Grasping the Party’s strategy for building solid defensive zones in the new situation, over the past years, the Party Organization of Trung Khanh district, Cao Bang province has always attached great value to directing and performing this work effectively, thereby contributing to defending its area and facilitating its socio-economic development.

Trung Khanh is a border district located in the Northeast of Cao Bang province, having a total area of 469.15 km², 20 communes and townships including 8 border communes with a population of about 50,000, sharing an over-63-km-long border with China. Notably, the district has rather complex terrain with intertwined high mountains, valleys, rivers, springs, and caves as well as many heights of tactical value being used as the important military works within the general defensive posture of the province and the Military Region 1 and as the border markers between our country and China. Moreover, the district has the Po Peo border gate and the Ban Gioc Waterfall tourist site co-exploited by Vietnam and China as well as many natural resources of economic value. The peoples from the two sides of the border often travel to this area for business and family visit, etc., thereby posing a threat to political security and social order and safety. Against that backdrop, the district has strengthened its leadership and direction over the building of a solid defensive zone.

Comrade Pham Van Cao chairing a meeting of the District’s Military Party Committee in late 2018

Perceiving the task, the Party Committee, Authority, and people of Trung Khanh have united in overcoming difficulties and rather successfully performed the work of defensive zone building. As a result, the posture of all-people national defence associated with the people’s security posture has been consolidated; the potential and posture within the defensive zone have been gradually strengthened; importance has been attached to combining socio-economic development with defence-security; the mechanism for all-level party committees and authorities’ leadership, management and operation has been run in a smooth and effective manner. At the same time, the district’s armed forces’ synergy and combat readiness have been raised step by step; the work of people-to-people exchange has been promoted, thereby contributing to building a border of peace, friendship, and cooperation for development.

However, the awareness of a section of cadres, party members, and the people towards the task of defensive zone building has yet to be fully; some have even thought that it is the task of the armed forces only. The work of giving advice to local party committees and authorities about the defensive zone building has yet to meet the task requirements while the local budget for construction within the defensive zone has been limited. To overcome those weaknesses and further the quality of defensive zone building to meet the requirements for defending the area in the new situation, in the upcoming time, the District’s Party Committee will continue taking the measures synchronously as follows.

First, strengthening leadership over the enhanced quality and effectiveness of defensive zone building. This is a principle, requirement, and measure to ensure the district’s defensive zone building is under the Party’s guidelines and achieves the practical effectiveness. Grounded on higher echelons’ directives and resolutions on defensive zone building, particularly the 10^th Politburo’s Resolution 28-NQ/TW, the Decree 21/2019/NĐ-CP, dated February 2^nd 2019, by the Government, the Provincial People’s Council’s Resolution 38/2017/NQ-HĐND, dated December 8^th 2017 on building Cao Bang province’s defensive zone in the period of 2017-2020, the District’s Party Committee and People’s Committee continue to issue resolutions, action plans, and guiding documents related to the defensive zone building. To translate those resolutions and directives into life, the District’s Party Committee directs the Military Office to closely cooperate with the district’s Commission for Propaganda and Education and communes in stepping up propagation and education to raise the awareness and responsibility of cadres, party members, and all people towards the defensive zone building, while considering this as a central, routine political task of all-level party committees. At the same time, it improves the party committees and authorities’ capability in leading, directing, and performing the defence-security task and the defensive zone building, particularly in the border communes, while promoting the role of offices, sectors, and organizations with the Military and Public Security offices as the centre.

In addition, the District’s Party Committee supplements and completes the mechanism for leadership over the building and operation of the defensive zone, with a focus on consolidating the structure of the steering boards on the defensive zone, the people’s air defence, and the civilian defence. It also enhances the capability in coordination between the Military, Public Security and Border Guard in executing the defence-security task and particularly settling the issues on border security. To improve the defensive zone’s politico-spiritual potential, the District’s Party Committee focuses its leadership on building pure, strong party organizations and strong authorities and socio-political unions as well as a firm “people’s hearts and minds posture” and a strong political system; on encouraging the people to implement the policies on foreign affairs, ethnicity, religion, socio-economic development, and defence-security. Located in the border area, the district puts store by the stable, durable cooperation in agriculture and forestry product export and import, tourism, border patrol, crime prevention and combat with the province of Guangxi, China in order for a neighbourly relationship of peace, friendship and development.

