RIP Corporal Cheng Junhui

Corporal Cheng Junhui dies in demining mission along China-Vietnam boarder
Source: China Military OnlineEditor: Zhang Tao
2016-06-07 18:080

File photo of Corporal Cheng Junhui

File photo shows Corporal Cheng Junhui (left) is ready for a demining operation.

BEIJING, June 7 (ChinaMil) – Corporal Cheng Junhui with the Unit 3 under the Demining Command of the PLA Yunnan Military Command (MC) died in the third large scale demining operation along the China-Vietnam boarder on June 4, 2016.

Cheng was recognized as martyr and was awarded second-class merit citation by the Yunnan MC.

Officers and soldiers with Unit 3 were conducting missions in a minefield with a slope of over 60 degrees on the afternoon of June 4. While, Cheng Junhui took the initiative to search the most dangerous section.

When Cheng was removing the fuse of a mine, the mountain suddenly collapsed and he rolled down to a valley 30 meters deep. Cheng was rescued and rushed to hospital immediately.




Unfortunately, Cheng died of his injuries at 22:00 at the age of 22.

Cheng Junhui is from Chongqing of China. He joined the PLA 14th Group Army in December 2012 and joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) in August 2014. He started to act as deputy squad leader in the end of 2014.

Cheng became a demining soldier of the PLA Yunnan MC after the deployment of demining tasks in Yunnan section of the China-Vietnam boarder in June, 2015.

The third large scale demining mission along the China-Vietnam border officially started in November 2015. Cheng Junhui and over 400 Chinese soldiers have risked their lives performing demining tasks in Chinese territory. Cheng was always fighting in the most dangerous places during those missions.

Up to now, the Chinese officers and soldiers have cleared a mined area of 14 square kilometers and demined nearly 30,000 of all types of explosives.

Saturday, June 04, 2016

Non-headline news of the day: Mine clearance mission along China-Vietnam border

Since 1990, both China and Vietnam have been conducting mine-clearing campaigns along their joint border.  This is to address the legacy of the 1979 boarder war and the skirmishes that followed. An estimated 2 million landmines were laid during the war.


According to China daily:

Around 6,000 people, aged between eight and 84, have been injured or disabled in Wenshan prefecture, 600 meters away from the frontier at the nearest, since 1979 after stepping on the landmines, which also killed a number of wild animals and livestock, Yunnan.cn reported in 2011.

In Funing county of Wenshan prefecture, one or two people are still hurt every year by landmines, despite many mine clearance projects and warnings and fences set up around mine fields and its Tianpeng village, 600 meters from the China-Vietnam border, was once infamous in China for having "87 villagers with only 78 legs"

 

Note the mine-protection shoes he is wearing.