Kuomintang Islamic insurgency in China (1950–1958)

Kuomintang Islamic Insurgency in China (1950-1958)
Part of Chinese Civil War
Date 1950–1958 Location Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Yunnan Status CPC victory
Belligerents
Republic of China Kuomintang Nationalist Party	Communist Party of China
Commanders and leaders
Chiang Kai-shek Ma Hushan † Han Yimu † Ma Yuanxiang † Ma Liang Ospan Batyr † Yulbars Khan Li Mi	Mao Zedong
Strength
National Revolutionary Army, Hui, Salar insurgents Kazakh mercenaries	People's Liberation Army
Casualties and losses
Almost all eliminated except for Burmese group	Thousands

The Kuomintang Islamic Insurgency in China refers to a continuation of the Chinese Civil War by Muslim Kuomintang National Revolutionary Army forces in Northwest China, in the provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang, and another insurgency in Yunnan.

Contents 1 Origin 2 Conflict 3 Other insurgencies 3.1 Burma 3.2 Tibet 4 Individuals 5 See also 6 References

Origin

The majority of the insurgents were formal members of Ma Bufang's army of the National Revolutionary Army. Several of them were prominent Generals, such as Ma Hushan, who had earlier fought against the Soviets in Xinjiang.

Ma Bufang, Ma Hushan, and the other leaders who led the revolt were all former National Revolutionary Army soldiers and Kuomintang members. Many of the Chinese Muslim insurgents were veterans of the Soviet Invasion of Xinjiang, Sino-Tibetan War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, Ili Rebellion, and the Chinese Civil War. The Muslim insurgents were all Hui people, Salar people, or Dongxiang people.

When Ma Bufang fled after the Ningxia Campaign, he took over $50,000 in military funds and fled to Hong Kong.^[1]

Some Hui Muslim Generals and units from Ningxia, like Ma Hongbin, his son Ma Dunjing and the 81st Muslim Corps defected to the Communist People's Liberation Army and joined them.^[2] Many Muslim units in Xinjiang also defected to the Communists.^[3]

Han Youwen, an ethnic Salar muslim defected to the Communists and joined the People's Liberation Army. Ma Zhanshan, another Muslim General, also defected to the Communists.

Most former Kuomintang Muslim Generals, like Ma Bufang, Ma Hongkui, his son Ma Dunjing, Bai Chongxi, Ma Jiyuan, Ma Chengxiang and their families fled to Taiwan along with the Republic of China government or to other places like Egypt and the United States of America when the Communists defeated them.However for those who stayed, the Muslims of Qinghai had other ideas, and decided to revolt against the PLA.

The Communist Party of China mistakenly assumed that the Tibetans would welcome the CPC after it had defeated Ma Bufang. (Ma Bufang, an anti-communist, had undertook a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Tibetans in the eastern fringes of Qinghai). However, after the CPC brought in hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the east, and embarked on a policy of "rural socialization", it would encounter opposition from the Tibetans too. By 1958, the Salar and the Tibetans had joined forces in revolt to the Communist policies.^[4]

Conflict

General Ma Bufang announced the start of the Kuomintang Islamic Insurgency in China, on January 9, 1950, when he was in Cairo, Egypt, saying that Chinese Muslims would never surrender to Communism and would fight a guerrilla war against the Communists.^[5][6] In 1951, Bai Chongxi made a speech to the entire Muslim world calling for a war against Russia, and Bai also called upon Muslims to avoid the Indian leader Nehru, accusing him of being blind to Soviet imperialism.^[7][8] Bai also called Stalin an ogre and claimed he and Mao were engineering World War Three.^[9][10] Ma Bufang continued to exert "influence" on the insurgent KMT Muslim leaders.^[11]

President Chiang Kai-Shek continued to make contact with and support the Muslim insurgents in northwest China. Kuomintang planes dropped supplies and arms to the Muslims; there were 14,000 former Muslim troops of Kuomintang Muslim Generals Ma Bufang and Ma Hongkui who were supplied by the Kuomintang, and with CIA support. They operated in the Amdo region of Tibet in 1952.^[12]

General Ma Hushan, a Kuomintang member and a Muslim, led an insurgency against the PLA from 1950–1954 using guerrilla tactics. Prior to this, he had earlier fought against the Soviet Red Army. He was against the Marxist-Leninist indoctrination of the Communist Party, and he killed hundreds of PLA soldiers in guerrilla ambushes in valleys and mountains. He was captured in 1954 and executed at Lanzhou.^[13][14]

Ospan Batyr, a Turkic Kazakh who was on the Kuomintang payroll, fought for the Republic of China government against the Mongols, then against the Communist PLA invasion of Xinjiang. He was captured and executed in 1951.

Yulbars Khan, a Uyghur who worked for the Kuomintang, led a Chinese Hui Muslim cavalry against CPC forces taking over Xinjiang. In 1951, after most of his troops deserted and defected to the PLA, he fled to Calcutta in India via Tibet, where his men were attacked by the Dalai Lama's Tibetan forces. He managed to escape from the Dalai Lama's grip, and subsequently took a steamer to Taiwan.^[15] The Kuomintang government then appointed him Governor of Xinjiang, a title which he held to until he died in the mid-1970s in Taiwan. His memoirs were published in 1969.^[16]

General Ma Liang, who was related to Ma Bufang, had 2,000 Chinese Muslim troops under his command around Gansu/Qinghai. Chiang Kai-shek sent agents in May 1952 to communicate with him, and Chiang offered him the post of Commander-in-chief of the 103rd Route of the Kuomintang army, which was accepted by Ma. The CIA dropped supplies such as ammunition, radios, and gold at Nagchuka to Ma Liang.^[17] Ma Yuanxiang was another Chinese Muslim General related to the Ma family.^[18] Ma Yuanxiang and Ma Liang wreaked havoc on the Communist forces. In 1953, Mao Zedong was compelled to take radical action against them.^[19] Ma Yuanxiang was then killed by the Communist forces in 1953.^[20]

Other insurgencies

Burma

Another group of Kuomintang insurgents were in Burma. Many of them were Hui Muslims, like the insurgents in the northwest, but they did not coordinate their attacks with them.

After losing mainland China, a group of approximately 12,000 KMT soldiers escaped to Burma and continued launching guerrilla attacks into southern China. Their leader, General Li Mi, was paid a salary by the ROC government and given the nominal title of Governor of Yunnan. After the Burmese government appealed to the United Nations in 1953, the U.S. began pressuring the ROC to withdraw its loyalists. By the end of 1954, nearly 6,000 soldiers had left Burma and Li Mi declared his army disbanded. However, thousands remained, and the ROC continued to supply and command them, even secretly supplying reinforcements at times.

Since the 1980s, thousands of Muslims from Myanmar and Thailand have migrated to Taiwan in search of a better life. They are descendants of nationalist soldiers that fled Yunnan when the communists took over mainland China.^[21]

Tibet

After the insurgency was finished off, the PLA used Hui soldiers, who formerly had served under Ma Bufang to crush the Tibetan revolt in Amdo.^[22]

Individuals

Some Kuomintang Muslims continued to resist the CPC, such the well known son of Ma Anliang, Ma Tingxian, who was executed by the People's Court in 1962 for his resistance.^[23]

See also

• Chinese Civil War
• Campaign at the China–Burma Border

References