Second, enhancing the effectiveness of combining socio-economic development with defence-security. Grounded on the Party’s policy on combining economy with defence and vice versa and the direction by the Military Region and the province on building the defensive zone’s economic potential, the District’s Party Committee focuses on adopting the measures to raise the effectiveness of combining socio-economic development with defence-security under the district’s Master Plan for socio-economic development between 2015 and 2020, with orientation towards 2030. It advocates that each socio-economic growth step will enhance the potential and strength of defence-security and vice versa. Accordingly, the district directs localities to actively foster agriculture and forestry to improve the people’s life and provide food reserves for the first year of a war  (if occurred); to rearrange the residential areas and foster afforestation to create camouflage and diversion for the military works and force deployment and use under the defensive intent at all levels. At the same time, significance is attached to taking the measures to attract investments in building dual-use works, particularly traffic systems connecting the district’s key economic zones with the border gate zones in order to foster trade and tourism and effectively serve the defence-security task in both peacetime and wartime. Besides, the district develops the fields of health, post and telecoms, natural resources exploitation, and environment protection in the modern, sustainable manner to serve the economy in peacetime and the task of defence mobilization in the event. In the process, the district directs the Military and Public Security offices to cooperate with relevant offices in closely appraising and supervising the projects/plans for socio-economic development in the area, resolutely preventing the economic development from affecting the defence-security task, particularly in the border area.

Third, making the local armed forces and building an interconnected, solid military posture within the defensive zone. To improve the military posture within the defensive zone, the District’s Party Committee attaches significance to making the local armed forces strong politically, ideologically, and organizationally as the loyal, reliable political, fighting forces of the local party committee and authority. As for the active force, the District’s Party Committee cooperates with the province’s competent offices in consolidating its structure and making it “compact and strong”, training this force to be expert in combat in the mountainous area, improving its capacity to collaborate with other forces under the Government’s Decree 77/2010/NĐ-CP to resolutely foil all plots and artifices of the hostile forces’ “peaceful evolution” strategy in the area, and making this force capable of giving sound advice to local party committees and authorities on leading and directing the defence-security work. As for the reserve force and the militia and self-defence force, the district advocates making these forces “powerful and extensive”, developing their quantity in line with their improved quality, while organizing training and exercises to enhance the effectiveness of their operation within the defensive zone, particularly their capacity to opportunely, effectively deal with the security situations, prevent and combat forest fires, and conduct search and rescue operations.

In addition to building the strong local armed forces, the district focuses on leading the building of an interconnected, solid, in-depth military posture within the defensive zone. Adhering to the Project on defence support for building the district’s defensive zone in the 2015-2020 period, with orientation towards 2030, the Military Office cooperates with competent offices in making the plans on defence lands and the investments in building and consolidating the defensive zone posture’s components. Due to the limited budget, priority should be given to building the essential works, such as the headquarters, battlefield, and training ground. At the same time, it is necessary to protect the terrains of military value and further inspect and settle violations of defence lands under the regulations of law. Moreover, the District’s Party Committee directs offices and units of the armed forces to continue adjusting and supplementing the system of plans and projects for defensive combat, border protection, and defence mobilization as well as the documents on combat, security maintenance, natural disaster prevention and control in communes and townships as the basis for holding the exercises.

Well implementing the above-mentioned measures will make contributions to building the defensive zone of Trung Khanh district according to the stated targets and requirements, neutralizing the hostile forces’ plots and acts of sabotage, protecting the area, and building a comprehensively strong district.

Pham Van Cao, Member of the Provincial Party Committee

Secretary of the District’s Party Committee