The History and Development of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps

The State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China

October 2014, Beijing

Contents

Preface

I. Founding and Development

II. Responsibilities and Structure

III. Development and Construction

IV. Safeguard the Frontier, Maintain Stability, and Promote Ethnic Unity

Preface

The practice of stationing garrison troops to cultivate and guard its border areas is a legacy of China's several thousand years of history of developing and safeguarding its frontiers. The central government first adopted this practice on a large scale in what is known as the Western Regions (the major part of which was today's Xinjiang) more than 2,000 years ago, during China's Western Han Dynasty, and it continues to this day. In 1949 Xinjiang was peacefully liberated. In 1954 the central government decided to form a production and construction corps in Xinjiang. This strategic move conformed to national conditions and the realities of Xinjiang, representing a continuation and development of historical experience under new conditions.

The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) started from scratch 60 years ago. It has since made strenuous efforts to fulfill faithfully the responsibilities the state has entrusted to it to cultivate and guard the border areas. Despite a harsh natural environment, XPCC workers put down roots in Xinjiang. They have reclaimed ecological oases from the desolate Gobi desert, initiated Xinjiang's modernization, built large-scale agriculture and industrial and mining enterprises, and established new cities and towns through joining hands with local people of all ethnic groups. Combining the functions of production, administration, and defense, the XPCC has made indelible contributions to the development of Xinjiang, by promoting unity among ethnic groups, maintaining social stability, and strengthening national border defense.

On the 60th anniversary of the founding of the XPCC, we issue this white paper which presents a comprehensive introduction to the history and development of the XPCC, to give the international community a better knowledge of its functions and nature as a social organization, and of XPCC members as a social group.

I. Founding and Development

Xinjiang is situated in the border areas of northwest China. Founding of the XPCC occurred under a special geographical and historical background.

When Xinjiang was peacefully liberated in 1949, the region featured a natural economy, with farming and animal husbandry as the mainstay. Productivity was low and the mode of production was backward. Development was stalled and local residents lived in poverty. Aiming to consolidate border defense, accelerate Xinjiang's development, and reduce the economic burden on the local government and local residents of all ethnic groups, in January 1950 the People's Liberation Army (PLA) units stationed in Xinjiang started focusing their efforts on production and construction. By the end of that year they had become largely self-sufficient in grains and fully self-sufficient in edible oil and vegetables. In 1953 the Xinjiang Military District reorganized its troops into two divisions: defense troops and production troops. The latter had 43 regimental agricultural and stock raising farms and 77,260 hectares of farmland. The production troops also set up industrial, transport, construction, and commercial enterprises, as well as public institutions of science and technology, education, health, and culture, so paving the way for the founding of the Production and Construction Corps.

In October 1954 the central government ordered the demobilization of most of the PLA Second, Fifth, and Sixth Armies and all of the 22nd Army Group in Xinjiang, and their separation from the setups of the national defense forces to form the Production and Construction Corps of the Xinjiang Military District of the PLA, subject to the dual leadership of the Xinjiang Military District and the Xinjiang Sub-bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The XPCC's missions were to carry out both production and militia duties, and to cultivate and guard the border areas. Henceforth the XPCC officially commenced its building of state-run agricultural and stock raising farms, and transformed from military self-sufficient production to production as an enterprise, incorporated into national planning. The XPCC had an initial population of 175,500, later swelled by large numbers of youth, demobilized military personnel, intellectuals, scientists, and technicians. As of May 1956 the XPCC was subordinated to the dual leadership of the Ministry of Land Reclamation and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

In 1962 some local residents in Xinjiang's Ili and Tacheng crossed the frontier. By order of the state, the XPCC dispatched more than 17,000 officials and workers to Ili and Tacheng to maintain public order and tend the farmland and livestock of those who had fled. They quickly set up a belt of regimental farms ranging from 10 to 30 kilometers in breadth along the more than 2,000-kilometer-long boundaries of Ili, Tacheng, Altay, Hami, and Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture. They played a crucial role in maintaining stability in Xinjiang, safeguarding national border security, and improving China's strategic position in its northwest border defense. By the end of 1966, the Corps had 158 regimental agricultural and stock raising farms, with a population of 1,485,400.

