Full Text: The History and Development of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps

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.