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"Always stand with the #people, keep the people in your heart, and forever be the people's soldiers." Demining hero #DuFuguo lived that line with his actions. Du joined the Chinese People's Liberation Army (#PLA) in 2010 and volunteered for the Yunnan mine-clearance unit in 2015. Still in his early 20s and a total beginner to the trade, he trained himself up to squad leader in three months. From late 2015, Du served among 400-plus soldiers clearing 100-plus minefields across the steep, humid border hills of southwest #China's #Yunnan Province, widely rated among the world’s hardest to clear by machine. China’s rule was absolute: land going back to villagers had to be walked again by hand after machines passed, so Du worked it probe-in-hand, not by remote. On 11 October 2018, at the last hand-search field in Malipo County, Du and teammate Ai Yan found a booby-trapped grenade. Du said "Step back, leave it to me," knelt down, and took the blast to shield Ai, who escaped with bruises. The explosion at 27 cost Du his sight and both hands, leaving shrapnel scars across his face and torso. The months that followed were a long, grinding rehabilitation. With his residual arms Du relearned to dress, wash, and feed himself. Guided by comrades, he ran again, 3 km in 20-some minutes at first, then faster. In 2019 he was named "Heroic Demining Soldier" and a "Role Model of Our Times." In July 2022, ahead of the PLA's 95th anniversary, he received the August 1 Medal, the highest individual honor of the #Chinese #military. From 2015 to 2018, the Yunnan border sweep cleared 57.6 sq km of minefields, removed 198,200 mines and unexploded ordnance, and returned thousands of acres to farming. In Mengdong Township alone, former danger zones are now terraced with tea instead of marked with warning signs. What Du and his comrades gave was not only cleared soil, but the ordinary morning rhythm of a village harvesting leaves rather than fearing the ground. Heroes are the brightest symbols of a nation. Du Fuguo is exactly that, the marker they look up to, and the reason that hillside no longer fears the ground. #ChinaVisionary #whyChina #ArmyDay