The Unit: Personnel, Structure, and Operations

Abstract

The unit was engaged in technical survey work over a demarcated area of the country as part of a long-term national scientific program. It was established during 1964 and 1965, not long before the start of the Cultural Revolution. Many of its original personnel were recruited from similar units in the local province and from other provinces, apparently as part of a general move in the mid-1960s to shift the focus of this field of technical survey work from the eastern coastal provinces into the interior. In fact, of the personnel on whom information was available (n = 242), 76% had been reassigned from other units engaged in the same work. The unit was located in the countryside, next to a highway which linked it with the prefectural (zhuanqu) seat in one direction and with the commune town, the county seat, and the provincial capital (the latter journey taking about 4 hours by bus or 2½ to 3 hours by truck) in the other direction. Unit personnel went to the county seat to do their shopping since the market in the commune town, though nearer, did not sell many of the things they needed. They also went to the county seat to handle matters of civil administration, such as the registration of births, marriages, and the like. The province capital was not considered far away, and members traveled there often by public transport or in the unit’s trucks.