Telegram to Xinjiang Political and Military Authorities
(September 28, 1949)



General Tao Zhiyue' and the officers and soldiers under his command,
Chairman Burhan’ and the government workers under him:

Your telegrams of September 25 and 26 have been received. We believe
that your standpoint is a correct one. You have declared your severance from
the remnants of the reactionary government in Guangzhou’ and your new orientation toward the camp of People’s Democracy; you have accepted the
leadership of the People’s Political Consultative Conference" and await and
abide by the orders and disposition of the Central People’s Government and
the People’s Revolutionary Military Council. This attitude conforms to the
wishes of the people of the entire nation. We are most happy. We hope that
you will unite all military and civilian governmental personnel in maintaining
the unity of the nationalities and local order and cooperate with the People’s
Liberation Army, which is preparing at this moment to move northward, to
abolish the old system and implement the new one, so as to strive for the
establishment of a new Xinjiang.

(Co-signed with Zhu De and dated)

Notes

1. Tao Zhiyue (b. 1892), a Hunanese military officer who graduated from the Baoding Military
Academy in 1916 and served in various officer positions in the Hunan Army before participating
in the KMT army in the Northern Expedition period. At the beginning of the War of Resistance
against Japan, he was commander of the 36th Army, and later the commander of the First Army
and deputy commander of the 34th Army Group. At the end of the War of Resistance he became
the deputy commander of the KMT’s 8th Battle Zone, and in 1946, assumed command of the
KMT’s Xinjiang Garrison. In 1948, the Hexi district garrison was added to his command, and he
also became deputy director of the Northwest Communist-Suppression Bureau of the KMT. His
defection and surrender to the Communist forces at this time (Sept. 1949) was instigated by
Zhang Zhizhong, himself formerly a major military figure in the KMT, and was therefore a doubly severe blow to the KMT forces. In 1949-1950, the PRC commissioned him as commander of
the 22nd Army Group and deputy commander of the Xinjiang Military District under Peng
Dehuai. In 1950 he also became a member of the Provisional People’s Government of Xinjiang
and a member of the Northwest Military and Government Council. For more biographical information on Tao, see Zhonggong renming lu, pp. 668-669.

2. Burhan Shahidi (b. 1896), also known by the sinicized version of his name, Baoerhan, was
made governor of Xinjiang Province by the KMT government in 1948. On the eve of the Com-munist victory, Burhan joined the Communist side and assumed the positions of chairman of the


visional People’s Government of Xinjiang and the president of the Xinjiang People’s Court. In
rea) he became a member of the Northwest Military and Government Council, and since then he
ne been a prominent representative of the people of Xinjiang in various national organizations in

PRC, such as the National Committee of the CPPCC. He was de facto governor of Xinjiang
me the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) was established in October 1955, when
seypidin (Saifudin), theretofore nominally Burhan’s subordinate, became chairman of the government of the XUAR. For more biographical information on Burhan, see D. Klein and A. Clark,
eds. (1971), 1, pp. 5-9-

3. Mao is referring here to the KMT government which had its headquarters in Guangzhou and
which was nominally headed by Li Zongren since the “retirement” of Chiang Kai-shek in January
1949. In effect, however, Chiang, who had consolidated his own base in Taiwan since August
1949, was at this time still pulling the strings in KMT politics and countermanding many of Li’s
policies and directives, which included negotiating with the Communist Party. In November
1949, Li went to Hong Kong in frustration and from there left China to go to the United States.

4. See text Sept. 21, 1949, source note.