Ma Bufang

Ma Bufang (1903–1975) was a prominent Muslim Ma clique warlord in China during the Republic of China era, ruling the province of Qinghai. His rank was Lieutenant-general.

General Ma started a state run and controlled industrialization project, directly creating educational, medical, agricultural, and sanitation projects, run or assisted by the state.

Life
Ma Bufang and his older brother Ma Buqing (1901–1977) were born in Monigou Township (漠泥溝鄉) in what is today Linxia County, some 35 km west of Linxia City. Their father Ma Qi (馬麒) formed the Ninghai Army in Qinghai in 1915, and received civilian and military posts from the Beiyang Government in Beijing in that same year confirming his military and civilian authority in Qinghai.

Older brother Ma Buqing received a Classical Chinese education, while Ma Bufang received education in Islam. Ma Qi originally made Ma Bufang study to become an Imam while his older brother Ma Buqing was educated in the military. Ma Bufang studied until he was 19, then he pursued a military career like his brother. Ma Bufang controlled the Great Dongguan Mosque.

Ma was a graduate of the Officers' Training Corps of Qinghai.

Ma Bufang sided with Feng Yuxiang's Guominjun until the Central Plains War, when he switched to the winning side of Chiang Kai-shek. Ma Qi died in 1931 and his power was assumed by his brother Ma Lin (馬麟), who was appointed governor of Qinghai.

Ascension to Governorship
General Ma Lin (warlord) held the position of Civil Governor, while Ma Bufang was military Governor. They feuded with and disliked each other. People did not admire Ma Bufang as much as his uncle Ma Lin, who was adored by the people.

In 1936, under the order of Chiang Kai-shek, with the help of Ma Zhongying's remnant force in Gansu and Ma Hongkui's and Ma Hongbin's force from Ningxia, Ma Bufang and his brother Ma Buqing (1901–1977) played an important role in annihilating Zhang Guotao's 21,800 strong force that crossed the Yellow River in an attempt to expand the Communist base. Later on Ma Bufang rose with the help of Kuomintang involvement and forced his uncle Ma Lin to concede his position, in 1937. That was when Ma Bufang actually became governor of Qinghai, with military and civilian powers, and stayed ruler until the Communist victory in 1949. During Ma Bufang's rise to power, along with his brother Ma Buqing and cousins Ma Hongkui and Ma Hongbin, they were instrumental in helping another cousin of theirs, Ma Zhongying to prevail in Gansu, because they did not want Ma Zhongying to compete with them on their own turf, so they encouraged and supported Ma Zhongying to develop his own power base in other regions such as Gansu and Xinjiang. Ma Bufang defeated Ma Zhongying in battle in Gansu, and drove him into Xinjiang.

Any female communist soldiers who were captured were married to Ma Bufang's officers as wives.

In 1936, Ma Bufang was appointed commander of the newly organized 2nd army.

Ma Bufang did not want the 14th Dalai Lama to succeed his predecessor. Ma Bufang stationed his men to place the Dalai Lama under effective house arrest, saying it was needed for "protection", refusing to permit his leaving to Tibet. He did all he could to delay the transport of the Dalai Lama from Qinghai to Tibet, by demanding massive sums of money in silver. The demanded payment by Ma Bufang was 100,000 Chinese silver dollars.

Even though his uncle Ma Lin was officially governor of Qinghai, Ma Bufang held de facto military power in the province and foreigners acknowledged this. While his uncle Ma Lin was Governor of Qinghai, Ma Bufang was Pacification Commissioner of Gansu. In 1936, during Autumn, Ma Bufang made his move to expel his uncle from power and replace him. Ma Bufang made his position untenous and unbearable until Ma Lin resigned from power by making the Hajj to Mecca. Ma Lin's next position was to be part of the National Government Committee. In an interview Ma Lin was described as having "high admiration and unwavering loyalty to Chiang Kai-shek".

The Qing dynasty had granted his family a yellow standard which had his family name "Ma" on it. Ma Bufang continued to use this standard in battle. As of 1936, he had 30,000 Muslim cavalrymen in his army.

