In the mid of October, good news came one after another from the frontier defense troops of the Tibet Shannan Sub-Command: officers and men on the frontier defense began to use program-controlled telephone; highways have reached all frontier defense companies; sentries on 4,800-meter-high mountain harvested off-season vegetables … Many grassroots officers and men wrote letters to or called the Party committee of the sub-command to express their gratitude.

　　The troops of this sub-command are highly dispersed. The places where the troops are stationed have difficult condition, inconvenient transportation and heavy patrolling tasks. Early this year, the Party committee of this sub-command proposed that members of the Party committee should change their working style. They shall visit sentries over the snow-capped mountains, companies with many problems and units with hardships and heavy tasks. They should find out and solve problems in the grassroots.

　　This March on his first visit to the troops, the commander of the sub-command Sun Deyu chose the third company of a frontier defense regiment stationed on 4,500-meter-high mountain, and stayed in the company. Having lived with officers and men for half a month, he witnessed the hardships and concerns that cannot be seen from reports, and heard voices that cannot be heard before. Before leaving, he left the company with seven suggestions and the promise to start program-controlled telephone by the end of this year.

　　During his survey in a frontier defense regiment, the political commissar of the sub-command Song Wenliang found that some grassroots officers and men were quite unsatisfied with the working style and method of the regiment organs, meanwhile, the organs also had a lot of complaints about some companies. He insisted to stay in the sentry post to conduct survey despite the pain of gout. He talked to officers, listened to complaints of soldiers, and submitted a 30,000-word report to the Party committee of the sub-command. He suggested Party committees above regiment level in the sub-military area command to correct their guiding thought and change working style for grassroots.

　　Going to grassroots units is an important part for improving the overall grassroots construction quality. Director Cai of the Political Department of the sub-command has visited all frontier defense companies and sentries of the area within half an year since he assumed this post. In a frontier defense battalion, director Cai saw the rough barracks, simple living facilities and felt the hardships men faced here. He had heart-to-heart talks with grassroots officers and men and aroused their morale. When he came back from the frontier defense company, he took the initiative to coordinate with organs of upper level, helped to build up a vegetable greenhouse and bought over 100 sheep for the frontier defense battalion. Thus the living conditions of officers and men have been effectively improved.

　　Since this year, every leader of this sub-command has spent an average of more than 50 days in conducting survey and solving problems at the frontier. They have submitted 26 reports to the Party committee of the sub-command, and solved more than 20 problems for officers and men on the frontier defense.

　　By Wang Weidong and Xia Hongping

　　(October 29, PLA Daily)