The 3rd Army Division () (2nd Formation) was created in May 1969 from
Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
and
Shenyang Military Region
The Shenyang Military Region was one of seven military regions for the Chinese People's Liberation Army. It has command and control of military and armed police forces in the three northeast provinces of Jilin, Heilongjiang, and Liaoning, whic ...
and soon sent to
Ili,
Xinjiang
Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...
under the direct control of
Xinjiang Military Region
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 C ...
. The division was then composed of:
*7th Infantry Regiment;
*8th Infantry Regiment;
*9th Infantry Regiment;
*313th Artillery Regiment.
In December 1969 the division was renamed as 7th Army Division, while former
7th Army Division renamed as new 3rd Army Division.
The re-formation and re-designation of several army divisions in Xinjiang showed apparent evidence that there might be plans to re-activate
2nd Army Corps and
3rd Army Corps, even
4th Army Corps of the PLA. For unknown reasons these corps were not formed at last.
By then the division was composed of:
*19th Infantry Regiment (former 7th);
*20th Infantry Regiment (former 8th);
*21st Infantry Regiment (former 9th);
*Artillery Regiment (former 313th).
In 1985 the division was renamed as 7th Infantry Division (), becoming a ''Northern Infantry Division, Catalogue B'' unit.
In 1996 the division was transferred to the
People's Armed Police
)
, abbreviation = PAP ("People's Armed Police") CAPF ("Chinese Armed Police Force"), formerly abbreviated''Wujing'' ( zh , s = 武警 , p = Wǔjǐng , l = Armed Police , labels = no ), or WJ as on vehicle license plates
, patch ...
and renamed as 7th Armed Police Division ().
The Artillery Regiment, 7th Infantry Division was re-organized and renamed as 706th Regiment, 7th Armed Police Division. All artillery battalions in infantry regiments were also re-organized as the 4th mobile battalion of the regiments. Now the division is composed of:
*19th Armed Police Regiment ();
*20th Armed Police Regiment ();
*21st Armed Police Regiment ();
*706th Armed Police Regiment ().
The division is stationed in
Ili, Xinjiang for anti-terrorist and anti-separatist missions.
In 2018 the division was merged into the .
References
*中国人民解放军各步兵师沿革，http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_a3f74a990101cp1q.html
{{People's Liberation Army Divisions
Units and formations of the People's Armed Police
Military units and formations established in 1969
Military units and formations disestablished in 2017
Gendarmerie divisions