Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC)

On 31 July 2020 the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned one Chinese government entity and two current or former government officials in connection with serious rights abuses against ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), including the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC). In the northwestern border of China, there is such a "special force" of more than 2 million people — the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps — that do not wear military uniforms, receive military pay, never change defenses, and never change jobs.

The XPCCor “bingtuan,” is a paramilitary organization in the XUAR that is subordinate to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The XPCC enhances internal control over the region by advancing China’s vision of economic development in XUAR that emphasizes subordination to central planning and resource extraction. The XPCC’s structure reflects a military organization, with 14 divisions made up of dozens of regiments. Chen Quanguo, who was designated on July 9, 2020 for his connection to serious human rights abuse, was the current First Political Commissar of the XPCC, a role in which he has exercised control over the entity. Chen is also the current Communist Party Secretary of XUAR, and has a notorious history of intensifying security operations in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, where he was deployed before arriving in Xinjiang to tighten control over members of Tibetan ethnic minority groups. Following his arrival in Xinjiang, Chen began implementing a comprehensive surveillance, detention, and indoctrination program targeting Uyghurs and members of other ethnic minority groups. The XPCC helped implement Chen’s CCP policy in the region.

The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps is an important part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. It undertakes the responsibilities of reclaiming and defending border areas granted by the state. It implements a system of integration of party, government, military and enterprise in its jurisdiction, in accordance with the state and Xinjiang Uyghur The laws and regulations of the autonomous region manage its internal administrative and judicial affairs on its own. It is under the dual leadership of the Central Government and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. It is a special social organization listed in the national plan. It is a provincial (ministerial) level unit listed in the State Council’s separate plan and enjoys a provincial administrative region. permission.

The XPCC is distributed in 14 cities (prefectures and prefectures) of the autonomous region and 10 county-level administrative units of the autonomous region. It borders Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, with a border of more than 2,000 kilometers. The XPCC has a total area of 70,600 square kilometers, accounting for 4.24% of the total area of ??the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and about one-fifth of the total area of ??the country’s agricultural reclamation. Reclamation and defense of the border is a historical heritage of China's development and defense of the border for thousands of years. The central government 's large-scale reclamation of Xinjiang in the Western Regions began in the Western Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago, and has been followed by successive generations.

The XPCC implements a special management system with a highly unified party, government, military and enterprise. There are organizations of the Communist Party of China established at all levels of the XPCC, which play a leading role in various undertakings of the XPCC. The XPCC has administrative and political and legal agencies to manage internal administrative and judicial affairs on its own. The Corps is a "paramilitary entity" with military agencies and armed organizations. The Corps, divisions, regiments, companies and other military establishments and military positions such as commander, division commander, regimental commander, and company commander are used to maintain a militia. The Corps, also known as the "China New Group Corporation", is a large state-owned enterprise that integrates agriculture, industry, transportation, construction, and commerce, and undertakes economic construction tasks. The four sets of leading institutions of the party, government, military, and enterprise of the XPCC are integrated with the four functions.

The land reclamation in Xinjiang began in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. In 105 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent an army to Xuanlei (in the middle of the Ili River Valley today) to open up farmland. This was the earliest opening up farmland in Xinjiang by the ancient central government.

From the 22nd to the 33rd year of the Republic of China (1933-1944), Sheng Shicai ruled Xinjiang. With the strong support of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of China, he implemented two three-year plans and established a commission for land reclamation. From the 33rd year of the Republic of China to the 38th year of the Republic of China (1944-1949), Xinjiang's land reclamation business declined again, the northern Xinjiang land reclamation was completely destroyed, and the southern Xinjiang land reclamation was paralyzed. In the 33rd year of the Republic of China (October 1944), it formed the Eighth Route Army's south detachment, went south to north, broke through the Central Plains, returned to Yan'an in the autumn of 1946, and formed the second column with the 4th Independent Brigade (later the 6th Independent Brigade returned to the second column), the following year Cross the Yellow River west in March. In the 38th year of the Republic of China (February 1949), it was renamed the Second Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

In June, the Guiyi Yeyi Corps was established and successfully completed the glorious task of self-defense counterattacks, liberating the northwest, marching into Xinjiang and Ali in Tibet. In the 35th year of the Republic of China (November 1946), the Sixth Column of the Chinese People's Liberation Army was established, which was later renamed the Sixth Army, consisting of the New Fourth Brigade and the Teaching Brigade. The new four brigade in 1927, formerly known as jute uprising set up an independent group of Guangshan development thirty-one Red Army ninety-one division, after the three-of-nine regiment co-edited the Eighth Route Army one two nine division three hundred eighty-six brigade seventy-seven One regiment, participated in the "Hundred Regiments War". The predecessor of the teaching brigade was a part of the Red Army of the Central Soviet Area. It participated in the creation and defense of the Central Soviet Area and the Long March.

The other part was the Northern Shaanxi Red Army and the Red Twenty-Fifth Army . It was later incorporated into the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army and participated in the Pingxing Pass. Battle and the struggle to open up base areas. Three regiments including the 771 regiment of the 129th division went to Yan'an to form the New Fourth Brigade, and the powerful brigades from Jinchaji and Jiluyu went to the border areas to form the teaching brigade.

When Xinjiang was liberated in 1949, Xinjiang’s economy was a natural economy dominated by agriculture and animal husbandry, with low productivity, backward production methods, stagnant development, and poor people’s lives. The Sixth Army successively participated in major battles such as defending Yan'an, liberating Xi'an and conquering Lanzhou . In November of the same year, the Second Corps was transferred to the First Corps. Commander Wang Zhen and political commissar Xu Liqing led the army to Xinjiang, stationed in Hami , suppressed the bandits and countered hegemony, established political power, and created the Hami Reclamation Area. According to the orders of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China and Chairman Mao Zedong, the KMT Xinjiang Garrison Headquarters insurgent troops were reorganized into the 22nd Corps of the Chinese People's Liberation Army on December 7 of the same year.

