Zhang Zhizhong
In 1947, after Zhang Zhizhong left the province, relations between the ETR and Nationalists factions deteriorated under the chairmanship of Masud Sabri, whom the ETR leaders regarded as anti-Soviet. As full-scale civil war broke out between the Nationalists and Chinese Communists in China Proper and Manchuria, the Nationalists persuaded Osman Batur, a Kazakh leader to defect from the Ili government. Thereafter, Qasim and Abbas returned to Yining from Urumqi and openly supported the Chinese Communists. On August 1, 1947, they founded the Union to Protect Peace and Democracy in Xinjiang (新疆保卫和平民主同盟), which incorporated the DRP and other leftist groups in Yining. Qasim was the chair of the Union and Abbas served as a member of the Union's central committee.