War against Tibet and Ngoloks
In 1932, Ma Bufang's Muslim troops and the Han Chinese general Liu Wenhui defeated the 13th Dalai Lama's Tibetan armies when Tibet tried to invade Qinghai province. Ma Bufang overrran the Tibetan armies and recaptured several counties in Xikang province. Shiqu, Dengke, and other counties were seized from the Tibetans. The Tibetans were pushed back to the other side of the Jinsha river. Ma and Liu warned Tibetan officials not to dare cross the Jinsha river again. A truce was signed, ending the fighting.

The Kuomintang Republic of China government supported Ma Bufang when he launched seven extermination expeditions into Golog, eliminating thousands of Ngolok tribals. Some Tibetans counted the number of times he attacked him, remembering the seventh attack which made life impossible. Ma was highly anti-communist, and he and his army wiped out many Ngolok tribal Tibetans in the northeast and eastern Qinghai, and also destroyed Tibetan Buddhist Temples.

The Kunlun middle school was established by Ma Bufang, and it recruited Tibetan students, who were subjected to a harsh military life. Ma wanted to use them as translators as he expanded his military domain over land inhabited by Tibetans. As Ma Bufang defeated more Tibetans, he also drafted them into his army.

Ma Bufang attacked and demolished a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Reb gong in 1939, it was one of the oldest of Amdo. Ma Bufang sent his army to destroy and loot the Tsanggar Monastery in 1941. Ma's forces expelled the monks. It was not until the Communists took power that the Monastery could be rebuilt, the monks returned in 1953. Many of the monasteries attacked by Ma Bufang were associated with the Ngoloks.

A former Tibetan Khampa soldier named Aten who battled Ma Bufang's forces gave an account of a battle. He described the Chinese Muslims as "fierce". After he and his troopos were ambushed by 2,000 Ma Bufang's Chinese Muslim cavalry, he was left with bullet wounds and he "had no illusions as to the fate of most of our group", most of whom were wiped out. Aten also asserted that "the Tibetan province of Amdo", was "occupied" by Ma Bufang.

Second Sino-Japanese War


In 1937 and 1938 the Japanese approached Ma Bufang, but he ignored them.

Because of fierce resistance by Ma Hongkui and Ma Bufang's Muslim cavalry, the Japanese never were able to reach and capture Lanzhou during the war.

In 1937, Ma Bufang notified the Chinese government that he was prepared to lead his army into battle against the Japanese during the Battle of Beiping–Tianjin.

Ma Bufang was also an obstruction to Japanese agents trying to contact the Tibetans, he was called an "adversary" by a Japanese agent.

Ma became governor when he expelled his uncle Ma Lin from power in 1938. He became chairman (governor) of Qinghai in 1938 and commanded a group army. He was appointed because of his anti Japanese inclinations.

Under orders from the Kuomintang government of Chiang Kaishek, Ma Bufang repaired Yushu airport to prevent Tibetan separatists from seeking independence. Chiang also ordered Ma Bufang to put his Muslim soldiers on alert for an invasion of Tibet in 1942. Ma Bufang complied, and moved several thousand troops to the border with Tibet. Chiang also threatened the Tibetans with bombing if they did not comply. Ma Bufang attacked the Tibetan Buddhist Tsang monastery in 1941. He also constantly attacked the Labrang monastery.

Ma Bufang's army battled extensively in bloody battles against the Japanese in Henan province. Ma Bufang sent his army under the command of General Ma Biao to fight Japan in Henan. The Qinghai Chinese, Salar, Chinese Muslim, Dongxiang, and Tibetan troops Ma Bufang sent fought to the death against the Imperial Japanese Army, or committed suicide refusing to be taken prisoner, instead, they committed suicide when cornered by the enemy. When they defeated the Japanese, the Muslim troops slaughtered all of them except for a few prisoners to send back to Qinghai prove that they were victorious. In September 1940, when the Japanese made an offensive against the Muslim Qinghai troops, the Muslims ambushed them and killed so many of them they were forced to retreat. The Japanese could not even pick up their dead, they instead cut an arm from their corpses limbs for cremation to send back to Japan. The Japanese did not dare make an offensive like that again.

In 1942 Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, head of the Chinese government personally went on tour in Northwestern China in Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, and Qinghai, where he met both Ma Buqing and Ma Bufang. It was reported around this time Ma had 50,000 elite soldiers in his army.

