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Saifuddin Azizi

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Saifuddin Azizi
  • سەيپىدىن ئەزىزى
  • Tái phúc đỉnh · ngải tắc tư
CCP Committee Secretaryof theXinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
In office
July 1972 – January 1978
(Acting: July 1972 – June 1973)
Preceded byLong Shujin
Succeeded byWang Feng
Chairman of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Regional Revolutionary Committee
In office
October 1955 – January 1967
Preceded byBurhan Shahidi
(as Governor of Xinjiang)
Succeeded byLong Shujin
Other positions
Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
In office
27 March 1993 – 13 March 1998
Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
In office
27 September 1954 – 27 March 1993
Chairman of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Regional Political Consultative Conference
In office
February 1955 – September 1955
Preceded byBurhan Shahidi
Succeeded byBurhan Shahidi
Minister of Education of theEast Turkestan Republic
In office
13 March 1945 – 27 June 1946
Preceded byHabib Yunich
Personal details
Born(1915-03-12)12 March 1915
Artush,Xinjiang,Qing dynasty
Died24 November 2003(2003-11-24)(aged 88)
Beijing,China
NationalityChinese
Political partyChinese Communist Party(joined 1949)
Other political
affiliations
All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)(1935–1949)
Democratic Revolutionary Party(1947–1948)
East Turkestan Revolutionary Party(1946–1947)
AwardsOrder of Liberation(First Class)
Military service
Allegiance
Branch/service
RankLieutenant Generalof the PLA
Battles/warsIli Rebellion(1944–1946)
Chinese name
Simplified ChineseTái phúc đỉnh · ngải tắc tư
Traditional ChineseTái phúc đỉnh · ngải tắc tư
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinSaìfúdǐng Àizézī
Wade–GilesSai4-fu2-ting3Ai4-tse2-tzu1
IPA[sâɪfǔtìŋ âɪtsɤ̌tsɹ̩́]
Uyghur name
Uyghurسەيپىدىن ئەزىزى
Transcriptions
Latin YëziqiSeypidin Ezizi
Yengi YeziⱪSəypidin Əzizi
Siril YëziqiСəйпидин Əзизи
Russian name
RussianСайфутдин Азизов
RomanizationSayfutdin Azizov

Saifuddin Azizi(officially transcribed asSeypidin Azizi;[1][2]12 March 1915 – 24 November 2003) was a Chinese politician who occupied several top positions in the government of thePeople's Republic of China(PRC). An ethnicUyghur,he is best known for serving as the first chairman of theXinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Regionas well as (to date) the only Communist Party committee secretary for the region who was ethnically Uyghur. Before theproclamation of the PRCin 1949, he served in the government of the breakawaySecond East Turkestan Republic,as Minister of Education.

Biography

[edit]

Azizi was born inTachengto an influentialUyghurtrader family originally fromArtux(Artush).[3][4]He attended school in Xinjiang and then moved to theSoviet Union,joining theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union(CPSU) and studying at the Central Asia Political Institute inTashkent.[5]He returned to Xinjiang as a Soviet agent, instigating the Soviet-backedIli Rebellionagainst theRepublic of Chinagovernment in northwest Xinjiang. He served as Minister of Education in theSecond East Turkestan Republicand Commissioner of Education in theZhang ZhizhongIli Rebel-Kuomintangcoalition government from 1945–1948.[3]In September 1949, Saifuddin attended theChinese People's Political Consultative Conferenceendorsed by theChinese Communist Party(CCP), becoming a member of the new Communist government.[6]In October, the1949 Chinese revolutionbrought the Communists to power inXinjiangand in China more generally; at this point, Saifuddin held various posts for Nationalities and Political and Legal Affairs for the new government.[3]

From December 1949 through January 1950, he accompaniedMao Zedongin his trip to Moscow to negotiate theSino-Soviet Treaty of Friendshipand it was there on 27 December 1949 where he quit the CPSU and joined the CCP in accordance with recommendation of Mao himself. In 1955, he was given the rank of Lieutenant General of the PLA. In the same year, he registered with Mao his strong objection to proposals to name Xinjiang the "Xinjiang Autonomous Region", arguing that "autonomy is not given to mountains and rivers. It is given to particular nationalities". As a result, the administrative region would be named "XinjiangUyghurAutonomous Region ".[7]

Uyghur linguistIbrahim Muti'iopposed the Second East Turkestan Republic and was against the Ili Rebellion because it was backed by the Soviets and Stalin. Saifuddin Azizi later apologized to Ibrahim and admitted that his opposition to the East Turkestan Republic was the correct thing to do.[8]

At theChinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)inBeijing,he secured the role of regional Chairman of Xinjiang, a job he kept from 1955 to 1978, with a brief respite during theCultural Revolution.[9] He was a vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the First through SeventhNational People's Congressand an alternate member of thePolitburo of the Chinese Communist Partyof the 10th and 11th CCPCentral Committee.[2]From 1993 to 1998, he served as a vice-chairman of the CPPCC National Committee.[10]He died of illness at the age of 88.[2]

References

[edit]
  1. ^"Yu Zhengsheng attends symposium commemorating Seypidin Azizi".www.cppcc.gov.cn.National Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
  2. ^abc"Noted Uygur leader Seypidin Azizi dies".People's Daily.25 November 2003.
  3. ^abcMcMillen, Donald H. (1979).Chinese Communist Power and Policy in Xinjiang, 1949-1977.Westview Press. pp.34–36.ISBN978-0-89158-452-0.
  4. ^Donald W. Klein; Anne B. Clark (1968).Biographic Dictionary of Chinese Communism, 1921-1965.Vol. 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts:Harvard University Press.p.743.ISBN978-0-674-14850-5– viaInternet Archive.
  5. ^Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland by S. Frederick Starr
  6. ^Benson, Linda; Ingvar Svanberg (1998).China's last Nomads: the history and culture of China's Kazaks.M.E. Sharpe. p. 100.
  7. ^Bovingdon, Gardner (2010).The Uyghurs: Strangers in Their Own Land.Columbia University Press. p. 199.
  8. ^Clark, William (2011)."Ibrahim's story"(PDF).Asian Ethnicity.12(2). Taylor & Francis: 213.doi:10.1080/14631369.2010.510877.ISSN1463-1369.S2CID145009760.Retrieved4 August2016.
  9. ^Dillon, Michael (2004).Xinjiang: China's Muslim far northwest.Routledge. p. 79.
  10. ^China VitaeAccessed 30 October 2010
Government offices
Preceded by Chairman ofXinjiang
1955–1967
Succeeded by
Preceded by Chairman ofXinjiang
1972–1978
Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Secretary of the CCPXinjiangCommittee
1972–1978
Succeeded by