The Ili Rebellion: Muslim Challenge to Chinese Authority in Xingjiang, 1944-49 by Linda K. Benson

Author:Linda K. Benson [Benson, Linda K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Education, Teaching Methods & Materials, Arts & Humanities, History, Revolutionary, Social Science, Ethnic Studies, General, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781000161410
Google: PYwEEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2020-10-28T03:52:09+00:00

The Beidashan Incident

At the same time as the central authorities were showing a certain disregard for local susceptibilities in Xinjiang, an incident occurred on the Sino-Mongolian border that showed clearly the Chinese government’s view that the solutions to the province’s problems lay either in the international sphere or in the realm of standard pacificatory measures. To understand this it is necessary to look first at the sequence of events unraveling in northern and northeastern Xinjiang early in 1947.

Osman Batur, an important leader of the Kerei Kazaks, had originally allied himself with the ETR, but as early as the summer of 1946 he was in contact with the Chinese government, from which he hoped to receive arms in order to continue what he called his fight against communism.

Given the legend and myth that now surround Osman, it is difficult to establish his true motives in shifting allegiance from the ETR to the Guomindang—whether it was Soviet interference in the ETR, as he claimed, or the fact that he may simply have been an independent agent, involved in the Altai fighting for whatever advantage it would bring him and his followers. What is known is that Osman was one of several Kazak leaders who in 1946–47 began activities against the ETR in the three districts, and who received military and other aid from the Nationalist Chinese.

Chinese sources claim that Osman wrote to General Song Xilian in July 1946 offering to join the Nationalists in fighting communism. Upon hearing of his appointment as a “government official” on August 15, 1946, he was overcome with emotion and from that time on was committed to the Nationalist cause.75

There is no indication that Nationalist military aid was given to Osman at this time, nor did he undertake any military action against Ili. He remained in the Altai District capital of Chenghua until November 1946.76

In July 1946 another important Kazak leader, Ali Beg Hakim, had sent his representative to Urumqi to see Janimhan and Salis, the two Kazak members of the newly formed coalition government. The representative told the Nationalist government that Ali Beg Hakim and his people would resist Ili and cooperate with the Nationalists. As part of his resistance movement against Ili, Ali Beg wrote literature for distribution among Altai Kazaks and elsewhere in Xinjiang, and he may have been the source of handbills that appeared in Urumqi in the winter of 1946–47.77

After leaving Chenghua in November 1946, Osman’s forces took part in at least one battle with the Ili forces on March 27, 1947,78 and again on April 7, 1947, after which they withdrew from Gexiubao (Kurte) to Beidashan on the border between Xinjiang and Mongolia.79

Complaints against Osman by the local people quickly surfaced. Burhan, the second vice-chairman of the province at the time, was sent on an inspection mission to the Altai in April 1947, accompanied by an Ili faction representative, Rahim Jan. At a meeting with people’s representatives in the Altai on April 4, 1947, Osman was accused of stealing sheep and other animals, and demands were made for his arrest and punishment.

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