Sheng Shicai Sheng Shicai ( ) ( 1897 – July 13 , 1970 , Taiwan ) was a Chinese warlord who ruled Xinjiang ( Sinkiang ) province from April 12 , 1933 to August 29 , 1944 . Born in Kaiyuan , Liaoning Province , he served under the Guominjun . He was first sent to Xinjiang to work for Governor Jin Shuren in 1930 . He repressed the Kumul Rebellion ( February 1931 - October 1931 ) with support from the Soviet Union , but in exchange made several agreements with the USSR that gave it virtual control over the Xinjiang province . The Urumqi Soviet Consul General effectively was in control of governing , with Sheng required to consult them for any decision he made . The Consul was the de facto power in Xinjiang , being the greatest in significance . Xinjiang was considered a " Soviet Satellite " , being under total Soviet control . Sheng launched his own purge in Xinjiang to coincide with Stalin ' s Great Purge in 1937 during the Xinjiang War ( 1937 ) . Sheng received assistance from the NKVD , Sheng and the Soviets alleged a massive Trotskyist conspiracy and a " Fascist Trotskyite plot " to destroy the Soviet Union . The Soviet Consul General Garegin Apresoff , General Ma Hushan , Ma Shaowu , Mahmud Sijan , the official leader of the Xinjiang province Huang Han - chang and Hoja - Niyaz were among the 435 alleged conspirators in the plot . Xinjiang became under virtual Soviet control . Stalin opposed the Chinese Communist Party . At Joseph Stalin ' s request , Sheng joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ( CPSU ) in August 1938 and received Party Card No . 1859118 directly from Molotov during his secret visit to Moscow . Sinkiang , under Sheng ' s rule , was thus a part of China in name only , with every major decision of Sheng ' s regime cleared through the Soviet Consulate in Tihwa ( Chinese : 迪化 , today known as Urumqi ) . During his years as Governor he was anti - minority ( anti - Uyghur and anti - Kazakh ) , and was known for his pervasive use of torture . Pan - Turkic Jadidists and East Turkestan Independence activists Muhammad Amin Bughra and Masud Sabri rejected the Soviets and Sheng Shicai ' s imposition of the name " Uyghur people " upon the Turkic people of Xinjiang . They wanted instead the name " Turkic ethnicity " ( Tujue zu in Chinese ) 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 1942 , sensing the Soviet Union ' s demise , he turned anti - Soviet , expelling Soviet advisors and executing many Han Communists , including Mao Zemin , Mao Zedong ' s brother , in hopes of securing the backing of the Kuomintang ( KMT , " Chinese Nationalist Party " ) for his continued rule . However , when the war swung in favor of the Soviet Union after the Battle of Stalingrad , Sheng attempted to expel the KMT , and requested Soviet aid in a letter to Stalin . Stalin refused to assist Sheng , and sent Sheng ' s letter to the KMT party leader Chiang Kai - shek as Sheng miscalculated and underestimated the KMT ' s extent of power . The KMT removed Sheng in August 1944 . Chen Lifu of the CC Clique recorded his personal encounters with Sheng in his memoir . According to him , Sheng was distrustful and suspicious of everyone else . He aligned " machine guns in front of his . . . residence at night . . . had all his filing cabinets locked " . Isa Alptekin lead a delegation of 36 Uyghurs to defend murderers in Lanzhou who slaughtered eleven relatives of Sheng Shicai in revenge for relatives that Sheng killed in Xinjiang during his rule . Among the dead were a seven year old boy and a five year old girl who were Sheng ' s nephew and niece . Isa argued that the slaughter was justified . He left Xinjiang on September 11 , 1944 to join the Kuomintang ' s Republic of China government as Minister of Agriculture and Forestry . Around 50 trucks accompanied him , loaded with his personal property , " earned " in Sinkiang for 15 years , including gold ( est . 1 , 500 kg ) and silver ( est . 15 , 000 kg ) . He fled to Taiwan along with the KMT at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 . In 1958 , he co - authored " Sinkiang : Pawn or Pivot " with Allen S . Whiting . Sheng had four children with his wife . Two of his daughters were born while he was in Xinjiang .