During the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976), the XPCC suffered serious disruption in fulfilling its mission of cultivating and guarding the border areas. In March 1975 the Corps was dissolved. The General Administration of Land Reclamation of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region was founded to take charge of state-run agricultural and stock raising farms in Xinjiang. In December 1981 the central government decided to restore the production and construction corps organizational system. It renamed the Production and Construction Corps of the Xinjiang Military District of the PLA the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. The Corps then recommenced its pioneering work. Over the past 30 years or more, the XPCC has introduced reforms by expediting the general contract responsibility system and the enterprise contract responsibility system and setting up workers' household farms. It has also developed diverse sectors of the economy, promoted industrial development and established new cities and towns. The XPCC has thus scaled new heights of progress in its endeavor to cultivate and guard the border areas.

Over the past 60 years, in fulfilling its mission the XPCC has adhered to the principle of "not competing for benefits with the local people." The XPCC reclaimed farmland and successively built regimental agricultural and stock raising farms in the Gobi desert to the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, and in the harsh natural environment of the desolate border areas. The XPCC has gradually established a multi-sector industrial system encompassing food processing, light industry, textiles, iron and steel, coal, building materials, electricity, chemicals, and machinery. It has also achieved significant progress in education, science and technology, culture, health, and other public sectors. By the end of 2013, the XPCC had 176 regiments, 14 divisions, an area of 70,600 square kilometers under its administration, including 1,244,770 hectares of farmland, and a population of 2,701,400, accounting for 11.9% of Xinjiang's total population.

II. Responsibilities and Structure

Constituting as it does an important part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the XPCC assumes the responsibilities entrusted to it by the state of cultivating and guarding the border areas, and operates an administrative system with unified Party, government, military, and enterprise roles. It is a special social organization that handles its own administrative and judicial affairs within the reclamation areas under its administration, in accordance with the laws and regulations of the state and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, with economic planning directly supervised by the state. It is subordinated to the dual leadership of the central government and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

In the course of fulfilling its responsibility to cultivate the border areas, the XPCC has focused on modern agricultural development while expanding secondary and tertiary industries, with emphatic efforts toward protecting and improving the ecological environment and promoting social progress and unity among ethnic groups in Xinjiang. In its endeavor to guard the border areas, the XPCC has strengthened national border defense while maintaining national unity and Xinjiang's social stability, and guarding against and cracking down on criminal sabotage activities by terrorist forces. Since the 1980s separatist, religious extremist and terrorist forces and their sabotage activities have become a major threat to national unity and to Xinjiang's social stability. They are hence the focus of the work of the XPCC in guarding the border areas.

In 1990 the central government approved the placing of XPCC economic planning under direct state supervision. The XPCC remains an important component of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and is subject to its leadership while under the management of relevant departments of the central government. The adoption of such a dual leadership system signifies an innovative reform in the Corps' administrative subordination, one which facilitates the coordination of leadership over the Corps between the central government and the autonomous region government, and the Corps' fulfillment of its responsibilities, and betters the relations between the Corps and relevant departments of the central authorities, thus promoting the Corps' development. Over the years, the central government has granted policy support and funding to the XPCC in the fields of public services, public security, education, science and technology, culture, health, agriculture, forestry, and water conservancy, so injecting great energy and new vitality into the economic and social development of the XPCC.

The XPCC operates a special administrative system with unified Party, government, military, and enterprise roles. Party organizations have been set up at each level of the Corps to exercise leadership over all its undertakings. The XPCC has administrative and judicial organs to handle its specific administrative and judicial affairs. The Corps is a paramilitary entity with military organs and armed forces units wherein the militias are the mainstay. It is organized in a military structure of corps, divisions, regiments, and companies, whose commanders have corresponding military titles. The XPCC, also known as the China Xinjian Group, is a large state-owned enterprise engaged in agriculture, industry, transport, building, and commerce, and at the same time assumes state assigned economic tasks. The XPCC's leadership combines the functions of the Party, government, military, and enterprise.

The XPCC has fully integrated into Xinjiang society. Its division and regimental farms, subordinate enterprises and public institutions, administered by the Corps in a top-down model of leadership and vertical management, are widely distributed in the prefectures, cities, and counties of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. In reclamation areas, which feature important strategic positions, concentrated distribution of regimental farms, considerable economic strength, and great development potential, the XPCC has set up seven county-level divisions/cities directly administered by Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and five regiments/towns, which are administered by the Corps at different levels. Each division/city or regiment/town has Party leadership and government administration functions integrated into one unit.