68 Facts About Sheng Shicai

1.

Sheng Shicai was a Chinese warlord who ruled Xinjiang from 1933 to 1944.

2.

The Soviet era ended in 1942, when Sheng Shicai approached the Nationalist Chinese government, but still retained much power over the province.

3.

Sheng Shicai was dismissed from post in 1944 and named Minister of Agriculture and Forestry.

4.

Sheng Shicai was a Manchurian-born Han Chinese, educated in Tokyo, Japan, where he studied political economy and later attended the Imperial Japanese Army Academy.

5.

Sheng Shicai participated in the Northern Expedition, a military campaign of the Kuomintang against the Beiyang government.

6.

Ma and Zhang were defeated militarily by June 1934 with help from the Soviet Union, whom Sheng Shicai invited to intervene, subordinating himself to the Soviets in return.

7.

Sheng Shicai was dubbed the "King of Xinjiang" during his rule.

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8.

Sheng Shicai's rule was marked by his nationality policy which promoted national and religious equality and identity of various nationalities of Xinjiang.

9.

In 1937, in parallel with the Soviet Great Purge, Sheng Shicai conducted a purge on his own, executing, torturing to death and imprisoning 100,000 people, the majority of which were Uyghurs.

10.

Sheng Shicai held the ministerial post by July 1945 and later worked as an adviser to Hu Zongnan and held a military post.

11.

Sheng Shicai joined the rest of the Kuomintang in Taiwan after the defeat in the Chinese Civil War in 1949.

12.

In Taiwan, Sheng Shicai lived in a comfortable retirement and died in Taipei in 1970.

13.

Sheng Shicai, an ethnic Han Chinese, was born in Kaiyuan, Manchuria in a well-to-do peasant family on 3 December 1895.

14.

Sheng Shicai enrolled at the Provincial Forestry and Agricultural School in Mukden, aged 14.

15.

Aged 17, Sheng Shicai enrolled at the Wusong Public School in Shanghai, where he studied political science and economy.

16.

Sheng Shicai took military training in the southern province of Kwantung, known for liberal and reformist views.

17.

Sheng Shicai entered military service under Guo Songling, Deputy of Zhang Zuolin, a Manchurian warlord.

18.

Sheng Shicai rapidly rose to become Staff Officer with the rank of lieutenant colonel, and was given command of a company.

19.

At that time, Sheng Shicai supported a campaign against Zhang, briefly returning to Manchuria.

20.

Sheng Shicai returned from Japan in 1927 to participate in the Northern Expedition A rising young officer, Sheng Shicai was given the rank of colonel and served as a Staff Officer of the Chiang's field headquarters under He Yingqin.

21.

Sheng Shicai was a member of the Guominjun, a leftist nationalist faction that supported the Nationalist government in China.

22.

However, Sheng Shicai did not join the Kuomintang because of his belief in Marxism.

23.

Sheng Shicai, who was marshalling the provincial forces in eastern Xinjiang, returned to Urumqi to seize power in the midst of the chaos.

24.

Sheng Shicai's position was challenged by Ma, as well as Zhang Peiyuan, Jin's old ally and a commander of the Yining region.

25.

Sheng Shicai expected that the Chinese government would recognise him as duban, and that Huang's visit would affect that decision.

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26.

Sheng Shicai exploited the rumours and charged that Huang, an agent of Wang Jingwei had plotted with Liu, Zhang and Ma to overthrow the provincial government.

27.

Sheng Shicai accused Luo not only for plotting but of an assassination attempt.

28.

In September 1933, Sheng Shicai accused Civil Governor Liu Wenlong of plotting with Ma and Zhang through Luo with Nanjing in order to overthrow him.

29.

Sheng Shicai was forced to resign and was replaced by Zhu Ruichi, a more controllable official.

30.

Sheng Shicai created a new bureaucratic hierarchy, nepotistically appointing new officials and replacing one of his predecessors.

31.

Sheng Shicai later claimed that the delegation was sent under the aegis of Jin's request for military equipment.

32.

However, Sheng Shicai made a more comprehensive deal with the Soviets.

33.

Sheng Shicai's delegation returned in December 1933, together with Garegin Apresov, who would later be appointed as the Soviet General Consul in Urumqi.

34.

Sheng Shicai sent requests to the Soviets to turn him in, but they refused.

35.

The program was practicable since each point represented a grievance that one nationality had against the previous government, which enabled Sheng Shicai to enact the reforms.