The Revolutionary National Army of the Three Districts of Xinjiang was officially incorporated into the Fifth Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army on December 20. The First Corps transferred a large number of outstanding political cadres from the Second and Sixth Army to the 22nd Corps and the Five Army’s corps, divisions, and regiments, established various levels of party committees and political work institutions and systems, and strengthened the 22nd Corps and the Fifth Corps.

After the peaceful liberation of Xinjiang, the People’s Liberation Army and the Kuomintang uprising troops in Xinjiang totaled 170,000 people. After the war, Xinjiang was a waste of time and it was difficult to support so many troops. Therefore, the PLA troops stationed in Xinjiang began to cultivate and produce and reached self-sufficiency within one year.

In January 1950, in order to consolidate border defense, accelerate development, and reduce the economic burden of the local government and people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army stationed in Xinjiang invested its main force in production and construction. In that year, it realized most of the food self-sufficiency and all the oil and vegetables. Self-sufficient.

In May 1953, the Sixteenth Division was redesignated as the Fifth Division of Agricultural Construction of the Xinjiang Military Region of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. In June, the Fifth Infantry Division was reorganized into the First Division of Agricultural Construction of the Xinjiang Military Region of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. On June 5, the Seventeenth Division was renamed the Sixth Division of the Agricultural Construction of the Xinjiang Military Region of the Chinese People's Liberation Army; in the winter of the same year, the division of the Sixth Division was moved to Wujiaqu. In October 1954, the Central Government ordered most of the Second and Sixth Army, the Fifth Army, and all of the 22nd Corps of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army stationed in Xinjiang to collectively transfer jobs on the spot, break away from the national defense force, and form a "Chinese People The Production and Construction Corps of the Xinjiang Military Region of the People's Liberation Army" accepts the dual leadership of the Xinjiang Military Region and the Xinjiang Branch of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The First Division, Second Division, and Sixth Division are subordinate to the formation of the Corps and are organized under the leadership of the Corps. The Corps thus began to formalize the construction of state-owned agricultural and pastoral farms, and transformed from self-sufficient production of the original military to enterprise production, and formally incorporated it into the national plan. At that time, the total population of the Corps was 175,500. Since then, a large number of outstanding young adults, demobilized soldiers, intellectuals, and scientific and technical personnel from all over the country have joined the ranks of the Corps and devoted themselves to Xinjiang's construction.

Since May 1956, the XPCC had been under the dual leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture and Reclamation and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. In 1962, border residents crossed the border in Yili and Tacheng, Xinjiang. According to the national deployment, the XPCC dispatched more than 17,000 cadres and employees to the local area to maintain public order, implement substitute farming, grazing, and escrow management, and quickly settled in Yili , Tacheng , Altay , Hami and Bortala Mongolian Autonomous Prefectures in Xinjiang . . A border regiment belt with a depth of 10 to 30 kilometers has been established along the 2,000-kilometer border. This has played an important and irreplaceable role in stabilizing Xinjiang and maintaining national border security, and has improved the country's northwestern border defense strategy.

In January 1966, the third agricultural construction division of the Xinjiang Military Region Production and Construction Corps of the Chinese People's Liberation Army was integrated. By the end of the same year, the total population of the Corps reached 1,485,400, and it had 158 farms and pastoral groups.

From May 1966 to October 1976, under the Cultural Revolution XPCC's cause of stationing and reclaiming borders was severely damaged. In March 1975, the production and construction corps of the Xinjiang Military Region of the Chinese People's Liberation Army was revoked.

In December 1981, the central government decided to restore the formation of the Corps. The name “The Production and Construction Corps of the Xinjiang Military Region of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army” was changed to the “Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps”, and the Corps began a second venture.

In 1986, 44,600 family farms of various kinds were established, and 31,000 hectares of homesteads were allocated to the family of employees, with an average of 0.13 hectares per household, and the development of courtyard economy. Industrial restructuring, the implementation of the factory director (manager) operating contract responsibility system, and the removal of the "iron chairs" of cadres, liberated productivity and promoted the development of various undertakings. In 1990, the XPCC implemented separate national economic and social development plans , creating a good external environment for the XPCC’s economic development.

In 2012, the XPCC had jurisdiction over 14 divisions and cities (including 1 construction engineer) and 185 farms and pastures (including 11 construction engineering groups). Flower arrangement areas were distributed in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. On December 24 of the same year, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps held the renaming and unveiling ceremony of the Corps Agricultural Division. With the approval of the central government, the names of the 13 agricultural divisions of the XPCC were changed from the "Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Agricultural Construction Division" to the "Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Agricultural Construction Division".

On May 12, 2014, according to the reply of the Central Organization Office, the "Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Construction Engineer" added the organizational name " Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps 11th Division ".

In October 2017, the Armed Police Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps headquarters was reorganized into the Armed Police Corps . Since the 1980s, the armed company of the Corps has been reorganized into the Armed Police, and reorganized into the Armed Police Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Command and its subordinate detachments, brigades, and squadrons. The Military Department of the Corps (deputy army level) performs the duties and powers of the provincial military region, namely military mobilization, reserve formation, and militia work. The militia emergency response units of the Corps are an important force in Xinjiang to maintain stability and deal with emergencies.

On November 29, 2017, the 33rd meeting of the Standing Committee of the 12th People's Congress of the Autonomous Region passed the Decision of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on the Establishment of the Corps Working Committee and the Granting of Administrative Law Enforcement Powers to the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.