Muhammad Amin Bughra


Muhammad Amin Bughra, sometimes known by his Chinese name Mao Deming or his Turkish name Mehmet Emin Buğra, was a Uyghur emir who attempted to establish a sovereign state, the First [East Turkestan Republic]. He was a Jadidist.

Life

In the spring of 1937, rebellion again broke out in Southern Xinjiang. A number of factors contributed to the outbreak. In an effort to appease the Turkic Muslims, Sheng Shicai had appointed a number of their non-secessionist leaders, including Khoja Niyaz Hajji and Yulbars Khan, another leader of the Kumul uprising, to positions of influence in the provincial government, both in Di Hua and Kashgar.
At the same time, educational reforms, which attacked basic Islamic principles and the atheistic propaganda program, which was being extended into the south, were further alienating the local population from Sheng's administration. In Kashgar Mahmud Sijang, a wealthy Muslim, former leader of the Turpan uprising and one of Sheng's appointees, became the focal point for opposition to the government.
Meanwhile, in Afghanistan under Sardar Mohammad Hashim Khan, Muhammad Amin, the exiled leader of the Turkish Islamic Republic of East Turkestan, had approached the Japanese ambassador in 1935 with "a detailed plan proposing the establishment of an 'Eastern Turkestan Republic' under Japanese sponsorship, with munitions and finance to be supplied by Tokyo... he suggested as the future leader of this proposed Central Asian 'Manchukuo' none other than Mahmud Sijang, amongst the invitation at such political entity as Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere how active member." However, this plan was aborted when Mahmud, fearful for his life, fled from Kashgar to India on April 2, 1937, after failed attempt of Sheng Shicai to disarm his troops by offering to "modernize" weapons of 6th Uyghur Division, prior which all old weapons of Division was to be given over to Urumchi representatives.
Mahmud's flight sparked an uprising amongst his troops against provincial authorities. Those who were pro-Soviet in any way were executed and yet another independent Muslim administration was set up under leadership of the close associate of Mahmut Muhiti General Abduniyaz, who adopted a command of troops, which enlisted about 4,000 soldiers and officers, consisted of 4 regiments, two of them being stationed in Kashgar, one in Yangihissar, one in Yarkand, also one brigade was stationed in Ustin Atush and one cavalry guard escadron in Kashgar. Sheng Shicai's provincial troops were defeated and routed by rebels in the fierce battle near city of Karashahr in July 1937, but eventually the uprising was quelled by Soviet troops, invited by Sheng Shicai to intervene in August 1937.
In 1940, Muhammad Amin published the book Sharkiy Turkestan Tarihi while in exile in Kashmir, which described the history of the region from ancient times to the present day and contained an analysis of the reasons for the loss of its independence in the middle of the eighteenth century.
In 1940 Isa Yusuf Alptekin and Ma Fuliang who were sent by Chiang Kai-shek, visited Afghanistan and contacted Bughra, they asked him to come to Chongqing, the capital of the Kuomintang regime. Bughra was arrested by the British in 1942 for spying for Japan and the Kuomintang arranged for Bughra's release. He and Isa Yusuf worked as editors of Kuomintang Muslim publications. Under the Zhang Zhizhong regime in Xinjiang, he was provincial commissioner.
Muhammad Amin and fellow Pan-Turkic Jadidist Masud Sabri rejected the Soviet imposition of the name "Uyghur people" upon the Turkic people of Xinjiang. They wanted instead the name "Turkic ethnicity" to be applied to their people. Masud Sabri also viewed the Hui people as Muslim Han Chinese and separate from his own people. The names "Türk" or "Türki" in particular were demanded by Bughra as the real name for his people. He slammed Sheng Shicai for his designation of Turkic Muslims into different ethnicities which could sow disunion among Turkic Muslims.
In 1948, Bughra's wife Amina was elected to the Legislative Yuan. In December the same year he was appointed by Chiang Kai-shek as vice-chairman of the Sinkiang Government, led by Burhan Shahidi. He declared an alliance with the Chinese nationalists in order to gain autonomy for the Turkic people, under formal protection of the Republic of China and necessity of quelling all communist forces in Sinkiang, including the Soviet backed Second East Turkestan Republic.
There were 3 Effendis : Aisa Alptekin, Muhammad Amin and Masud Sabri. The Second East Turkestan Republic attacked them as Kuomintang "puppets".

Exile

Upon the approach of the Chinese People's Liberation Army to Sinkiang in September 1949, Muhammad Amin fled to India, then to Turkey, where he joined another exiled Uyghur leader, Isa Yusuf Alptekin.
In 1954, Muhammad Amin and Isa Yusuf Alptekin went to Taiwan to try to persuade the Kuomintang government of the Republic of China of dropping its claims to Xinjiang. Their demand was rejected and Taiwan affirmed that it claimed Xinjiang as "an integral part of China".
Muhammad Amin died in exile in Turkey in 1965.