Militia settlers in Xinjiang become economic powerhouse

Mark O'Neill October 10, 2024 22:25

In 1954, Mao Zedong established a corps of militia settlers in Xinjiang and ordered them, like the early Jewish settlers of Palestine, to till the land and secure possession of it. Even he could not have imagined the outcome.

This week the Xinjiang Production and Engineering Corps (新疆生產建設兵團), better known as Bingtuan (兵團, Army Group), celebrated its 70th birthday. It has 2.6 million members and last year produced 10.2 per cent of China’s grain, one third of its cotton and 21.9 per cent of its industrial silicon.

In 2023, its output last year was 370 billion yuan, an increase of 6.9 per cent over a year before, of which 178 billion came from agriculture and the rest from industry, hi-tech and services. It has more than a dozen listed companies.

At a celebration in Urumqi on Monday, Vice-Premier He Lifeng praised the corps members, saying that they had pioneered a new path of guarding the borders and explored a new model of development that suited the conditions of China and Xinjiang. He read out a congratulatory letter from the Communist Party Central Committee, the State Council and Central Military Commission.

The Bingtuan has built 12 cities and towns, six national-level development zones and 65 counties in Xinjiang. It controls 70,600 square kilometres of land. Its members have built farms in the desert, using underground water.

It has been the pioneer of Han settlement of Xinjiang. In 1949, Han accounted for six per cent of the population and Uygurs 75 per cent. In the 2020 census, the percentage was Han 42 per cent and Uygurs 45 per cent.

It is not subject to the Xinjiang regional government but reports directly to the central government in Beijing. It has its own police, courts, schools, universities and television stations.

In agriculture, it is a major grower of cotton, grain, fruit, vegetable oils and sugar beet. It produces tomato ketchup, pears and wine. It controls about a quarter of Xinjiang’s arable land. In 2023, its grain output was four million tonnes. In industry, its products include oil, coal, cement, chemicals and electricity.

The first commander of the Bingtuan was Wang Zhen, who went on to a career in national politics. He told the members to hold a weapon in one hand and a farm tool in the other. But Uyghurs criticized him because of his ruthless methods of suppressing Uyghur protest.

For many Uyghurs, China’s civil war presented a historic opportunity to win their independence. The Bingtuan was the principal military weapon used by Beijing to prevent this.

In 1962, just after the Sino-Soviet split, 60,000 minority people fled to the Soviet Union, leaving their farms and livestock behind; Beijing feared a war. Bingtuan members took over the livestock and farms of those who had fled and set up 58 new farms along a 2,000-km stretch of the border.
During the Cultural Revolution, the Bingtuan suffered serious disruption and was dissolved in March 1975. In 1981, Deng Xiaoping ordered that it be reconstituted.

The 14th division of the Bingtuan is in Hotan, southern Xinjiang. This area still has a Uyghur majority and resistance to Chinese rule is strongest.

In a policy paper in August 2003, the Bingtuan said there were only five districts in Xinjiang where Uyghurs still accounted for more than 50 per cent of the population. “We should consider the Israeli model and encourage mass migration for Han to these areas, in land that is unoccupied. We should use water resources to improve economic development and the living standards of Uyghurs, to restrict the space for terrorism.”

In 2020, the United States sanctioned the Bingtuan, saying that it had committed human rights abuses against Uyghurs, including surveillance, mass detention and forced labour. China denies any such abuses.

In December 2020, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced that cotton and cotton products made by the Bingtuan would be banned from import into the U.S. due to forced labour concerns.

One of the few mainland intellectuals to challenge the official narrative is Wang Lixiong who wrote “My Land of the West, Your East Turkestan”, published in Taiwan in 2007.

“Many Uyghurs believe they are in a colony. An enormous quantity of Xinjiang’s resources, such as oil, coal and minerals is being shipped to the rest of China and they have no benefit. There is large-scale migration of Han people."Wang said.

Mark O'Neill

A Hong Kong-based writer, teacher and speaker.