in Qinghai province were instructed to revolt against the PLA. Ma Bufang and Ma Chengxiang's forces were stationed across Qinghai and Xinjiang along with Ospan Batyr's men, where were originally battling Soviet backed Uyghur rebels in the Ili Rebellion and the Mongols and Russians at the Battle of Baitag Bogd before the Communist victory in the Civil War and subsequent incorporation of Xinjiang into the People's Republic of China. The anti-separatist, pro-Kuomintang Uyghur Yulbars Khan fought a final action at the Battle of Yiwu before fleeing to Taiwan. Conflict Pro-Nationalist (Kuomintang) Muslim forces were holding out in the northwest and Yunnan at the time of the Communist victory in 1949. General Ma Bufang announced the start of the Kuomintang Islamic Insurgency in China, on January 9, 1950, when he was in Cairo, Egypt, saying that Chinese Muslims would never surrender to Communism and would fight a guerrilla war against the Communists. In 1951, Bai Chongxi made a speech to the entire Muslim world calling for a war against the Soviet Union, and Bai also called upon Muslims to avoid the Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru, accusing him of being blind to Soviet imperialism. Bai also called Stalin an ogre and claimed he and Mao were engineering World War III. Ma Bufang continued to exert "influence" on the insurgent KMT Muslim leaders. The CCP allowed Ma Bufang's loyalists to go free after taking them prisoner in their takeover of Qinghai, to demonstrate humane behaviour. When Ma Bufang's now free loyalists proceeded to take up arms and revolt, this move turned out to be a major blunder. Former Ma Bufang loyalist Salar fighters were led by Han Yimu, a Salar who had been an officer under Ma Bufang. Han led a revolt from 1951 to 1952 and continued to wage guerilla warfare until joining the major revolt of Salars and Qinghai (Amdo) Tibetans against collectivization in 1958, in which he was captured and executed. After a crackdown and restrictions on the Salar population due to the 1950s revolt, the CCP then lifted the restrictions and measures in the 1980s reforms, and then granted amnesty to the majority of the rebels who had been captured and imprisoned. The Qinghai Tibetans view the Tibetans of Central Tibet (Tibet proper, ruled by the Dalai Lamas from Lhasa) as distinct and different from themselves, and even take pride in the fact that they were not ruled by