Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun In China, a construction and corporation composed of soldiers, especially working-class ones.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Mandarin 兵团 (bīngtuán, "army unit, army formation")

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Examples

  • The soldier-settlers in the bingtuan production/ construction PLA corps were on a mission to turn desert into farmland and produce food for a hungry, fast-growing nation.

    When a Billion Chinese Jump Jonathan Watts 2010

  • With it went the Tarim tiger, the large-headed fish, huge numbers of Bactrian camels, and a greenbelt of poplar forests.21 With the tree barrier gone, the Taklamakan and Kum Tagh deserts joined up, forcing bingtuan units to abandon their barracks and fields.

    When a Billion Chinese Jump Jonathan Watts 2010

  • The soldier-settlers in the bingtuan production/ construction PLA corps were on a mission to turn desert into farmland and produce food for a hungry, fast-growing nation.

    When a Billion Chinese Jump Jonathan Watts 2010

  • With it went the Tarim tiger, the large-headed fish, huge numbers of Bactrian camels, and a greenbelt of poplar forests.21 With the tree barrier gone, the Taklamakan and Kum Tagh deserts joined up, forcing bingtuan units to abandon their barracks and fields.

    When a Billion Chinese Jump Jonathan Watts 2010

  • The soldier-settlers in the bingtuan production/ construction PLA corps were on a mission to turn desert into farmland and produce food for a hungry, fast-growing nation.

    When a Billion Chinese Jump Jonathan Watts 2010

  • With it went the Tarim tiger, the large-headed fish, huge numbers of Bactrian camels, and a greenbelt of poplar forests.21 With the tree barrier gone, the Taklamakan and Kum Tagh deserts joined up, forcing bingtuan units to abandon their barracks and fields.

    When a Billion Chinese Jump Jonathan Watts 2010

  • Xinjiang – which borders Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikstan, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Tibet, Mongolia, and Russia – is one of the last areas in China to maintain the “bingtuan” system of communal army farms.

    Here’s Lookin’ at You Cook: Michael Manning 2006

  • Han Chinese dominate the bingtuan, which comprise about 15% of Xinjiang's economic output, providing scant opportunity for minorities.

    TIME.com: Top Stories 2010

  • Over the next five years it will increase fixed-asset investment in the province and the bingtuan, paramilitary work units set up in Xinjiang in the 1950s and staffed with former soldiers.

    TIME.com: Top Stories 2010

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