Original Content: China People's Armed Police Hydropower Units.

While translating the piece below, I stumbled across a term I had not seen before.

武警电水部 which means something like "Martial Police Electric Water Department." After doing a quick Chinese language google search, I soon discovered that the term referred to the following: hydropower units, the People’s Armed Police Hydropower Corp, a specialized branch of the People’s Armed Police Force.

Here's a quick summary of who they are. The military forces of the People's Republic of China are divided into three sections, The People's Liberation Army (the "big" or "real" primary army), the militia and reserve forces, and the People's Armed Police Force. (People's Armed Police: Simplified Chinese: 中国人民武装警察部队, Traditional Chinese: 中國人民武裝警察部隊; pinyin: Rénmín Wǔzhuāng Jǐngchá Bùduì)

The People's Armed Police Hydropower Corp ((Simplified Chinese: 水电部队; Traditional Chinese: 水電部隊, pinyin: shuǐdiàn bùduì) is one division of the People's Armed Police.

According to www.sinodefence.com the People's Armed Police are responsible for internal security, but during time of war could be used as light infantry to support the People's Liberation Army. Although units similar to the People's Armed Police date back to at least 1949 with the creation of the "People's Public Security Force," the actual organization with this name dates back to the early 1980s when several military and paramilitary organizations were merged to create a dedicated force for internal security duties. For a complete history, I recommend following the link to
sinodefence.com .

Sinodefence.com also has an article that gives a good introduction to the People's Armed Police Hydropower Corp.

According to this article (supplmented by other English and Chinese sources), the orgnization is a specialized branch of the People's Armed Police dedicated to building dams and power stations. The organization has a national command headquarters, a local command at the Three Gorges Dam, and three Hydropower General Corp, as well as a number of commercial companies. The First PAP Hydropower Corps is based in Nanning. The Second PAP Hydropower General Corps is based in Xinyu and the third is based in Chengdu.

For maps, see:
Nanning in Guangxi Zhuang.
Xinyu in Jiangxi Province.
Changdu, in Sichuan
Three Gorges Dam


The main headquarters of the People's Armed Power Hydropower Corps is in Beijing and is subordinate to the main People's Armed Police Headquarters.

Its lineage dates back to 1966 when the People's Liberation Army created a Capital Construction Company.

Interestingly, units of the Chinese military often engages in independent or semi-independent for-profit enterprises. (This is a complicated situation and some have questioned how it affects the combat-readiness of the Chinese military. What I find fascinating is the fact that many of these independent for-profit activities are being done in partnership with Taiwanese companies, but that's a very complicated issue, that, like many, is fascinating.)

When the People's Armed Police Hydropower Corp engages in for-profit activities it does so under the name "Anlian Hydropower and Hydraulic Engineering Company."

Other sources, aside from www.sinodefence.com, used to write this article were:

wikipedia accessed on 6/26/2008 (And yes, I know all about the questionable nature of Wikipedia articles.)

China Power .