Xinjiang has been China's territory since ancient times, as early as the Han Dynasty, the Western Regions Protectorate was established in the Xinjiang region to manage the affairs of various ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. In the successive dynasties and dynasties since then, China has not given up its governance and control of Xinjiang. During the Qing Dynasty, some areas of Xinjiang were divided, but at the insistence of Zuo Zongtang, all of Xinjiang was taken back.
At the end of the Liberation War, in the efforts of the Chinese Communists, Xinjiang Provincial Chairman Bao Erhan and Kuomintang Commander of the Xinjiang Garrison District Tao Zhiyue led all military and political personnel in Xinjiang to declare a peaceful uprising. After the peaceful uprising in Xinjiang, Wang Zhen, commander of the First Corps of the First Field Army, led his troops into Xinjiang. After the peaceful liberation of Xinjiang, there were hundreds of thousands of troops in Xinjiang, and at that time, Xinjiang was a natural economy dominated by agriculture and animal husbandry, and the level of productivity was low, and the logistical support of these troops became a big problem.
Under such circumstances, our country has adopted the method often adopted in ancient times, that is, the reclamation of the border. Since 1950, the Xinjiang Military Region has begun to carry out reclamation work in Xinjiang to ensure the supply of materials for the troops and reduce the burden on the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang. In the first year, Xinjiang's reclamation troops achieved partial self-sufficiency in non-staple food and total self-sufficiency in grain.
In 1952, some officers and men of the troops stationed in Xinjiang and the engineering construction unit were transferred to the agricultural construction unit and the engineering construction unit on the spot to undertake the task of economic construction in the border areas. In 1954, in order to better maintain the long-term peace and stability of Xinjiang and ensure that the troops stationed in Xinjiang could take root for a long time, the Central Military Commission ordered most of the Second and Sixth Armies of the People's Liberation Army stationed in Xinjiang, most of the Fifth Army, and the Twenty-second Corps to be separated from the sequence of the Ministry of National Defense and reorganized into the Production and Construction Corps of the Xinjiang Military Region of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, which was later changed to the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
After the establishment of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, outstanding intellectual youth, skilled workers, and demobilized soldiers from all over the country joined the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps one after another, enabling the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps to develop rapidly. In fact, at that time, there was not only one Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, but also the Heilongjiang Production and Construction Corps, the Inner Mongolia Production and Construction Corps, the Yunnan Production and Construction Corps, the Anhui Production and Construction Corps, the Jiangsu Production and Construction Corps, the Zhejiang Production and Construction Corps, etc., but with the development of the times, many production and construction corps were abolished, and only the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps remained.
The mission of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps is to combine labor and force and reclaim the border. The Xinjiang Production Corps is different from the corps in the army, in addition to having a large number of military forces mainly militia, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps is also an organization that integrates agriculture, industry, commerce, construction and other industries. Each division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps is similar to a county-level city in the interior. Up to now, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps has grown to a scale of 3.2 million people with more than 2,200 companies in 14 divisions, more than 100 regiments.