Source:

01-13-2006 17:01

China’s massive Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is home to many different ethnic groups and borders eight countries. Maintaining control over this distant region has challenged Chinese rulers for the past 2,000 years. Many assigned troops that both patrolled the border and engaged in agriculture. The second episode of our 4-part series traces the fate of Xinjiang towards the end of the civil war. In the summer of 1949, PLA troops had liberated most of the northwest and were poised to enter Xinjiang. On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The Guomindang leadership in Xinjiang was divided into several factions. If negotiations failed, the PLA were ready to fight.

The PLA had successfully quelled the insurrections in Xinjiang. With its military objectives completed, the PLA changed its focus. In the early 1950s, Mao Zedong implemented a policy that had been used successfully many times throughout China’s history. Troops that were not needed for military service were assigned to open up land for agriculture on a vast scale. Later, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps was founded.

Xinjiang was liberated without any large-scale battles. But maintaining control in a vast under populated area would be difficult. Only agrarian and economic development could guarantee ongoing control of the region. The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps was established to begin that task. The challenges that lay ahead were considerable. The first generation lived in primitive conditions far from their hometowns. The sacrifices they made were necessary to develop the region but the new settlers could not feel at home in the unfamiliar environment. Cultural development needed to go hand in hand with economic development. In tomorrow’s episode we will see how the XPCC transformed some of Xinjiang’s most unforgiving areas.

 

Editor:Wang Ping