Ma Bufang supported the Chinese nationalist Imam Hu Songshan.

Chinese Civil War


Ma Bufang was elected to the Sixth Central Committee of the Kuomintang in 1945.

The Kuomintang Chinese government ordered Ma Bufang several times to march his troops into Xinjiang to intimidate the pro Soviet Governor Sheng Shicai. This helped provide protection for Chinese settling in Xinjiang. Ma Bufang was sent with his Muslim Cavalry to Urumqi by the Kuomintang in 1945 during the Ili Rebellion to protect it from the Uyghur army from Hi.

Ma Bufang relocated Genghis Khan's shrine from Yulin to Xining in 1949. On April 7, 1949 Ma Bufang and Ma Hongkui made a joint announcement in which they said that they would continue to fight the Communists, and they would not make an accord with them. Fighting continued as the Communists advanced. Ma was made Chief of all Military and Political affairs of the Northwest by the Kuomintang.

The Panchen Lama, who was exiled from Tibet by the Dalai Lama's government, wanted to seek revenge by leading an army against Tibet in September 1949. He asked for help from Ma Bufang. Ma Bufang patronized the Panchen Lama, and the Lamaist Red Sect against the Dalai Lama. Qinghai served as a "sanctuary" for Red Sect members, Ma Bufang allowed Kumbum Monastery to be totally self-governed by the Panchen Lama.

General Ma Bufang was appointed Supreme Commander in Chief of the entire northwestern China by the government, described by TIME magazine as "13 times as big as Texas", containing "14 million people" "one-third Han Chinese, one-third Moslem Chinese, and the remainder Tibetans, Turkis, Mongolians, Kazaks". He entered Lanzhou in a Buick with his troops, seizing buildings with his troops and setting up camps. Ma Bufang also had to battle against forty Soviet warplanes sent by Joseph Stalin against his forces.

Generals Hu Zongnan and Ma Bufang led five corps to defeated General Peng's army near Baoji. They inflicted 15,000 deaths upon the PLA.

In August 1949, Ma Bufang traveled by plane to the KMT government in Canton request supplies via airdrop, while his son Ma Jiyuan assumed command over the KMT forces at Lanzhou, who promised to defend the city to journalists. However, the government denied his request, and Ma flew back to Lanzhou, then abandoned Lanzhou, retreating all the way back to Xining on trucks. Then the Chinese Communist People's Liberation Army PLA, led by General Peng Dehuai, defeated Ma's army and occupied Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu. Ma was driven out of Xining. Ma fled to Chongqing then Hong Kong. While residing in a flat in Hong Kong, he stated he his intention to flee to Mecca. In October, Chiang Kai-shek urged him to return to the Northwest to resist the PLA, but he fled to Mecca with more than 200 relatives and subordinates, in the name of hajj.

Ma Bufang, and his family members like son Ma Jiyuan, cousin Ma Bukang, and nephew Ma Chengxiang fled to Saudi Arabia, however, after one year, Ma Bufang and Ma Bukang then moved to Cairo, Egypt, while his son Ma Jiyuan with 10 Generals, moved to Taiwan.

General Ma Bufang announced the start of the Kuomintang Islamic Insurgency in China (1950–1958), on January 9, 1950, when he was in Cairo, Egypt saying that Chinese Muslims would never surrender to Communism and would fight a guerilla war against the Communists. His former military forces, most of them Muslim, continued to play a major role in the insurgency.

In 1950, Ma moved to Cairo. He was there to request help from Arab countries. Ma served as representative of the Kuomintang to Egypt.

Ambassador to Saudi Arabia
In 1957, after the establishment of diplomatic relations between Egypt and the People's Republic of China, Ma was transferred by Taipei to serve as the ROC's ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Ma served in this post for four years, during which period he never returned to Taiwan. He remained in Saudi Arabia until his death in 1975 at age 72 years old. He only had one son, Ma Jiyuan (馬繼援), who became a divisional commander in Ma Bufang's army.

