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China Production and Construction Corps
Before the Cultural Revolution, the Production and Construction
Corps was a paramilitary organization of 3 to 4 million people
under joint government, party, and PLA control. The Production and
Construction Corps was used in remote and unproductive areas to
build roads, reclaim land, construct defense and water works, and
operate mines, state farms, and industrial plants. A secondary role
was border defense, and some units were armed with light infantry
weapons. All received basic military training. Unlike the militia,
Production and Construction Corps personnel were full time and
uniformed. The PLA took over the Production and Construction Corps
during the Cultural Revolution, then civilianized it in the 1970s.
In the 1980s the corps appeared to have been abolished except in
Xinjiang-Uygur Autonomous Region. There it operated under regional
party and government organizations, the Xinjiang Military District,
and the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, and Fishery.
Data as of July 1987
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