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.
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