<p>In November 1949, with communists heading southward, Kuomintang’s control over southwest China quickly collapsed. What the communists were about to face was a highly militarized society with countless self-defense forces of villages and clans. Though showing their support towards communists initially, most self-defense forces openly revolted once the grain procurement program started.</p><p>In the spring of 1950, Guizhou, one of the provinces of southwestern China, had become ungovernable, leaving communist work-team members brutally slaughtered and newly established people’s governments ravaged. Official accounts of pacification actions in this region involves peace-preserving action of militia, a locally active military forces of rural proletariat freed by land reform.</p><p>Arguing Chinese Communist Party’s approach to handle popular unrests during the formative years of the People’s Republic of China was fragmented between central and local level. This article traces the continuity both of personnel composition and activities of local militia units. Utilizing newly available county-level archival resources from Guizhou, the following two questions are to be put under scrutinization. The author first compares central and local level cadres’ different approaches to popular unrest. Central level cadres, by repeatedly issuing urgent orders to their subordinate, demanded not only swift recovery of social order but also complete demilitarization of society. Under these orders, the People’s Liberation Army units and party activists were organized into work-teams and sent into villages where “bandits” were still active. Threatened with “rectification” if demands are not met within certain short period of time by their superior, local cadres decided to legitimize local self-defense forces’ existence, some of which were previously deemed as “bandits”, and utilize their presence to restore order. Self-defense forces thus rebranded first as “people’s armed forces (人民武装)” in 1951 and later the same year as “militia (民兵)”.</p><p>The author further analyzes the activities of the new militia members. Rioting and looting were rampant during 1951, and in some cases, militia members were overtly hostile towards the local government. To extend its control over the militia, “People’s Armed Forces Departments (人民武装部)”, with its reach into every county under CCP’s control, were set up by the PLA. Active military cadres were sent into PAFDs as directors, and militia captains were gathered at PLA’s compound, politically screened and trained.</p><p>In general, this article shows CCP’s experience of “internal pacification”, termed by Anthony Giddens. Screening and training secured PLA’s control over local militia units, and institutional expansion, as it is seen from the creation of PAFDs nation-wide, provides the infrastructure for state’s surveillance of the contentious society.</p>