Second East Turkestan Republic

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Ili, Tarbagatay and Altay Districts of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of People's Republic of China

The Second East Turkestan Republic, usually known simply as the East Turkestan Republic (ETR), was a short-lived Soviet-backed separatist republic which existed in the 1940s ( November 12, 1944- October 20, 1949 ) in three northern districts ( Ili, Tarbaghatai, Altai ) of Xinjiang province of the Republic of China, what is now the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China.

[edit] Background

From 1934 to 1941 Xinjiang was under the influence of the Soviet Union in a way similar to Outer Mongolia. The local warlord Sheng Shicai (盛世才) was dependent on the Soviet Union for military support and trade. The Soviet government kept a regiment of soldiers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs at Kumul since October, 1937 in order to prevent the possible offensive of Japanese Army into Sinkiang through Inner Mongolia and in exchange was allowed concessions for oil wells, tin and wolfram mines, as well as conducting trade on terms highly favorable to the USSR. On November 27 1940, Sheng Shicai concluded Agreement, granting USSR additional concessions in the whole province of Sinkiang, including areas bordering with India and Tibet, and virtually turning Sinkiang under full political and economical control of the USSR, making it to be the part of China by name only (as Sheng Shicai himself recalled in his Memoirs "Red failure in Sinkiang", published by Michigan University in 1958, the pressure from Stalin on him in 1940 was so hard that refusal to sign this agreement would be resulted in sharing by Sinkiang the fate of Poland, as he was explained by Soviet representatives in Urumchi). Following this Agreement a large-scale geological exploration expeditions were sent by Soviets to Sinkiang in 1940-1941 and large deposits of diverse mineral resources, including uranium and beryllium (ores of both minerals were being delivered later from Sinkiang Altai mines to USSR till end of 1949 and used in nuclear weapon design and creating of the first Soviet atomic bomb ) in the mountains near Kashgar and in Altai region, were discovered. Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, and the entry of the United States into the war in December 1941, the Soviet Union became far less attractive, and the Kuomintang far more attractive as a patron. At the end of 1942 Sheng demanded that the Soviet Union withdraw all military forces and political officers from Xinjiang. In 1943 Sheng was appointed the head of the Kuomintang branch in Xinjiang and allowed KMT cadres into the province. In summer of 1944, following the German defeat at Eastern Front, he attempted to reassert control over Xinjiang and turned to the Soviet Union for support once more. This time Stalin refused to deal with him and the Kuomintang in August,1944 removed him from the province by appointing him to a low-level post in the Ministry of Forestry in Chongqing.

[edit] Rebellion

Following Sheng Shicai's departure from Xinjiang, the new Kuomintang administration had increasing trouble maintaining law and order. On September 16, 1944, troops that had been sent to Gongha county, a majority Kazak region, were unable to contain a group of rioters. By October 8, the rioters had captured Nilka, the county seat. During October the Three District Rebellion broke out generally south of Ghulja in the Ili, Altay and Tarbagatay districts of northern Xinjiang. Aided by the Soviet Union, and backed by a number of Xinjiang exiles trained in the Soviet Union, the rebels quickly established control over the three districts, capturing Ghulja in November. The ethnic Chinese population of the region was reduced by massacre and expulsion. According to United States consular officials the Islamic scholar Elihan Töre declared a "Turkistan Islam Government" declaring:

"The Turkestan Islam Government is organized: praise be to Allah for his manifold blessings! Allah be praised! The aid of Allah has given us the heroism to overthrow the government of the oppressor Chinese. But even if we have set ourselves free, can it be pleasing in the sight of our God if we only stand and watch while you, our brethren in religion ... still bear the bloody grievance of subjection to the black politics of the oppressor Government of the savage Chinese? Certainly our God would not be satisfied. We will not throw down our arms until we have made you free from the five bloody fingers of the Chinese oppressors' power, nor until the very roots of the Chinese oppressors' government have dried and died away from the face of the earth of East Turkestan, which we have inherited as our native land from our fathers and our grandfathers."

The demands of the rebels included an end to Chinese rule, equality for all nationalities, recognised use of local languages, friendly relations with the Soviet Union, and opposition to Chinese immigration into Xinjiang. The military forces available to the rebellion were the newly formed Ili National Army (around 25,000 troops, armed and trained by the Soviet Union), and a group of Kazak Karai tribesmen under the command of Osman Batur ( up to 20,000 horsemen ). The Kazaks expanded to the north, while the INA expanded to the south. By September 1945, the Kuomintang Army and the INA occupied positions on either side of the Manas River near Ürümqi. By this time the ETR held Zungaria while the Kuomintang held the mainly Uyghur-inhabited parts of southern Xinjiang.

[edit] Negotiations

In August 1945 China signed a Treaty of Friendship and Alliance granting the Soviet Union a range of concessions the US had promised at the Yalta conference. This ended overt Soviet support for the East Turkistan Republic. The Kuomintang reached a negotiated settlement with the leaders of the ETR in July 1946. In effect little changed. The ETR remained a de facto separate pro-Soviet state with their own currency and military forces. Political activity in the Republic was limited to the Union for the Defense of Peace and Democracy, a party on the Leninist one-party model. Kuomintang officials were prohibited from the Three Districts and in return the Kuomintang actively supported opposition politicians. By this time these included Elihan Töre who disappeared visiting the Soviet Union and the Kazak leader Osman Batur who broke with the other rebels when their pro-Soviet orientation became clear. The Kuomintang appointed several important Uyghurs as advisors to the Xinjiang administration and made Ehmetjan Qasim, the leader of the ETR, Provincial Vice-Chairman.

[edit] Abolition of the East Turkistan Republic

Towards the end of 1949 the advancing People's Liberation Army crossed the Yangtze River and cut off the Kuomintang administration in southern Xinjiang. Some KMT officials fled to India, Afghanistan and Pakistan, but most surrendered to the CCP. This "peaceful liberation" of Xinjiang was complete by the end of October 1949 however Osman Batur and his Kazaks continued to resist until 1954. In July 1949 the Party sent Deng Lichun to negotiate with the ETR's leadership in Ghulja (Yining in Chinese). Mao Zedong invited the leaders of the ETR to take part in the National People's Consultative Conference later that year. The leaders of the ETR travelled to the Soviet Union, where they were told to co-operate with the Chinese Communist Party. In August Exmetjan Qasimi, Abdulkerim Abbas, Delilhan Sugurbayev,Ishaq Beg and Luo Zhi boarded a plane in Alma-ata, the then capital of Kazakhstan headed for Beijing. On September 3, the Soviet Union informed the Chinese government that the plane had "crashed" killing all on-board. Stripped of their more experienced leaders, the remaining important figures in the ETR agreed to incorporate the Three Districts into the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and accept important positions within the administration.

[edit] See also

• First East Turkestan Republic
• East Turkestan independence movement

[edit] Sources

• Benson, Linda, The Ili Rebellion: The Moslem challenge to Chinese authority in Xinjiang, 1944-1949, Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1990. ISBN 0-87332-509-5

• James A. Millward and Nabijan Tursun, "Political History and Strategies of Control, 1884-1978" in Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland (ISBN 0-7656-1318-2).