Burhan Shahidi

Burhan Shahidi delivering a speech at the founding of the Xinjiang Provincial People's Government, December 1949. Courtesy Tianshannet.com

Burhan Shahidi (包尔汉) was born October 3, 1894 near Kazan, Tartarstan in a village called Aksu (creating some confusion because Xinjiang also has an Aksu). He relocated to Xinjiang in the 1920s to do business. He left Xinjiang again when Jin Shuren came to power, traveling to Moscow and then to Berlin. He stayed abroad until 1933. Although he later served under the Guomindang in Xinjiang for some time, his “peaceful surrender” in September 1949 helped pave the way for the PLA’s liberation/invasion of Xinjiang. Thereafter he became the Provincial Chairman of the Xinjiang Provincial Government for a time,  a member of the Chinese Communist Party, and a leading official in the Chinese Islamic Association (中国伊斯兰教协会). Some scholars such as Donald McMillen have referred to Burhan as a mere figurehead, but he did make several important trips to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Yemen, for the purpose of improving ties between China and the Islamic world. Although he was denounced during the Cultural Revolution, he has since been rehabilitated and is portrayed quite well in the mainland press. He died in 1989.

Burhan in 1929

Burhan in 1935

Burhan in a factory in 1935

Burhan embracing Wang Zhen at the airport in Urumqi (presumably October 1949). Courtesy FYJS.com

Burhan snapping a photo in 1950

Xu Liqing, Burhan Shahidi, Wang Zhen, and Wang Enmao in 1950

Burhan meetin Mao Zedong at Zhongnanhai, Beijing, on June 28, 1950. Courtesy GMW.cn

Burhan meets Liu Shaoqi at the CPPCC in October 1951. Courtesy of the CCP

Burhan speaking at the China Islamic Assembly's inaugural event in 1953. Courtesy Snowchina.org

Burhan Shahidi at mid-life

At Tian'anmen in 1957. Burhan is third on the right.

Zhou Enlai, Dong Biwu, and Burhan Shahidi at the Capital Airport in 1964. Photo by Lv Xiangyou (吕相友). Courtesy Fotocn.org

Burhan Shahidi meets Deng Xiaoping in 1980. Courtesy of Jysls.com

A portrait of Burhan Shahidi. Courtesy Cnr.cn

Burhan at his desk. Courtesy of Ifeng.com

For more information on Burhan’s trips to the Middle East, which I knew nothing about until moments ago, see:

• Jan S. Prybyla, “Communist China’s Economic Relations with Africa 1960-1964,” Asian Survey 4, no. 11 (November 1964), 1135-1143.
• Raphael Israeli, “The Muslim Minority in the People’s Republic of China,” Asian Survey 21, no.  8 (August 1981), 901-919.

UPDATE: I found this excerpt from a Dru C. Gladney essay useful in understanding Burhan’s role in China’s establishing diplomatic relations in the 1950s:

At the New Delhi conference of Asian Countries in April 1955, the Uighur political leader and recent Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress, [Säypiddin Äzizi], was sent to introduce China’s new Middle Easty policy, was was long on criticism of Western imperialism, and noticeably short on the Marxist critique of Islam. In February 1956, Burhan Shahidi, a Uighur from Xinjiang and the CHairman of the China Islamic Society, led the second delegation of hajji in which he followed the usual China-encouraged practice of combining pilgrimage with politics: While in the Middle East he met with King Sa’ud of Saui Arabia, King Husayn of Jordan, and Nasser of Egypt, as well as the premiers of Lebanob, Syria, and possibly North Yemen. As a direct result of his meeting with Nasser, Egypt became the first Middle Eastern Muslim country to diplomatically recognise the PRC on 16 May 1956, severing its ties with Taiwan. It was followed by Syria (1956), N. Yemen (1956), S. Yemen (1968), and only much later, Kuwait (1971), the U.A.E. (1984), and most recently, Saudi Arabia (1990). The recognition by Egypt in 1956 was extremely important to China in that it was the first country to recognise the PRC in 6 years, causing the first crack in the diplomatic blockade, and regarded as quite a coupe for the Muslim delegation. Burhan supervised the  pilgrimages every year until their termination at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1964.

See. Dru C. Gladney, “Constructing a Contemporary Uighur National Identity: Transnationalism, Islamicization, and State Representation,” Cahiers d’etudes sur la Mediterranee orientale et le monde turco-iranien 13, January-June 1992, 8.