An Army Held Out Against the CCP in the Chinese Civil War until 1952

Arts & Sciences Culture & History
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I was watching this video, and got very confused near the end.

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There was a large army that held on to a large swathe of land by 1956? What? How was it not mentioned in Taiwan’s history textbooks? Who or what organization even was holding out against the CCP for 8 years after CKS ran to his island hideout with his tail behind his legs?

After a bit of research, I finally found the leader, Osman Batur Islamuly.

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This poor Kazakh fought for Kazakh and East Turkestan independence against anyone who tried to control his homeland. So at first he allied with the Japanese to fight the KMT. He was a supporter of driving out all Chinese and Muslim Chinese from East Turkestan.

Then the Soviets backed a Chinese warlord, Sheng Shi-cai 盛世才, who was also loosely affiliated with the KMT, to take over East Turkestan. Sheng also arrested Osman Batur’s entire family. After Sheng’s falling out with the Soviets, Osman Batur briefly gained support from the Soviets in 1944 and the territories under Osman Batur’s control joined the second East Turkestan during WW2.

However, after learning that the Soviets also persecuted Muslims in East Turkestan and treating East Turkestan like a part of Soviet territory, Osman Batur also turned against the communists. He negotiated to be a part of the ROC after the war in exchange for autonomy.

In 1949, Osman Batur opposed the Governor of Xinjiang surrendering the province to the CCP, and joined the Chinese Muslim Ma family to fight for their autonomy. Batur had the assistance of Douglas Mackiernan, who was a member of the CIA through out his resistance. Batur continued to fight the CCP after the Ma family was crushed in the 1949’s Battle of Ningxia. He was force to flee towards Ganshu after an entire year of fighting in 1950, and was unfortunately captured after a defeat by the PLA in 1951. He was executed by the CCP in Ürümchi.

Another East Turkestan leader, Yulbars Khan, escaped to India through Tibet, and eventually came to Taiwan. CKS appointed him the governor of Xinjiang, and he died in Taipei and was buried in the Liuzhangli Muslim cemetery. Douglas Mackiernan also tried to take the Tibet route to escape, but he was killed in Tibet.

The Followers of Osman Batur led by his son Sherdiman Islamuly and other Kazakh leaders fled into an area between East Turkestan, Ganshu and Tibet. Sherdiman Islamuly surrendered to the CCP in 1952, but the other leaders held out until 1957. One of them, Kalibek Rakhimbekovich, eventually fled to Pakistan in 1954.

So I guess textbooks in Taiwan didn’t mention any of them because they weren’t Han and they were actually fighting for East Turkestan independence?

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I mean to be fair the ROC armed forces are still holding out in Taiwan in 2024.

But yes that’s quite an impressive feat. I wonder how many ethnic warlords the nationalists bungled their relationship with, that might have proved useful. Though with the US stopping arms shipments and the soviet capture of manchuria the writing was on the wall.

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For those looking for some context why Osman Batur was so anti-Soviets, this timeline video will give some context.

The ROC illegally annexed an Allied trust territory, which they were given administration rights to by the USMG. See Article 2 and 4 of the Treaty of San Francisco.

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Independent Turkestan is still a problematic issue for CCP.
Uighurs and other Muslim minorities persecuted and pushed out of China to Syria are now getting ready to fight China for independent Turkestan once more.

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Thanks for the excellent history lesson, @hansioux!

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Liuzhangli Muslim cemetery is worth a visit. Walk about 15 minutes from the bottom and head to the ridgeline on the left if my memory serves me well. You can also visit the original White Terror Memorial.

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One interesting thing is that Yulbars Khan’s name was translated to 堯樂博士, which I instinctively thought as Dr. Yaole. In reality, Khan doesn’t have a PhD in anything, it’s just a phonetic transcription of the bars part of Yulbars.

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What’s the name of the famous Muslim general up there? 白somebody?

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Pai Ch’ung-hsi 白崇禧. He’s not from East Turkestan though. He’s from Guangxi.

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Pai is Pai Hsien-yung’s father. A great example of how the children and grandchildren of the ROC’s exiled military elite in Taiwan continue to dominate the cultural (and academic) domain.

https://www.moc.gov.tw/en/News_Content2.aspx?n=481&s=17474

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When I saw the thread title, I immediately thought of the Battle of Yijiangshan Islands, but that occurred in 1955. The Yijiangshan Islands are like Kinmen and Matsu, except it’s 3 times the distance to Matsu off the coast of Zhejiang Province. It’s pretty amazing they held out for that long. Yijiang St., which runs parallel to Songjiang Rd., commemorates the KMT army that got wiped out in the end.

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Prior to that, the KMT enjoyed naval superiority, so it was really difficult for the PLA to cross.

The fall of Dachen islands (大陳列島) and Yijiangshan are pretty much concurrent. Dachen islands held on for an additional month. The troops on Dachen were evacuated by the US’ 7th fleet.

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  1. what does that have to do with the ROC army still technically holding out? I never said anything about the territory they were still holding out on

  2. is that sort of thing really relevant anymore? yes it was illegal at the time, so were a lot of things that nations did in WW2 and it’s aftermath, at some point you have to let it go.

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Not sure what you are referring to here. That WW2 timeline video is mostly unrelated to your original comment. I was sharing with people who wish to understand why Osman Batur ended up siding with the KMT, which he once fought, and turned against the Soviets and the CCP.

In that WW2 timeline video, you can see after Osman Batur joined the Second East Turkestan backed by the Soviets, the Soviets basically took over the entire territory. After a series of Soviets brutalities and religious persecutions, Osman saw them as worse than the KMT. Prior to that Osman was fighting the KMT, vowing to drive all Han Chinese out of East Turkestan.

Of course it is. Taiwan’s status is hinged on the Treaty of San Francisco.

Yes, of course. That some point is called over my dead body.

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I mean it’s 2024, you have a self-described “worker for Taiwanese independence” as the President of the Republic of China, and the waishengren are now practically all dead. At this point whatever remains of the old ROC is pretty taiwanised at this point, and about as green as the passports.

As for the status of Taiwan - I’m a realist. Official diplomatic recognition hinges entirely on the calculus of the United States, and legal arguments from 75 year old documents don’t change facts on the ground.

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Had the US been better with their calculus, they would have pushed to allow self-determination, which is promised to all other trust-territories, for Taiwan in the 50s and the 60s, when China literally could do nothing about it.