1. Ma Shaowu was a Chinese warlord and military commander who was a member of the Xinjiang clique during China's Warlord Era and the Xinjiang Wars.
18 Facts About Ma Shaowu
1. 2.
The Jahriyya Sufi leader Ma Yuanzhang was related to the leader of the Dungan revolt, Ma Hualong, which made him related to Ma Shaowu, who was related to Ma Hualong.
3.
Ma Shaowu became a military commander in the Qing Dynasty army and that of the Republic of China.
4.
Ma Shaowu's authority extended over all of southern Xinjiang and he commanded several hundred Hui and Han Chinese soldiers.
5.
Ma Shaowu was loyal to the Chinese government and a Muslim.
6.
Ma Shaowu had replaced fellow Hui Ma Fuxing as Daotai, after shooting him on Yang Zengxin's orders.
7.
Ma Shaowu jailed a Uighur called Akbar Ali, who was employed by the Soviet consulate, for setting off a Uighur riot.
8.
Ma Shaowu steadily lost control over southern Xinjiang, despite Jin Shuren appointing him as Commander in Chief of all Chinese forces in the area, and was panicking.
9.
Ma Shaowu sent Han Chinese troops to Khotan and Maral Bashi to fight against the anti-provincial forces, withdrew Chinese troops from Sarikol to Kashgar to reinforce the garrison and raised levies of Kirghiz.
10.
Ma faced an army of Uighurs and Hui from Gansu under the command of Timur Beg and Ma Zhancang, when Ma Zhancang defected to Ma Shaowu after conducting negotiations and shot and beheaded Timur Beg.
11.
Ma Shaowu commanded a Han Chinese garrison; his subordinates included Brig.
12.
In 1934 Ma Shaowu was seriously injured in an assassination attempt ordered by Sheng Shicai.
13.
Ma Shaowu was walking with his son and wife when the assassination attempt happened.
14.
Ma Shaowu got home on a donkey, a doctor was summoned and by the end of summer he was convalescing.
15.
Ma Shaowu wore a long beige silk robe, had a spittoon and spoke in precise Peking speech.
16.
Ma Shaowu was then sent to Moscow in the Soviet Union to complete medical treatment.
17.
Ma Shaowu did not give direct answers, replying through a translator that "I lost my post when, as a result of the troubles, China lost her authority in Kashgar", referring to when he had to resign as taotai.
18.
In 1937, during the Xinjiang War, Ma Shaowu was accused by Soviet puppet Sheng Shicai of being part of a "Fascist-Trotskyite" network, including Khoja Niyas Hajji, Ma Hushan, along with other claims, which Sheng Shicai used as an excuse to conduct his own purge in Xinjiang along with Joseph Stalin's Great Purge.