When the Japanese asked Gen. Ma Hongkui to defect and become head of a Muslim puppet state under the Japanese, Ma responded through Zhou Baihuang, the Ningxia Secretary of the Nationalist Party, to remind Japanese military chief of staff Gen. Itagaki Seishiro that many of Ma's relatives fought and died in battle against Eight-Nation Alliance forces during the Battle of Peking (1900), including his uncle Ma Fulu, and that Japanese troops made up the majority of the Alliance forces, so there would be no cooperation with the Japanese. In response, Ningxia was bombarded by Japanese warplanes.