57 Facts About Bai Chongxi

Bai Chongxi was of Hui ethnicity and of the Muslim faith.

Bai Chongxi was the first defense minister of the Republic of China from 1946 to 1948.

Bai Chongxi was born in Guilin, Guangxi and given the courtesy name Jiansheng.

Bai Chongxi was a descendant of a Persian merchant of the name Baiderluden, whose descendants adopted the Chinese surname Bai.

Bai Chongxi's family was said to have come from Sichuan.

Bai Chongxi graduated from the school in 1914, then underwent pre-cadet training for six months before attending the third class of Baoding Military Academy in June 1915.

Bai Chongxi became a 1st Guangxi Division probationary officer upon returning to Guangxi.

Bai Chongxi rose to fame during the warlord era by allying with Huang Shaohong and Li Zongren as supporters of Kuomintang leader Sun Yat-sen.

Bai Chongxi led the Eastern Route Army that conquered Hangzhou and Shanghai in 1927.

Bai Chongxi commanded the forward units that first entered Beijing and was credited with being the senior commander on site to complete the Northern Expedition.

Bai Chongxi was the commander of Kuomintang forces in the Shanghai massacre of 1927, where he directed the KMT purge of Communists in the party.

In 1928, during the Northern Expedition, Bai Chongxi led Kuomintang forces in the defeat and destruction of Fengtian Clique Gen.

Bai personally had around 2,000 Muslims under his control during his stay in Beijing in 1928 after the Northern Expedition was completed; it was reported by Time magazine that they "swaggered riotously" in the aftermath In June 1928 in Beijing, Bai Chongxi announced that the forces of the Kuomintang would seize control of Manchuria and the enemies of the Kuomintang would "scatter like dead leaves before the rising wind".

Bai Chongxi was out of money and bankrupt in December 1928.

Bai Chongxi planned to lead 60,000 troops from east China to Xinjiang province and construct a railroad as a barrier against Russian encroachment in Xinjiang.

Bai Chongxi's plan was perceived by some to be against Feng Yuxiang.

At one time in 1929 Bai Chongxi had to escape to Vietnam to avoid harm.

From 1930 to 1936, Bai Chongxi was instrumental in the Reconstruction of Guangxi, which became a "model" province with a progressive administration.

Prominent Muslims like Generals Ma Liang, Ma Fuxiang and Bai Chongxi met in 1931 in Nanjing to discuss intercommunal tolerance between Hui and Han.

On 4 August 1937 Bai Chongxi rejoined the Central Government at the invitation of Chiang Kai-shek.

Bai Chongxi was the key strategist who convinced Chiang to adopt a "Total War" strategy in which China would trade space for time, adopt guerrilla tactics behind enemy lines and disrupt enemy supply lines at every opportunity.

Bai Chongxi was involved in many key campaigns including the first major victory at the Battle of Tai'erzhuang in Shandong Province in the spring of 1938 when he teamed up with Gen.

Subsequently, Bai Chongxi was appointed Commander of the Field Executive Office of the Military Council in Guilin, with responsibility for the 3rd, 4th, 7th and 9th War Zones.

Bai Chongxi directed the Battle of South Guangxi and Battle of Kunlun Pass to retake South Guangxi.

Bai Chongxi led the competent Guangxi Army against the Japanese.

In refusing to obey commands from Chiang if he assumed them to be wrong and flawed, Bai Chongxi was alone among fellow military men.

Bai Chongxi sheltered the Muslim Yuehua publication in Guilin, which printed quotes from the Quran and Hadith justifying the need for Chiang Kai-shek as leader of China.

The Hui Muslim Xidaotang sect pledged allegiance to the Kuomintang after their rise to power and Bai Chongxi acquainted Chiang Kai-shek with the Xidaotang jiaozhu Ma Mingren in 1941 in Chongqing.

Kuomintang forces could not dislodge them after several attempts; Chiang Kai-shek then sent Bai Chongxi to oversee the operation.

In June 1946 Bai Chongxi was appointed Minister of National Defense.

Chiang would hold daily briefings in his residence without inviting Bai Chongxi and began to direct front-line troops personally down to the division level, bypassing the chain of command.

Bai Chongxi, acting as Minister of National Defense, debriefed the Assembly on the military situation, completely ignoring Northern China and Manchuria in his report.

Bai Chongxi told the Central Political Council of the Kuomintang that negotiating with the Communists would only make them more powerful.

Governor of Hunan Cheng Qian, and Bai Chongxi reached a consensus that they should impede the advance of the Communists by negotiating with them.

Bai Chongxi decided to follow suit with the mainstream current and defied Chiang Kai-shek's orders, refusing to battle Communists near the Huai River and demanding that his soldiers, which were "lent", be sent back to him so he could secure his hold in the province of Guangxi and ignore the central government in Nanjing.

Bai Chongxi was the commander of four armies in Central China in the Hankou region.

Bai Chongxi demanded that the government negotiate with the Communists like the others.

Bai Chongxi was in charge of the defense of the capital, Nanjing.

Bai Chongxi sent a telegram requesting that Chiang Kai-shek step down as president, amid a storm of requests by other Kuomintang military and political figures for Chiang to step down and allow a peace deal with the Communists.

Bai Chongxi retreated to headquarters at Hengyang via a railroad from Hankou to Canton.

Bai Chongxi was sent as Chiang Kai-shek's personal representative on a fact finding mission and to help pacify the populace.

Bai Chongxi granted amnesty to student violators of peace on the condition that their parents take custody and guarantee subsequent proper behavior.

Bai Chongxi had another falling out with Chiang when he supported General Li Zongren, his fellow Guangxi comrade-in-arms, for the vice presidency in the 1948 general election when Li won against Chiang's hand picked candidate, Sun Fo.

Bai Chongxi's forces were the last ones to leave the mainland for Hainan Island and eventually to Taiwan.

Bai Chongxi served Chief of the General Staff since 1927 until his retirement in 1949.

Bai Chongxi continued to serve in the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang.

In 1951, Bai Chongxi made a speech to the entire Muslim world calling for a war against the Soviet Union, claiming that the "imperialist ogre" leader Joseph Stalin was engineering World War III, and Bai called upon Muslims to avoid the Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru, accusing him of being blind to Soviet imperialism.

Bai Chongxi was then given a military funeral by the government, with a Kuomintang Blue Sky with a White Sun flag over his coffin.

Bai Chongxi was buried in the Muslim section of the Liuzhangli Cemetery in Taipei, Taiwan.

Bai Chongxi was a board member of the All-China Inter-religious Association, representing Islam, the other members of the board were a Catholic bishop, Methodist bishop, and the Buddhist abbot Taixu.

Bai Chongxi sent his son Pai Hsien-yung to Catholic schools in Hong Kong.

Bai Chongxi led a wave of anti-foreignism in Guangxi, attacking American, European, and other foreigners and missionaries, and generally making the province unsafe for foreigners.

Bai Chongxi was interested in Xinjiang, a predominately Muslim province.

Bai Chongxi wanted to resettle disbanded Chinese soldiers there to prevent it from being seized by the Soviet Union.

Bai Chongxi personally wanted to lead an expedition to seize back Xinjiang to bring it under Chinese control, in the style that Zuo Zongtang led during the Dungan revolt.

Bai Chongxi is the father of Kenneth Pai Hsien-yung, Taiwanese author and playwright now living in the United States.

Bai Chongxi's maternal grandson Muhammad Ma is a Halal butcher, and travels across Taiwan working to preserve the Taiwanese Islamic Community.