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Military district of China From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Xinjiang Military District (新疆军区) is a special military area of the PLA at the Theater Deputy-grade.(副战区级). It is one of three districts (Tibet and Beijing being the other two) that are directly under the Central Military Commission and its Joint Army Staff rather than under their Theater Command[1] (in this case, the Western Theater Command.)[2]
Xinjiang Military District | |
---|---|
中国人民解放军新疆军区 | |
Founded | 1 February 2016 |
Country | People's Republic of China |
Allegiance | Chinese Communist Party |
Type | Military District of the PLA |
Role | Command and control |
Part of | People's Liberation Army |
Headquarters | Xinjiang, Urumqi |
Commanders | |
Commander | Lieutenant General Liu Lin |
Political Commisar | Lieutenant General Yang Cheng |
Chief of Staff | Major General Liu Haifu |
The district includes all of Xinjiang, plus the Ngari district of Tibet.[3] It has also direct military jurisdiction over the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC).
The current Xinjiang Military District was created in 2016 from the former Lanzhou Military Region as part of the 2015 reforms. While it is officially under the jurisdiction of the Western Theater, it is directly controlled by the Joint General Staff due to the special vulnerabilities of the region, both internally and externally.[citation needed]
The XMD covers the contested area of Aksai Chin, and it is a sensitive hotspot in China's borders. In 2020, it was the XMD that got involved in skirmishes and a protracted stand-off with India.[4]
Recently (as of 2024) there have been efforts to create a "six-in-one" border defense system, in which the PLA, the police, the militia, party officials, government officials, and civilians would cooperate in patrolling the enormously long and harsh border of both the Xinjiang and Tibet MDs, with an emphasis on local nomadic tribes that know the terrain and are highly mobile by definition.[5]
The XMD is divided into the northern district and the southern Xinjiang subdistrict (Nanjiang), which is a Corps-graded (正军级) unit responsible for the volatile Sino-Indian border.[6]
These two main sub-areas are then divided into the following command sectors, generally comprising a prefecture:
As of 2022, the People's Liberation Army Ground Force units garrisoning the District are as follows (including their main garrison location). Xinjiang is one of the few military regions in which full divisions are still retained as an organizational level post the 2015 reforms (which reduced most divisions into combined arms brigades).[2] Due to the very long border it patrols, there are also fifteen Border Defense regiments assigned as well as the main maneuver force.
The Border Defense regiments cover some of the most challenging terrain in the world, and it is occasionally reported that some units still use horses for patrolling.[12]