beds and food, and are equipped with water purification and power generation equipment." The plain words of Mahsati Silamu, a Kazakh border protection worker in Jimunai County, Xinjiang, speak to the new changes in border defense force support.
From "Measuring with Footsteps" to "Guardianship from the Cloud"
The transformation of the frontier lies in its foundations; the transformation of its foundations lies in technology.
There was a time when China's border and coastal defense relied largely on simple wire fences, foot patrols, and temporary duty posts, with blind spots in control existing in remote areas such as high plateaus, islands, and dense forests.
In recent years, the state has continuously advanced dedicated border and coastal defense construction, coordinating the full-domain layout of standardized duty and control facilities across land borders, coastal lines, and port passages. Tens of thousands of kilometers of border and coastal defense duty roads have been cumulatively built, with various forward duty and observation points simultaneously configured and improved, duty wharves, helicopter landing pads, and observation towers constructed, and nearly ten thousand kilometers of fixed and mobile barrier facilities deployed at scale across the full domain. Today, the vast majority of border defense companies and forward duty posts nationwide have had patrol roads built through to them, ending the history of long-term reliance on foot patrols.
Hundreds of border defense posts in Tibet have completed barracks renovations; the new barracks are equipped with oxygen supply and generation equipment, connected to the national power grid, and fitted with intelligent vegetable cellars to ensure fresh vegetable supply — high-altitude posts have achieved full coverage of oxygen supply, water supply, electricity supply, heating, and internet connectivity.
"In the past, well water had to settle before we could drink it; now the garrison has purified water supplied around the clock. Before, hot water was intermittent; now we can shower in hot water at any time." A Tibet veteran who has guarded the border for 19 years expressed deep feeling. Modern training facilities, study rooms, and medical rooms have become standard equipment for frontline border defense companies, and remote medical systems allow border defense officers and soldiers to consult face-to-face with specialists at affiliated hospitals thousands of li away.
Among the sweeping changes in infrastructure, "smart border defense" (智慧边防) construction stands out as particularly striking. In recent years, border defense forces have strengthened technology empowerment, advancing to new levels in intelligent control, equipment transformation, and integrated support, as the ten-thousand-li frontier accelerates its transformation from traditional defense to intelligent control. In the forested snowfields, patrol detachments use information systems to relay frontline conditions in real time to company command posts; deep in the rainforest, border defense detachments use satellite systems to maintain communications with higher echelons… The network information system is continuously improving, and border defense control has achieved a leap from "information islands" to "a single network capturing everything."
Today's frontier has taken initial shape as a control system led by information and empowered by technology. Intelligent imaging systems are distributed throughout defense areas; companies have achieved real-time command, visual monitoring, and efficient response, and border situation handling has shifted from "passive response" to "proactive detection." Monitoring centers have been built along the border, with nearly ten thousand kilometers of transmission lines laid, breaking through communications dead zones in deep mountains, the Gobi, distant seas, and isolated islands, and building a stable, reliable, low-latency, high-capacity border defense communications foundation.
Zhejiang Province has strengthened the construction of new means and conditions for border and coastal defense, building a three-dimensional intelligent control system and driving the coordinated development of human defense, physical defense, technical defense, and smart defense (人防、物防、技防、智防). By integrating and consolidating data resources from maritime-related units, they have achieved "one-cloud sharing" of coastal defense information and "one-map presentation" of the control situation. The province has also promoted pilot construction of new technologies such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned surface vessels, and electromagnetic detection, empowering and enhancing traditional control means, supporting the frontline control needs of public security, coast guard, and other units, and concentrating efforts on building a "smart coastal defense brain" (智慧海防大脑).
Multiple border provinces in South China and the Northeast are actively building "digital fortresses." Pingxiang City, Guangxi, has built a three-dimensional prevention and control network of "technology-smart defense plus dense human defense" covering all border passages, boundary marker locations, and key road sections along the entire line, with high-altitude observation towers, border-patrol UAVs, intelligent early-warning checkpoints, and AI video analysis systems all deployed together, forming a three-dimensional land-sea-air integrated prevention and control posture.