Position on East Turkestan Independence
While serving as ambassador, in response to a request by a former Uyghur Mufti living in Saudi Arabia, Abdul Ahad Hamed for accommodations to be granted to Uyghurs living outside of China who held Republic of China passports, Ma Bufang sent the following letter which rejected Abdul Ahad Hamed's demands and his usage of the term "East Turkestan", upholding the official position of the Republic of China (Taiwan) that Xinjiang was a part of China and that it did not recognize the East Turkestan Independence Movement.

Dear Brother, With all due respect to your previous position in the Government of Sinkiang and to the confidence placed in you by His Excellency the President of the Republic of China, I hope that you will refrain from using expressions which should not be used by one who occupied the position of a mufti. We are all serving our beloved country trying to do our best for our countrymen. I also hope that you will refrain from using the expression "The Turkestani Nation" which was the creation of one Abdul Qayyum Khan while he was living in Germany. We are working for the welfare of the true people of Sinkiang not for the Turkestanis living outside Sinkiang or the followers of Abdul Qayyum Khan. Best regards, Ambassador of Nationalist China in Saudi Arabia

Mansion


The Ma Bufang Mansion in Xining, Qinghai was where Ma and his family lived from 1943 to 1949. In 1938 Ma Bufang built a residence for his concubine called East mansion. Ma Bufang's headquarters was converted into the provincial museum by the Communists, until a new one was built, it currently contains the "Qinghai Cultural Relics and Archaeology Institute " collection.

Former officers
Ma Bufang's former chief of staff was Ma Wending. Ma Wending defected to the communists and became vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the Qinghai Provincial People's Congress.

Another officer who served under Ma Bufang, the Salar General Han Youwen, also defected to the Communists and joined the People's Liberation Army.

Ma Bufang had another chief of staff in his North-West Command, Ma Ji. Ma Ji's son Ma Wenying later became a well known tailor.

Military
Ma Bufang recruited many Salar officers into his army, like Han Yimu and General Han Youwen. They were mostly from Xunhua County.

Ma Bufang's regime centered on the support of "fanatically disciplined and obedient Chinese Moslems." After he took over as Governor, he turned to civilian governing. His son was handed Ma Bufang's former role as authority over the army.

Nationalism
Ma Bufang presented himself as a Chinese nationalist to the people of China, fighting against British Imperialism, to deflect criticism by opponents that his government was feudal and oppressed minorities like Tibetans and Buddhist Mongols. He used the Chinese nationalist card to his advantage to keep himself in power. The Kuomintang party was officially anti-feudal, and the Kuomintang itself claimed to be a revolutionary party of the people, so being accused of feudalism was a serious insult. Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Kuomintang, spoke out publicly against feudalism and feudal warlords. Ma Bufang was forced to defend himself against the accusations, and stated to the news media that his army was a part of "National army, people's power".

Socialism and industrialization
Ma Bufang was described as a socialist by American journalist John Roderick and friendly compared to the other Ma Clique warlords. Ma Bufang was reported to be good humoured and jovial in contrast to the brutal reign of Ma Hongkui.

Most of eastern China was ravaged by the Second Sino Japanese war the Chinese Civil war, by contrast, Qinghai was relatively untouched.

An American scholar and government advisor, Doak Barnett, praised Ma Bufang's government as "one of the most efficient in China, and one of the most energetic. While most of China is bogged down, almost inevitably, by Civil War, Chinghai is attempting to carry our small-scale, but nevertheless ambitious, development and reconstruction schemes on its own initiative"

General Ma started a state run and controlled industralization project, directly creating educational, medical, agricultural, and sanitation projects, run or assisted by the state. The state provided money for food and uniforms in all schools, state run or private. Roads and a theater were constructed. The state controlled all the press, no freedom was allowed for independent journalists. His regime was dictatoral in its political system. Barnett admitted that the regime had "sterm authoritarianism" and "little room for personal freedom".

In 1947 America sold Ma Bufang a piped water (sewage) system which was installed in Xining.

Like all the other Kuomintang members, Ma Bufang was an anti-Communist.

Ma was regarded as a "modernizer" and "reformer" during his rule over Qinghai.

