Kuomintang - Policy On Ethnic Minorities

Policy On Ethnic Minorities

The Kuomintang considers all minorities to be members of the Chinese Nation, Chiang Kai-shek, the Kuomintang party leader, considered all the minority peoples of China, including the Hui, as descedants of Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor and semi mythical founder of the Chinese nation. Chiang considered all the minorities to belong to the Chinese Nation Zhonghua Minzu and he introduced this into Kuomintang ideology, which was propagated into the educational system of the Republic of China, and the Constitution of the ROC considered Chiang's ideology to be true. In Taiwan, the President performs a ritual honoring Huangdi, while facing west, in the direction of the mainland China.

The Kuomintang kept the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission for dealing with Mongolian And Tibetan affairs. A Muslim, Ma Fuxiang, was appointed as its Chairman.

Kuomintang was known for sponsoring Muslim students to study abroad at Muslim universities like Al Azhar and it established schools specially for Muslims, Muslim Kuomintang warlords like Ma Fuxiang promoted education for Muslims. The Kuomintang Muslim Warlord Ma Bufang built a girl's school for Muslim girls in Linxia which taught modern secular education.

Tibetans and Mongols refused to allow other ethnic groups like Kazakhs to participate in the Kokonur ceremony in Qinghai, until the Kuomintang Muslim General Ma Bufang forced them to stop the racism and allowed them to particapate.

Chinese Muslims were among the most hardline Kuomintang members. Ma Chengxiang was a Muslim and a Kuomintang member, and refused to surrender to the Communists.

The Kuomintang incited anti Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang sentiments among Chinese Muslims and Mongols, encouraging for them to topple their rule during the Central Plains War.

Masud Sabri, a Uyghur was appointed as Governor of Xinjiang by the Kuomintang, as was the Tatar Burhan Shahidi and the Uyghur Yulbars Khan.

Hui put Kuomintang Blue Sky with a White Sun party symbols on their Halal restaurants and shops. A Christian missionary in 1935 took a picture of a Muslim meat restaurant in Hankow which had Arabic and Chinese lettering indicating that it was Halal (fit for Muslim consumption), and it had two Kuomintang party symbols on it.

The Muslim General Ma Bufang also put Kuomintang party symbols on his mansion, the Ma Bufang Mansion along with a portrait of party founder Dr. Sun Yatsen arranged with the Kuomintang Party flag and the Republic of China flag.

General Ma Bufang and other high ranking Muslim Generals attended the Kokonuur Lake Ceremony where the God of the Lake was worshipped, and during the ritual, the Chinese national anthem was sung, all participants bowed to a Portrait of Kuomintang party founder Dr. Sun Yat-sen, and the God of the Lake was also bowed to, and offerings were given to him by the participants, which included the Muslims. This cult of personality around the Kuomintang party leader and the Kuomintang was standard in all meetings. Sun Yatsen's portrait was bowed to three times by KMT party members. Dr. Sun's portrait was arranged with two flags crossed under, the Kuomintang Party Flag and the Flag of the Republic of China.

The Kuomintang also hosted conferences of important Muslims like Bai Chongxi, Ma Fuxiang, and Ma Liang. Ma Bufang stressed "racial harmony" as a goal when he was Governor of Qinghai.

In 1939 Isa Yusuf Alptekin and Ma Fuliang were sent on a mission by the Kuomintang to the Middle eastern countries such as Egypt, Turkey, and Syria to gain support for the Chinese War against Japan, they also visited Afghanistan in 1940 and contacted Muhammad Amin Bughra, they asked him to come to Chongqing, the capital of the Kuomintang regime. Bughra was arrested by the British in 1942 for spying, and the Kuomintang arranged for Bughra's release. He and Isa Yusuf worked as editors of Kuomintang Muslim publications. Ma Tianying (馬天英) (1900–1982) led the 1939 mission which had 5 other people including Isa and Fuliang.