Battle of West Suiyuan

Battle of West Suiyuan Part of Second Sino-Japanese War Chinese 35th Army Date 1940 Location Suiyuan Result Chinese victory Belligerents Republic of China Empire of Japan Commanders and leaders Ma Hongkui Ma Hongbin Strength Thousands of Chinese Muslim and Han Chinese troops Thousands of Japanese and Mongol troops

The Battle of West Suiyuan (simplified Chinese: 绥西战役; traditional Chinese: 綏西戰役; pinyin: Suíxī zhànyì) was part of the Second Sino-Japanese War. It was fought from January – February 1940, as part of the Chinese 1939 Winter Offensive.

Battle

In 1937 the Chinese government picked up intelligence that the Japanese planned a puppet Hui Muslim country around Suiyuan and Ningxia, and had sent agents to the region.^[1]

The Middlesboro Daily News which reported on Japan's planned offensive into the Muslim region in 1938, predicted that the Japanese would suffer a massive crushing defeat at the hands of the Muslims.^[2]

The Japanese planned to invade Ningxia from Suiyuan in 1939 and create a Hui Muslim puppet state. The following year in 1940, the Japanese were defeated militarily by the Kuomintang Muslim General Ma Hongbin, who caused the plan to collapse. Ma Hongbin's Hui Muslim troops launched further attacks against Japan in the Battle of West Suiyuan.^[3][4]

In Suiyuan 300 Mongol collaborators serving the Japanese were fought off by a single Muslim who held the rank of Major at the Battle of Wulan Obo in 1939 April.^[5]

Muslim Generals Ma Hongkui and Ma Hongbin defended west Suiyuan, particularly Wuyuan in 1940 against the Japanese. Ma Hongbin commanded the 81st corps and sustained heavy casualties, but eventually repulsed the Japanese and defeated them.^[6]

References

1. Hsiao-ting Lin (2010). Modern China's Ethnic Frontiers: A Journey to the West. Volume 67 of Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia (illustrated ed.). Taylor & Francis. p. 55. ISBN 0-415-58264-4. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
2. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=64VCAAAAIBAJ&sjid=E6sMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2996,3679068&dq=chinese+japanese+moslem&hl=en
3. Xiaoyuan Liu (2004). Frontier passages: ethnopolitics and the rise of Chinese communism, 1921-1945 (illustrated ed.). Stanford University Press. p. 131. ISBN 0-8047-4960-4. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
4. The China monthly review, Volumes 80-81. J.W. Powell. 1937. p. 320. Retrieved 2011-06-06.
5. China Magazine. 1940. p. 18.
6. George Barry O'Toole, Jên-yü Tsʻai, ed. (1941). The China monthly, Volumes 3-5. The China monthly incorporated. Retrieved 2010-06-28.(Original from the University of Michigan)

Coordinates: 40°48′38″N 111°39′07″E / 40.8106°N 111.652°E