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October 11, 2006
Bingtuan Changes
For those of you who aren't up to date on the strange way things are run here in Xinjiang, let me explain. Xinjiang, unlike other provinces in China, is effectively under the control of two governments: a normal provincial government like those found elsewhere, and the Xinjiang Production & Construction Corps... also known as the Bingtuan (兵团). The official word on the Bingtuan is this:
In 1949, Xinjiang was peacefully liberated. To consolidate border defense, accelerate Xinjiang’s development, and reduce the economic burden on local governments and the local people of all ethnic groups, the People’s Liberation Army units stationed in Xinjiang focused their efforts on production and construction, starting large-scale production and construction projects.
The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), established in 1954, assumes the duties of cultivating and guarding the frontier areas entrusted to it by the state. It is a special social organization, which 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 the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and with economic planning directly supervised by the state. It is subordinated to the dual leadership of the central government and the People’s Government of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
While it's supposed to be subordinate to both the central and provincial governments, in reality the Bingtuan only answers to Beijing. Thus a map of Xinjiang - an autonomous region itself - should include swiss cheese holes of XPCC control compared with, say, the solid cheddar sovereignty of a Shandong or Hunan.
Anyway, I found the following headline from the October 8th edition of Ta Kung Pao (via the BBC Monitoring Service) interesting: China's Xinjiang to end separation between Production Corps, local government. What!?! Really?
No, not really:
Disputes have arisen from time to time in developing and exploiting natural resources, such as lands, prairies, water resources, and mineral deposits.In an attempt to change this situation, Xinjiang has begun to let corps leaders and local officials fill positions on each other's side. Examples: The secretary of the Party Committee of Xinjiang Autonomous Region is concurrently the first political commissar of the Xinjiang Corps. The secretaries of the Party Committees of prefectures and autonomous prefectures are concurrently the first political commissars in the corps' divisional Party Committees. The secretary of the corps Party Committee is also the deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Xinjiang Autonomous Region.
Oh, I get it. Rather than encourage a struggle between two seperate leaders to squeeze out every last jiao of bribe money and skim, Xinjiang's government and the Bingtuan have decided to combine forces in order to empower a small number of regional overlords. Those so-called "disputes"? A thing of the past... now that all the money is headed for the same fat pockets.
China's Xinjiang to end separation between Production Corps, local government
10 October 2006
BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific
Text of report entitled: "Xinjiang changes the state of separation between the Production and Construction Corps and local government", published by Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao website on 8 October
Construction is in full swing of an industrial park, so far the largest in Xinjiang - the Kuytun-Dushanzi Petrochemical Industrial Park.
This industrial park, which covers an area of 89.9 sq.km. according to the plan, is drawing wide attention from all sectors. Crossing the boundary between different administrative areas and breaking the restriction of administrative relationship in Xinjiang, this provincial-level industrial park incorporates the Kuytun City Petrochemical Industrial Park of the local government, the Dushanzi District Petrochemical Industrial Park in Karamay City under the Xinjiang Petroleum Administration, and the Petrochemical Industrial Park of the Seventh Agricultural Division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
Meanwhile, in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, the government of Shayibake District and the adjacent 104th Regiment of the 12th Agricultural Division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have announced that they will cooperate in building an industrial park on the border between their administrative areas, consisting of small processing enterprises and export-oriented industries with city industries as the main component.
With the construction of these industrial parks, people have seen with pleasant surprise that a real change is being made in the decades-old practice that the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps and the local government are working independently of each other. The dream of their cooperation in developing the region that people have cherished for decades is beginning to come true.
Back in January 1950, a 193,000-strong army of the Xinjiang Military District embarked on the task of cultivating the land while guarding the frontier. With the gun in one hand and the hoe in the other, all members of this army joined the task to meet the central authorities' demand, the only exception being the office workers and garrison units, which accounted for 20 per cent of this army.
Year after year, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps has carried on the task of guarding and cultivating the land in this centuries-old remote frontier area, making outstanding contributions to the prosperity and stability of Xinjiang and the border security of our country. It is regarded by the central authorities as the "core force for Xinjiang's stability".
The Production and Construction Corps' administrative area for carrying on its duties of cultivating and guarding the frontier land borders on that of the local government. The two administrative areas form a jagged, interlocking pattern. Also, as the corps is an entity specifically designated in the state plan, its development is independent of the local government, resulting in separation from each other. As a result, disputes have arisen from time to time in developing and exploiting natural resources, such as lands, prairies, water resources, and mineral deposits. In an attempt to change this situation, Xinjiang has begun to let corps leaders and local officials fill positions on each other's side. Examples: The secretary of the Party Committee of Xinjiang Autonomous Region is concurrently the first political commissar of the Xinjiang Corps. The secretaries of the Party Committees of prefectures and autonomous prefectures are concurrently the first political commissars in the corps' divisional Party Committees. The secretary of the corps Party Committee is also the deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Xinjiang Autonomous Region. And the members of the corps' divisional Party Committees are also the members of the Standing Committees of Party Committees of the prefectures or autonomous prefectures where they are stationed.
Source: Ta Kung Pao website, Hong Kong, in Chinese 8 Oct 06
posted October 11, 2006 at 01:45 PM unofficial Xinjiang time | HaoHao This!
Comments
Isn't progress wonderful?
Posted by: Norm at October 13, 2006 08:14 PM
This isn't really news, is it? Wang Lequan has been CPC secretary and Bingtuan commissar since 1995. Really what the article is saying is that the Central Government has maintained direct control over an "autonomous region". Same goes for Tibet. Notice Zhang Qingli, new CPC secretary of Tibet, was both deputy secretary in Xinjiang (while acting secretary of Tibet) and remains a commander in the Bingtuan. For good measure, Qingli and Lequan are both Communist Youth League guys, which is where Hu Jintao has his power base. Hu is expected to concentrate more of his guys in power during the Central Committee meeting this week - he already did when he moved Qingli to acting secretary of Tibet (where Hu used to be in charge) and then made him official secretary this year. Don't be surprised if you see Wang Lequan become a more central player in the next couple of years.
Ta Kung Pao, by the way, is a CCP mouthpiece. As if that wasn't obvious already.
Posted by: davesgonechina at October 14, 2006 01:43 AM