Before dawn in a wind-swept mountain valley, a small People’s Liberation Army information-support unit prepares for the Lunar New Year the same way it does every day: by making sure its lights stay on. Soldiers in a remote southern garrison spend the weeks before the holiday performing a ritual of winter maintenance that combines technical upkeep, hands-on training for new recruits, and a message of quiet custodianship — the unglamorous work that keeps local life and broader defenses running.
The unit’s winter-maintenance tradition, more than two decades old, is framed as both practical and political. Routine tasks — cleaning filters, checking pressure gauges, cataloguing instruments — are taught to fresh arrivals as rites of passage; the exercises foster a sense of ownership over equipment and an institutional discipline that leaders say sets the tone for the year ahead.
That hands-on culture coexists with a rapid push toward digital and automated control. The garrison has layered multiple video feeds and an intelligent operations platform onto its command room, enabling technicians to switch power sources, start generator sets, and monitor systems centrally. Officers speak of a structural shift from manpower-heavy duties toward capability-focused, networked defenses, a microcosm of the PLA’s broader modernization drive.
Maintaining equipment is only half the story: emergency drills are a constant feature, especially before long holidays when complacency can be most dangerous. Crews practise sealed-room procedures, ventilation shutdowns and rapid donning of protective gear; an 8-hour midnight repair of a frozen water well, recalled by one young soldier, is presented as the formative incident that turned abstract duty into lived conviction.
Commanders are also attentive to morale and civilian ties. Ahead of the Spring Festival the unit staged family-video calls, collected recorded greetings from parents and spouses, and invited military spouses to cook traditional dishes for the mess hall — small interventions that senior officers say translate into steadier personnel and wider family support. Political messaging is explicit: guarding the mountain is cast as guarding the nation, and anonymous service as the source of state prestige.
For international observers the scene matters for three linked reasons. First, it illustrates the PLA’s dual focus on human discipline and technological integration in garrisoned, non-frontline posts. Second, the emphasis on family outreach and visible welfare measures highlights the Party’s investment in military morale as a pillar of domestic legitimacy. Third, the story reveals trade-offs: automation reduces manpower burdens but increases dependence on networked systems whose vulnerabilities — cyber, supply-chain or power — could complicate resilience in crises. The warm lights in the valley are therefore both a literal and symbolic measure of state readiness and the challenges that modernization brings.