This year, several large-scale appeals were made by retired servicemen in the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps to the Chinese Communist Party, requesting better working conditions and the protection of their rights. Executive member of the Chinese National Liberation Union and former military officer Li Qike describes the history of the Xinjiang corps and explains some of the reasons behind the unit's discontentment.
Epoch Times reporter Xin Fei interviewed Mr. Qike, who served military duty in Xinjiang for three years toward the end of the 1980s and personally witnessed the living conditions of the members of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. The following article was compiled based on the interview.
Strategic Importance of the Corps
The history of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps begins with its predecessor: the first unit of the CCP's Northwestern regional army, led by Cmdr. Wang Zhen. Its original mission was to help the CCP to take over political power. After the CCP took over in 1949, the CCP tied the army to Xinjiang and reorganized it into a "production and construction corps." Its new purpose was to serve as a tool to maintain CCP rule in Xinjiang, and to prevent the various nationalities in Xinjiang's diverse population from striving to attain autonomy from the CCP.
In addition to transforming the regular army unit into a specialized corps, the CCP also brought a multitude of inland-educated youth to join the construction army corps. Today, the Xinjiang army corps comprises more than 2 million people in 14 units. Besides its military significance, it has also become involved in Xinjiang's industry, agriculture, trade and construction activities. The main members of the army corps are required to settle in Xinjiang; they are subjected to the CCP's severe controls, which deprive members of various types of rights and interests. Over the years, they have become the objects of oppression, shame and enslavement.
CCP Restricts Nationalities' Autonomy
As various nationalities gathered in Xinjiang region to make use of local natural and social resources, the CCP did not permit the autonomy of the groups. It chose its primary officials from the various ethnic groups by selecting its direct "descendent" members to carry out instructions and unify control in the area.
In terms of its methods, the CCP's main mechanism has been, on the one hand, to terrorize the people by the means of a Fascist dictatorship, and on the other hand, to conceal its crimes and impose a dominant "truth." It calls communism "the absolute truth," making clear that "he who opposes this absolute truth is the unforgivable anti-revolutionist." It calls its policy of continuous struggle a "fight to realize communism."
Stationed in Xinjiang
"After battling with a Vietnamese soldier, I was called something like the 'backbone of the battle,' and was transferred to the Lanzhou military region, where I was assigned to direct the political office of one infantry division in Xinjiang. In the three years of my military service in Xinjiang, I visited different units of the Xinjiang corps and witnessed the lives of the wide range of corps members. The maltreatments that the vast number of corps members suffered at the hands of the CCP left me with an unforgettable impression for life. The members of the corps who have endured many hardships and suffered from unreasonable treatment are still facing unbearable suffering and continue to search on their own for solutions to all of their difficulties.
"Many old staff members of the army corps are stationed in Xinjiang for life. They have made many sacrifices, including their entire youth. However, when they requested to return to their hometowns to retire and live there in old age, the CCP did not permit it. As a result, the members of the corps started protest activities in order to protect their rights."
Mr. Qike said that most units of the corps are settled along the rare water resources, and many members of the army corps still live in houses made of soil. The soldiers' main hardships are hunger and the fierce cold of winter, since most families do not have even basic supplies to keep warm. Though their labor is intense, they receive neither sufficient medical treatment nor education from the government.
Suppression of Rights
The CCP doesn't accept the Xinjiang corps' requests, but it certainly tries hard to suppress the members' discontentment, Mr. Qike said. The CCP doesn't allow them to appeal, and it doesn't offer any solutions to their problems. Now it is ready to suppress the corps with military force.
Recently, the CCP ordered the Xinjiang military districts to hold a mobilization meeting and requested the military to pay attention to the so-called "unstable situation" on the Xinjiang frontier, in order to "protect national defense military forces" and "prevent the corps from staging an armed rebellion." Many measures have been taken to change the military situation there. The CCP moved military forces in Lanzhou to Xinjiang. They also forced the corps to establish public security defense teams, and requested the military to strengthen corps management.
"The CCP has set up cameras everywhere in the corps' base to monitor them," Mr. Qike said. "As a result, it has basically turned the corps into a concentration camp where they persecute innocent people. Whoever dares to request their rights will be immediately suppressed by the CCP. Hu Jintao has sent the secretary of the Communist Youth League, Hu Wei, to become the new vice president of 'Xinjiang Autonomous District.' This indicates that the CCP wants Hu Wei to suppress the Xinjiang corps' rights movement, just as Hu Jintao did to Tibet a few years ago."
Mr. Qike suggested that the Xinjiang situation relates to the daily lives of all Chinese people. It is the result of the CCP inflicting oppression on a wide range of commoners, and the voice of these people with respect to their rights. He said: "We should not regard the situation with the Xinjiang corps as an isolated event."
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