Ma Bufang

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Ma Bufang (Chinese: 馬步芳; 1903–1975), was a prominent Ma clique warlord in China during the Republic of China era, ruling the northwestern province of Qinghai. He was the son of Ma Qi (馬麒), who formed the Ninghai Army in Qinghai in 1915, and received civilian and military posts from the Beiyang Government in Beijing in that same year confirming his military and civilian authority in Qinghai. He sided with Feng Yuxiang's Guominjun until the Central Plains War, when he switched to the winning side of Chiang Kai-shek. Ma Qi died in 1931 and his power was succeeded by his brother Ma Lin (warlord) (馬麟), who was appointed governor of Qinghai).

In 1936, under the order of Chiang Kai-shek, with the help of Ma Zhongying's remanet force in Gansu and Ma Hongkui's and Ma Hongbin's force from Ningxia, Ma Bufang and his brother Ma Buqing played an important role in annihilate Zhang Guotao's 21,800 strong force that crossed the Yellow River in an attempt of expand the communist base. Later on Ma Bufang rose with the help of Kuomintang involvement and forced his uncle Ma Lin to concede his position, in 1937. That was when Ma Bufang actually became governor of Qinghai, with military and civilian powers, and stayed ruler until the Communist victory in 1949. During Ma Bufang's rise to power, along with his brother Ma Buqing and cousins Ma Hongkui and Ma Hongbin, they were instrumental in help another cousin of theirs, Ma Zhongying to prevail in Gansu, because they did not want Ma Zhongying to compete with them in their own turfs, so they encouraged and supported Ma Zhongying to develop his own power base in other regions such as Gansu and Xinjiang.

In the Auguest of 1949, Chinese Communists' army PLA, led by General Peng Dehuai, defeated Ma's army and occupied Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu. Ma fled to Chongqing then Hong Kong. In the October, Chiang Kai-shek urged him to return to the Northwest to resist PLA, and he fled to Saudi Arabia with more than 200 relatives and subordinates, in the name of pilgrimage.

Later in 1950 Ma moved to Egypt. In 1957, due to the diplomatic relationship built between Egypt and the People's Republic of China, Ma moved to Saudi Arabia and became ambassador of Nationalist China (Taiwan) to Saudi Arabia for four years, during which period he never stepped back to Taiwan. In 1961, due to the scandal of his forcing his niece to be a concubine of his own, he was removed from that ambassador title. Ma, to avoid any punishment from Taiwan government, became a Saudi Arabia citizen instead. He stayed there till his death in 1975.

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