aid (in 1933 and 1944) but placing its own political and economic interests above everything else. The Soviet Union did not offer any military equipment despite being paid for it by a delegation of the Republic. In 1944, after Sheng switched his allegiance from the Soviet Union to the Nationalist Chinese regime, the Soviet Union responded by supporting a rebellion in Ili, which led to the creation of the Second East Turkestan Republic by Soviet trained Turkic-leaders. Sheng was forced to leave Xinjiang and accept a position with the Nationalist Chinese government in Chongqing. After heavy fighting between the Second ETR regime, which enjoyed Soviet military backing, and the Nationalist Chinese forces in Xinjiang, which were supplemented by the forces of the Hui warlord Ma Bufang in 1944–45, the Republic of China and Soviet Union reached an understanding, under which the Ili rebels agreed to dissolve the Second ETR and join a coalition provincial government with the Chinese Nationalists. The Ili rebels retained their autonomy and allegiance to the Soviet Union. Muhammad Amin Bughra was appointed by Nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek to serve as the vice chairman of the coalition government in the end of 1948. Yulbars Khan was restored to a military leadership position in Hami by the Nationalists. Muhammad Amin Bughra, though a veteran leader of the First ETR, was a Nationalist supporter who declared alliance with Nationalist Chinese against the Soviet-backed Ili rebels of the Second ETR in Xinjiang. In 1949, the Xinjiang coalition government was ended by the Chinese Communists who had defeated the Chinese Nationalists in the Chinese Civil War and incorporated Xinjiang into the People's Republic of China with the support of the Soviet Union. Muhammad Amin Bughra fled to exile in Turkey. Yulbars Khan fled to Nationalist Taiwan. Ma Hushan was captured and executed by the Chinese Communists. Gallery See also Second East Turkestan Republic East Turkestan independence movement History of Xinjiang East Turkestan Government-in-Exile References Citations Sources James A. Millward and Nabijan Tursun, "Political History and Strategies of Control, 1884–1978" in Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland (). Michael Zrazhevsky, "Russian Cossacks in Sinkiang". Almanach "The Third Rome", Russia, Moscow, 2001 Sven Hedin, "The flight of Big Horse". New York, 1936. Burhan Shahidi (包尔汗), 《新疆五十年》 [Fifty Years in Xinjiang], (Beijing, Wenshi ziliao, 1984). Clubb, O. E., China and Russia: The "Great Game". (NY, Columbia, 1971). Forbes, A. D. W. Warlords and Muslims in