Sheng Shicai (Chinese: 盛世才; pinyin: Shèng Shìcái; Wade–Giles: Sheng Shih-ts'ai) (1897– July 13, 1970, Taiwan) was a Chinese warlord who ruled Xinjiang (Sinkiang) province from April 12, 1933 to August 29, 1944.
Born in Kaiyuan, Liaoning Province, he served under the Guominjun. He was first sent to Xinjiang to work for Governor Jin Shuren in 1930. He repressed the Kumul Rebellion (February 1931 - October 1931) with support from the Soviet Union, but in exchange made several agreements with the USSR that gave it virtual control over the Xinjiang province.
The Urumqi Soviet Consul General effectively was in control of governing, with Sheng required to consult them for any decision he made. The Consul was the de facto power in Xinjiang, being the greatest in significance. Xinjiang was considered a "Soviet Satellite", being under total Soviet control.
In 1936, after Sheng Shicai expelled 20,000 Kazakhs from Xinjiang to Qinghai, Chinese Muslims led by General Ma Bufang massacred their fellow Muslim Kazakhs, until there were 135 of them left.
Sheng launched his own purge in Xinjiang to coincide with Stalin's Great Purge in 1937 during the Xinjiang War (1937). Sheng received assistance from the NKVD, Sheng and the Soviets alleged a massive Trotskyist conspiracy and a "Fascist Trotskyite plot" to destroy the Soviet Union. The Soviet Consul General Garegin Apresoff, General Ma Hushan, Ma Shaowu, Mahmud Sijan, the official leader of the Xinjiang province Huang Han-chang and Hoja-Niyaz were among the 435 alleged conspirators in the plot. Xinjiang became under virtual Soviet control. Stalin opposed the Chinese Communist Party.
At Joseph Stalin's request, Sheng joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in August 1938 and received Party Card No.1859118 directly from Molotov during his secret visit to Moscow. Sinkiang, under Sheng's rule, was thus a part of China in name only, with every major decision of Sheng's regime cleared through the Soviet Consulate in Tihwa (Chinese: 迪化, today known as Urumqi). During his years as Governor he was anti-minority (anti-Uyghur and anti-Kazakh), and was known for his pervasive use of torture.
In 1942, sensing the Soviet Union's demise, he turned anti-Soviet, expelling Soviet advisors and executing many Han Communists, including Mao Zemin, Mao Zedong's brother, in hopes of securing the backing of the Kuomintang (KMT, Chinese Nationalist Party) for his continued rule. However, when the war swung in favor of the Soviet Union after the Battle of Stalingrad, Sheng attempted to expel the KMT, and requested Soviet aid in a letter to Stalin. Stalin refused to assist Sheng, and sent Sheng's letter to the KMT party leader Chiang Kai-shek as Sheng miscalculated and underestimated the KMT's extent of power. The KMT removed Sheng in August 1944.
Chen Lifu of the CC Clique recorded his personal encounters with Sheng in his memoir "The storm clouds clear over China: the memoir of Chʻen Li-fu, 1900-1993", according to him, Sheng was distrustful and suspicious of everyone else, he aligned "manchine guns in front of his...residence at night... had all his filing cabinets locked".
He left Xinjiang on September 11, 1944 to join the Kuomintang's Republic of China government as Minister of Agriculture and Forestry. Around 50 trucks accompanied him, loaded with his personal property, "earned" in Sinkiang for 15 years, including gold (est. 1,500 kg) and silver (est.15,000 kg). He fled to Taiwan along with the KMT at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. In 1958, he co-authored Sinkiang: Pawn or Pivot with Allen S. Whiting.
Sheng had four children with his wife. Two of his daughters were born while he was in Xinjiang.