bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

THE Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a mysterious paramilitary entity, is being forced to confront market reform.

 The State Council is hammering out a reform proposal to restructure the giant set-up into a huge corporation.

  Senior officials of the corps, who used to command enormous party, military, political and economic power, have been thrown into uncertainty.

 Ding Xingduan, mayor of Shihezi - 150km west of Xinjiang's capital Urumqi - is also commander of the Army Eighth Division and one of the city's vice-party secretaries.

 When asked to speculate what his future title would be if his production team - the Eighth Division - became a corporation, Mr Ding said: 'Probably general manager.'   He is content with his present portfolio, which he said was 'a combination of party, politics and army leadership' and he finds his multiple identities 'not confusing at all'.

  Shihezi, including the city and outside area owned by the Shihezi Agricultural, Industrial and Commercial (Group) Corp - part of the Xinjiang Corps - has a population of 570,000 and an area of 7,530 square km.

 It is an important agriculture and industrial centre.

 There are 18 scientific research institutions employing 32,700 technicians and 249 schools at various levels with 103,000 students enrolled.

 The Xinjiang Corps, with 2.38 million members and more than 10 reclaimed regions and cities, is probably the largest army-related entity in the world engaged in agricultural and industrial production.

 It accounts for one-fifth of Xinjiang's economic output.

 Four companies under the corps have already been listed on mainland stock markets.

 Throughout the years it has established an almost independent kingdom within Xinjiang.

 The corps was started in 1954 when late General Wang Zhen led a group of 175,000 PLA troops - mainly from the revolutionary base of Yanan - on a march into Xinjiang.

 It then incorporated into its force 70,000 to 80,000 Kuomintang soldiers stationed there who had surrendered.

 With the help of the new recruits, the corps launched an unprecedented campaign to turn part of the Gobi Desert into productive land.

  It was later joined by youths and intellectuals from other provinces who helped with construction projects.

 During its history the corps has engaged in activities ranging from opening up wasteland for farming and commercial use to guarding the frontiers.

 'In its undertaking of pioneering enterprises with painstaking efforts, it has created one miracle after another in this primeval wilderness and big desert,' according to the state media.

 But the importance of the corps lies not just in its economic production but also in its military significance.

 The corps' Deputy Political Commissar, Wang Guizhen, said President Jiang Zemin told leaders of the corps in July that it should serve as a model of economic development as well as play the role of a stabilising force.

 A local historian said an army presence in Xinjiang could be traced back to the Han Dynasty (206 to 220 BC), when its role was more military and political than economic.

 'It has always lost money,' said Ji Dachun, a research fellow at Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences.

 One of the corps' main responsibilities has been to take on the job of defending against foreign invasions.

 'Xinjiang has borders with eight territories,' Mr Wang said.

 'Some are friendly, some are not. If there is a massive invasion from foreign forces, then the corps will have to be mobilised.'  Externally, the corps guards against foreign invasion, while internally it can help to suppress internal conflicts, such as riots instigated by Islamic separatist terrorists.

 For the time being, Mr Wang said, 'the corps is mainly engaged in economic development'.

 In order to adapt to the free market system, the corps' leaders are eager to change the paramilitary army into a business group.

 Zhu Jianfan, the deputy commander of the corps, said the group had submitted an application to the State Council for a change of status.

 He admitted that 'foreign companies are reluctant to do business with an army'.

 The plan - which is awaiting central government approval - appears to be cosmetic.

 'According to the proposal, the corps will be using two brands but, in fact, it remains one organisation and has one set of personnel,' Commander Zhu said.

 'To the outside, it is a business group; internally, it is still the corps.'   The same change will apply to every unit of the corps, but the concentration of power will remain unchanged.

 If approved, the corps, with more than two million members, will become the largest corporation in the world.

 Sources said leaders of the unit at first were reluctant to accept even minimal change as they they were worried that it might eventually affect their vested interests, such as a business monopoly in the area.

  They also were concerned that structural reform would eventually lead to a conflict of 'property rights' between the corps and the state.

 The proposed reform, however, shows that the corps would be the one exception to the recent order by President Jiang forbidding the army from operating business ventures.

 As a product that emerged out of a historical legacy, the corps has always been an exception to the rule.



Army mammoth gears up to take care of business