Drug Trafficking
In 1923, an officer of the Bank of China from Baotou found out that Ma Fuxiang was assisting the drug trade in opium which helped finance his military expenses. He earned a sum of $2 million from taxing those sales in 1923. General Ma had been using the Bank, a branch of the Government of China's exchequer, to arrange for silver curreny to be transported to Baotou to use it to sponsor the trade.
It was hoped that Ma Fuxiang would have improved the situation, since Chinese Muslims were well known for opposition to smoking opium
Ma Fuxiang officially prohibited opium and made it illegal in Ningxia, but the Guominjun reversed his policy, by 1933, people from every level of society was abusing the drug, Ningxia was left in destitution
On 11 September 1930, Ma Fuxiang celebrated his birthday in Suiyuan, Inner Mongolia, His annual opium profits reached $15,000,000. A video of this event and his poppy fields was recorded by Universal Newspaper Newsreel.
Ma Fuxiang's army also contained many of the Chinese Muslim opium runners in western Inner Mongolia.
Read more about this topic: Ma Fuxiang
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