36.

Sheng Shicai sent a letter to Joseph Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov and Kliment Voroshilov in June 1934.

37.

Sheng Shicai called for the "fastest possible implementation of Communism in Xinjiang".

38.

Sheng Shicai expressed his wish to join the Communist Party of Soviet Union.

39.

The content of Sheng Shicai's letter led Stalin to refer him as "a provocateur or a hopeless "leftist" having no idea about Marxism".

40.

Sheng Shicai referred to them as "a skillful, vital application of Marxism, Leninism, and Stalinism in the conditions of the feudal society of economically and culturally backward Xinjiang".

41.

On 1 August 1935, Sheng Shicai founded the People's Anti-Imperialist Association in Urumqi.

42.

Sheng Shicai sided with Zhang, who asked for his help, and intended to proclaim that his rebels were under Xinjiang's protection.

43.

Sheng Shicai was accompanied by the 2,000 strong Uighurs commanded by Mahmut Muhiti, a wealthy ex-merchant.

44.

Sheng Shicai was not comfortable with the Muslim officials in Kashgar, therefore a month later, he appointed his fellow Manchurian Liu Pin to the position of Commanding Officer in Kashgar.

45.

Sheng Shicai received information on the preparation of a powerful protest movement by this society.

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46.

Sheng Shicai's purges swept the entire Uyghur and Hui political elite.

47.

At Joseph Stalin's request, Sheng Shicai joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in August 1938 and received Party Card No 1859118 directly from Molotov during his secret visit to Moscow.

48.

However, Sheng Shicai did not set up the provincial branch of the CPSU in Xinjiang.

49.

Sheng Shicai reorganized Xinjiang Daily, the only regional newspaper at the time, to be issued in Mandarin, Uyghur and Kazakh language.

50.

Sheng Shicai initiated the idea of 14 separate nationalities in Xinjiang, and these were Han Chinese, Uyghurs, Mongols, Kazakhs, Muslims or Dungan, Sibe, Solon, Manchu, Kyrgyz, White Russian, Taranchi, Tajiks, and Uzbeks.

51.

However, Sheng Shicai's policy was criticized by the Pan-Turkic Jadidists and East Turkestan Independence activists Muhammad Amin Bughra and Masud Sabri, who rejected the Sheng Shicai's imposition of the name "Uyghur people" upon the Turkic people of Xinjiang.

52.

Bughra accused Sheng Shicai of trying to sow disunion among the Turkic peoples.

53.

However, Sheng Shicai argued that such separation was necessary in order to guarantee the success of the future union.

54.

The Soviets proposed the reduction of army to 10,000 men, but Sheng Shicai refused this proposal and instead reduced it to 20,000 men.

55.

The Soviet General Consul in Urumqi was effectively in control of governing, with Sheng Shicai required to consult them for any decision he made.

56.

Alexander Barmine, the Soviet official responsible for supplying arms to Sheng Shicai, wrote that Xinjiang was "a Soviet colony in all but name".

57.

Sheng Shicai's government implemented atheistic propaganda, and Muslim women were encouraged to appear in public without a veil.

58.

However, with the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Sheng Shicai saw an opportunity to strike down Soviet proxies, the Chinese communists and to mend his relationship with the Chinese government now seated in Chongqing.

59.

Sheng Shicai had long prepared to purge the Chinese communists in Xinjiang.

60.

Chen Tanqiu, the chief liaison of the Communist Party of China reported in Yan'an that his relations with Sheng Shicai became "extremely cold".

61.

Sheng Shicai demanded that Wu assumes more responsibility in dealings with the Soviets.

62.

In October 1942 Sheng Shicai demanded from the Soviet General Consul that all Soviet technical and military personnel be withdrawn from Xinjiang within three months.

63.

Sheng Shicai ordered the arrest of the Kuomintang personnel, telling Stalin that they were Japanese spies, and telling Chiang that they were communists.

64.

Sheng Shicai officially resigned from his post and was appointed as Minister of Agriculture and Forestry on 29 August 1944.

65.

Sheng Shicai left Xinjiang on 11 September 1944 to join the Chinese government in Chongqing.

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66.

Chiang signed an order allowing Sheng Shicai to recoup the wealth beneath the governor's building.

67.

Sheng Shicai later worked as an adviser to Hu Zongnan in Xi'an.

68.

In 1949, Sheng Shicai accompanied the Kuomintang in Taiwan where he lived in comfortable retirement with his wife and four children.