“Stabilizer, Melting Pot, and Demonstration of Advanced Culture”: Role of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corp in Racializing Indigenous Populations

This paper examines the Chinese state institution Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) and its roles from border defense work against the Soviet Union in the 1960s to its securitization and development work in Xinjiang today; First it appropriated Kazakh land and minoritized Kazakhs in the north of Xinjiang, then its southward development agenda in recent years diluted Uyghur population and mobilized Han settlement to stabilize the region. Both processes attempt to "unify" Xinjiang as part of China and build a unified Chinese mono race nation by de-Indigenizing the native Turkic populations. I argue that, while the state claims to integrate and include "ethnic minorities" in development, employment, and education by applying a US melting pot strategy (with Chinese characteristics), its military presence and Han biopower continue to reproduce colonial relations and the racialization of the native population through unfree labor and incarceration.