Sheng Shiqi

Sheng Shiqi (died 19 March 1942) was a Chinese brigade commander in Xinjiang.

Sheng was fourth younger brother of Sheng Shicai.[1] Sheng received his education at the Moscow Military Academy "Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze", where he was sent in secret by his brother Sheng Shicai. There he married a Russian girl during the studies. After the studies he returned to Xinjiang[2] in the winter of 1941–42. He was given commanded a motorised brigade in Ürümqi.[3] He was murdered on 19 March 1942.[4][5] His death is misterious.[3] According to one version, the Soviets, fearing that Sheng Shicai might switch sides, tried to overthrow him. The coup started with Sheng Shiqi's murder[4][5] commited by his wife, convinced to do so by the Soviet agents.[6] The other version is that he was murdered by Sheng Shicai because of his close ties to Moscow.[3] After Shiqi's death, Sheng Shicai continued crackdown on the Chinese communists.[7]

Murder

Sheng Shicai described the murder of his brother as follows:

On the 19th of March 1942 at 7 P. M. SHENG SHIQI (N. PETROV), the Commander of the Mechanized Brigade of Xinjiang, was sitting in [his] mother's room talking with his brother, Sheng Shiji. About 8 they left to their place to sleep. Six or seven minutes later Chen Xiuying, the wife of the Brigade Commander, Sheng Shiqi, fled from her room to the mother and said that Sheng had fired a shot from the revolver by mistake. All the relatives came right away to see what was the matter. Sheng could not say a word. Hu-ru-bi [sic], the Chief of the Medical Department of the Governor's staff, and senior instructor Lepin were quickly summoned to give first aid. During examination it was noticed that: the entry wound of the bullet was behind the earflap and the exit wound was to the left of the frontal part of the brow. The bullet lodged in the ceiling. After the examination Sheng was brought to a hospital, where he soon died.
An investigation established that four people were in Sheng Shiqi's room besides Sheng at the moment of the incident. Two of them were Sheng's children, a son and a daughter. The son is four years old, and he was sick in bed. The daughter is six. The children could not have fired the shot, of course. Sheng Shiqi himself was in an elevated mood all the time after [his] return from the Soviet Union, having received an appointment as Commander of the Mechanized Brigade. There is absolutely no basis to assume suicide. He could have accidentally wounded himself in the lower parts of the body or other people by an accidental shot, but not himself in the head, so there can be no discussion of this. The entry wound of the bullet is behind the earflap hence it could not an accidental shot from himself. Hence it is evident that a discussion about an accidental shot is unlikely. Besides these people only Sheng Shiqi's wife, Chen Xiuying, was in the room. The investigation established that there was no trace of the entry of an outside bullet on the doors or windows of this room. This says that Sheng Shiqi was killed by Chen Xiuying. There is no doubt of this.

—Sheng Shicai's letter to Stalin, Molotov, Voroshilov and Timoshenko, 10 May 1942[8]

Sheng Shiqi's wife Chen Xiuying was soon arrested on 21 March. She addmited murdering her husband. In a testimony, she said that Colonel General Ratov, a friend of Sheng Shiqi's talked her into murdering her husband, who told her he found "a young beautiful woman in Moscow" sparking jelousy in her. Soon Ratov became her lover. At the same time, Xiao Zuoxin, the assistant to the Director of the Urumqi office of the Native Corporation, blackmailed Chen with uncovering her relationship with Ratov in exchange for sex, and later urged her to murder her husband for her own safety.[8]

In response to Sheng Shicai's accusation, Vyacheslav Molotov, the Soviet Union's Foreign Minister stated:

Unheard of and completely unsubstantiated accusations against Mr. Bakulin, the USSR Consul General in Urumqi, Chief Military Adviser General Ratov, and also other Soviet officials in Xinjiang named in the letter are raised in the materials sent and in the letter. All these accusations are based on some provocative rumors, and it is clear to the Soviet Government that you, Mr. Governor, have fallen prisoner to these rumors. If the rumors are to be believed, for example, according to the rumors circulating in Xinjiang and in Moscow you, Mr. Governor, are being named as the one guilty of the death of Sheng Shiqi. At the same time they assert that you organized the murder of Sheng Shiqi, considering the latter your competitor in the rule of Xinjiang. However, the Soviet Government is not so easily influenced by rumors, as has evidently happened to you, Mr. Governor. As regards the investigation itself and its actual leaders, Li Puling [sic] and Li Yingqi [sic], they do not inspire any trust in us. As is also known from another investigation in which slanderous accusations are also being raised against a Soviet citizen, the Vice Consul in Shara-Sume [Altai], the complete groundlessness of the accusations has been proven which, by the way, has caused a refusal to sign the findings of the investigation on the part of the two prominent Chinese figures you invited.
The Soviet Government categorically rejects as completely unfounded and clearly slanderous all the accusations made against Messrs. Bakulin, Ratov, and other senior Soviet officials, who are tested and reliable people whom the Soviet Government trusted and [still] trusts, and who have worked honorably for the good of Xinjiang and Soviet-Chinese friendship for a long time.

—Vyacheslav Molotov's letter to Sheng Shicai, 3 July 1942[9]


Footnotes

References

Books

  • Gansali, Jamil (2016). Синьцзян в орбите советской политики: Сталин и муслиманское движение в Восточном Туркестане 1931-1949 [Xinjiang in the orbit of Soviet politics: Stalin and the Muslim movement in East Turkestan 1931-1949] (in Russian). Moscow: Флинта. ISBN 9785976523791.
  • Heinzig, Dieter (2015). The Soviet Union and Communist China 1945-1950: The Arduous Road to the Alliance. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge. ISBN 9781317454496.
  • Forbes, Andrew D. W. (1986). Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: A Political History of Republican Sinkiang 1911-1949. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521255141.
  • Jacobs, Justin Matthew (2011). Empire besieged: the preservation of Chinese rule in Xinjiang, 1884-1971. San Diego, CA: University of California, San Diego. ISBN 9781124814070.
  • Whiting, Allen Suess; Sheng, Shicai (1958). Sinkiang: pawn or pivot?. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press.

Websites

  • Sheng, Shicai (1942). "Letter of Governor Shicai Sheng to Cdes. Stalin, Molotov, and Voroshilov". Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  • Molotov, Vyacheslav (1942). "Letter from Cde. V. M. Molotov to Governor Sheng Shicai". Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
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