Environment and infrastructure
Ma enforced a strict reforestation program to help trees and the environment, villagers were required to meet a quota of planted trees after being given the trees and instructions, cutting down trees without permission led to execution. Millions of trees were planted in Qinghai during his rule and he built an irrigation system in addition to roads. Around 1.5 million people lived in Qinghai under Ma Bufang. Ma Bufang was obsessed with preventing soil erosion and tree planting, saying "The salvation of our desert was in the tree." He had "education teams" teach the entire population on the role of trees in protecting the environment.

Education and women's rights
Ma Bufang also promoted education. He made businessmen methodically clean up Xining, the capital of Qinghai by serving as insect exterminators, killing flies and neatly throwing them away.

Ma Bufang and his wife built a girls' school for Muslim girls in Linxia which taught modern secular education.

Patron of the arts
Ma Bufang sent the Chinese artist Zhang Daqian to Sku'bum to seek helpers for analyzing and copying Dunhuang Buddhist art.

Treatment of minorities
Tibetans record his rule over them as having been marked by Forced conversion and heavy taxes.

The Mongour were reported to have been abused by KMT officials under Ma Bufang, who moved to Taiwan with Ma after the communist revolution.

Ma cooperated with the Panchen Lama against the Dalai Lama's regime in Tibet. The Panchen Lama stayed in Qinghai. Ma tried to persuade the Panchen Lama to come with the Kuomintang government to Taiwan when the Communist victory approached, but the Panchen Lama decided to defect to the Communists instead. The Panchen Lama, unlike the Dalai Lama, sought to exert control in decision making. In addition, the Kuomintang expanded into the Lhasa regime of the Dalai Lama.

Towards the Communist takeover, Ma Bufang tried to rally Tibetan and Mongol militia at the Kokonur Lake. A Mongol official Wang Benba derailed the ritual by urging them not to fight, saying that Communist victory was inevitable.

Tibetans
Tibetan independence groups allege and accuse Ma Bufang of carrying out Sinicization policies in Tibetan areas: he is said to have forced Tibetans to intermarry, and change their religious beliefs. He also spread and popularized holidays such as the Chinese New Year.

Since Qinghai (Amdo) was under Ma's rule, the 14th Dalai Lama and his family spoke Chinese as their native language, not knowing Tibetan up to 1939 when they relocated their home to Lhasa.

Ma Bufang also eliminated racism, and made all nationalities equal, elminating Slavery and Lordship among the Mongols and Tibetans.

Religious minorities
The Yihewani sect was modernist and mixing itself strongly with Chinese culture and politics, whereas the Salafi Muslims stressed a non-political, and, what they called an "original" form of Islam. When, in 1937, the Salafi formally split with the Yihewani Muslim Brotherhood, Ma Bufang persecuted them as "heterodox" and "foreign". The Salafis were not allowed to move or worship openly. General Ma effectively repressed all non Yihewani groups, including the traditional Sunni Gedimu, the oldest sect of Islam in China, doing things like enforcing Yihewani Imams on them. However, when the Communist party took over, the Gedimu used the Communist party's rules on freedom of religion to ward of the Yihewani practices and Imams.

In contrast to his treatment of Salafis, General Ma allowed polytheists to openly worship, and Christian missionaries to station themselves in Qinghai. General Ma and other high-ranking Muslim Generals even attended the Kokonuur Lake Ceremony where the God of the Lake was worshipped, and during the ritual, the Chinese national Anthem was sung, all participants bowed to a Portrait of Kuomintang party founder Dr. Sun Zhongshan, and the God of the Lake was also bowed to, and offerings were given to him by the participants, which included the Muslims. Ma Bufang invited Kazakh Muslims to attend the Ceremony honoring the God. Ma Bufang received audiences of Christian missionaries, who sometimes gave him the Gospel. His son Ma Jiyuan received a silver cup from Christian missionaries.

Career

 * 1928 General Officer Commanding 9th New Division
 * 1932 General Officer Commanding II New Corps
 * 1938 - 1949 Military-Governor of Qinghai Province
 * 1938 - 1941 General Officer Commanding LXXXII Corps
 * 1943 - 1945 Commander in Chief 40th Army Group

He commanded the "New 9th Division", "New 2nd Army", and the "82nd Army". Another one of his positions was "vice-commander of the 77th Brigade of the 26th Division".