Ma Chengxiang

Who was Ma Chengxiang?

Ma Chengxiang was a Chinese Muslim general in the National Revolutionary Army. He was the son of general Ma Buqing, and nephew of general Ma Bufang. He commanded Hui cavalry in Xinjiang, the 5th cavalry army. Ma was a member of the Chinese Nationalist Kuomintang party and a hardliner. Ma Chengxiang was the commander of the former Fifth Cavalry Army in Western Gansu, then reorganized as the First Cavalry Division in Xinjiang.

He commanded Chinese Muslim troops against the Uighur armies of the Second East Turkestan Republic and against the People's Liberation Army in Xinjiang, Ningxia, and Gansu. His cavalry was deployed during the Ningxia Campaign. Ma Chengxiang, the nationalist cavalry commander in Xinjiang, led 200-300 civilians and military men such as officers and soldiers and their families fleeing China to settle in Saudi Arabia, with his uncle, Ma Bufang. His family fled Qinghai to go to Hong Kong as a stopover, then fled to Egypt.

According to Jack Chen Ma Chengxiang used his Chinese Muslim cavalry to put down a revolt of Uyghurs during an uprising in 1948 in Turfan.