At dawn, a duty officer at a border defense company of a unit stationed in Dandong City, Liaoning Province, lightly clicks a mouse, detects a suspicious person entering the alert zone through the electronic monitoring system, and a UAV immediately takes off to verify the situation — the entire handling process takes only a few minutes. This scene is a microcosm of the modernization of border defense forces.
From high-altitude UAVs to ground sensors, from radar early-warning systems to optical observation equipment, a three-dimensional network of "integrated space-sky-ground, multi-dimensional coverage" has fortified the Great Wall of border defense. The new generation of individual integrated combat systems integrates protection, observation, and other modules; border defense officers and soldiers holding smart terminals can receive orders and report situations in real time. In the past, it was "iron feet" and binoculars; now it is "data links" and "thousand-li eyes" — border duty is accelerating its shift from "measuring with footsteps" to "guardianship from the cloud."
From "Standing Guard at the Boundary Marker" to "Embracing the World"
The key to consolidating border defense lies in development; the foundation of border prosperity lies in industry.
Border duty roads, border defense highways, and power and water transmission lines connect with the scattered residential points along the border, bringing roads to many border villages and navigation links to near-shore islands. Border barrier facilities eliminate the risk of border residents accidentally crossing the national boundary while farming or herding, further solidifying the development foundation for characteristic and advantageous industries such as border trade, border tourism, and island development.
In Jilin, the G331 Border Open Tourism Corridor has officially opened to traffic. This "golden ribbon" winding along the Yalu River is not only a strategic road for stabilizing and consolidating the border, but also a road for enriching the people through the integration of transportation and tourism, and a window road for openness and cooperation. In the first half of this year, the cumulative number of tourists received along the G331 exceeded 2 million person-trips. Border villagers have invested in guesthouses, opened specialty restaurants, and sold local agricultural products, truly living off "tourism."
In Inner Mongolia, the action to invigorate the border and enrich the people (兴边富民行动) has also borne abundant fruit. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Inner Mongolia implemented border invigoration and people-enrichment action projects, carried out the "Private Enterprises Enter the Frontier — Inner Mongolia Tour" activity, advanced a three-year integrated construction action for "water, electricity, roads, and communications" infrastructure in border areas, opened up the "capillaries" of frontier rural and pastoral areas, built thousands of water supply wells, and installed wind-solar complementary equipment for tens of thousands of farming and herding households.
Serving the Belt and Road Initiative (一带一路) construction is also an important mission for border and coastal defense regions. China has signed Belt and Road cooperation documents with relevant neighboring countries, regularly conducts meetings, friendly mutual visits, joint inspections, and joint exercises and training activities, and has established and improved mechanisms for security risk prevention and joint handling of emergencies. The Horgos Port in Xinjiang, as a key node of the China-Kazakhstan Economic Corridor, has deeply participated in Belt and Road co-construction, transforming from a remote border town into an international hub.
"Preparing the frontier and strengthening the military is a matter of great importance to the state." Border defense construction in the new era is undergoing a profound transformation from "traditional defense" to "intelligent control," a comprehensive leap from "dispersed management" to "system integration" (体系融合), and a historic crossing from "purely guarding the border" to "invigorating the border and enriching the people." The reshaping of the force system has consolidated the foundation of border guardianship; the sweeping changes in infrastructure have reshaped the form of border defense; and the practice of invigorating the border and enriching the people has unleashed the vitality of the frontier.
Border defense consolidated, border areas secure, border residents happy — this tableau of the frontier in the new era is being painted stroke by stroke by tens of millions of border guards. "We will absolutely never (决不) let the territory we guard shrink, and we will absolutely never (决不) let sovereignty slip away!" This resounding oath echoes across the ten-thousand-li frontier and is etched in the heart of every Chinese citizen.