SHENG SHICAI
The warlord flipped back and forth between the Communists and the Autocrat, Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang government fending both off so that he could rule his province as he wished. It illustrates that when the Kuomintang and the Communists accused each other of allying themselves with brutal warlords, they were both right. In the quest for victory in the Chinese Civil War, both sides made a mockery of their “principles”.
Sheng Shicai was a Chinese warlord who ruled Xinjiang from 1933 to 1944. Sheng's rise to power started with a coup d'état in 1933 when he was appointed the duban or Military Governor of Xinjiang. His rule over Xinjiang is marked by close cooperation with the Soviet Union, allowing the Soviets trade monopoly and exploitation of resources, which effectively made a small part of Xinjiang a Soviet puppet state. The Soviet era ended in 1942, when Sheng approached the Nationalist Chinese government, but still retained much power over the province. He was dismissed from post in 1944 and named Minister of Agriculture and Forestry. Growing animosity against him led the government to dismiss him again and appoint to a military post. At the end of the Chinese Civil War, Sheng fled mainland China to Taiwan with the rest of Kuomintang.
