Buyantai Chinese. Pai Yun-t'i 白雲梯 Chinese T. Chü-ch'uan 巨川 Buyantai (17 February 1894-), Mongol leader, an official of the Kuomintang, known in Chinese as Pai Yun-t'i. He gained note for his attempts to promote the Kuomintang nationalities program in Inner Mongolia. A Mongol of the Center Kharchin Banner of the Josuto League, Buyantai was born in 1894, the second son of Husutei (Pai Yu-k'un), a descendant of a princely Chahar clan. Living close to Peking, the Mongols of Chahar had assimilated much of Chinese culture by the end of the Ch'ing dynasty. The Chahar grazing lands were increasingly invaded by Chinese immigrants. When Buyantai was born, the Josuto League was in the third year of a bitter conflict with the Han Chinese over the issue of Chinese colonization of lands which the Mongols had traditionally regarded as theirs. Shortly afterwards, the Boxer Uprising of 1900 took place, and Buyantai's childhood was affected by the turbulent developments of those years.

Gungsang Norbu, the prince of the Right Wing of the Kharchin Banner sponsored various reforms that influenced the thinking of Mongol youth. In 1911, the year of the Chinese revolution, Buyantai went to Peking to study. -After a year in a private school, he enrolled in 1912 in the first class of the Mongolian-Tibetan Academy at Peking, newly established by Gungsang Norbu. Other Mongols entering the school at the same time included Merse (Kuo Tao-fu) and Fumingtai, both of whom were later associated with Buyantai.

In the spring of 1918, in order to participate directly in the nationalist revolution being led by Sun Yat-sen, Buyantai left Peking, went to Shanghai, and there joined Sun's movement. He was a delegate to the extraordinary national assembly convened by Sun at Canton in August of that year. His two friends Merse and Fumingtai went to Urga (Ulan Bator), where they joined the Mongolian People's Revolutionary party, fostered by Soviet Russia, early in 1921. In May 1920, Sun Yat-sen appointed Buyantai special delegate for party affairs to the Mongolian areas of Jehol, Chahar, and Suiyuan. In September of that year, Sun designated Buyantai to accompany Li Lieh-chün on a mission to Yunnan to discuss cooperation with T'ang Chi-yao. In the early 1920's, however, Buyantai's chief function was to serve Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang in Mongolian affairs. At the First National Congress of the Kuomintang, held at Canton in January 1924, Sun Yat-sen proposed Buyantai as an alternate member of the reorganized party's Central Executive Committee, and Buyantai was elected. In October of that year, he became a full member of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang, and he continued to serve through the Sixth Congress in 1945, the last held on the mainland. In January 1924, the Mongolian People's Revolutionary party sent B. Dantzen south to meet with Sun Yat-sen, and Sun assigned Buyantai and C. C. Wu to meet with the Outer Mongolian delegate. Sun Yat-sen was committed to recognition of the cause of Mongolian autonomy and, with a view to increasing the influence of his organization, he authorized Buyantai to establish a Mongolian Kuomintang. Dantzen gave his support to this plan. There also was mention of the future unification of Outer and Inner Mongolia and of the subsequent consolidation of the Mongolian Kuomintang and the Mongolian People's Revolutionary party. Buyantai went north and consulted with Gungsang Norbu, who by then had retired from his position as head of the Mongolian-Tibetan Bureau at Peking. Buyantai's former mentor, while committed to the protection of Mongol rights, did not offer direct support to the projected organization of a Mongolian political party, but he stated his belief that future developments would depend upon the Mongol youth of Buyantai's generation. In November 1924, Feng Yü-hsiang (q.v.) had ousted Sun Yat-sen's enemies Ts'ao K'un and Wu P'ei-fu from power, and Feng offered Buyantai support and facilities for his venture. Using Peking as a base, Buyantai went forward with the organization of a Mongolian Kuomintang. On 1 March 1925, after months of preparatory work on the part of Buyantai, the First Inner Mongolian Congress was convened at Kalgan, with 125 delegates in attendance. Sun Yat-sen, then seriously ill in Peking, sent Hsu Ch'ien and Li Lieh-chun to the meeting as Kuomintang representatives. Feng Yü-hsiang was an honored guest at the gathering. In the meantime, in July 1924, Outer Mongolia to the north had become the Mongolian People's Republic. That new state sent five representatives to attend the congress at Kalgan. The Inner Mongolian Congress determined the political platform of the Mongolian Kuomintang. The party would strive to obtain the freedom, independence, and preservation and development of the Mongolian people. The feudal system was to be discarded and replaced by a democratic representative government devoted to the peaceful life and unhampered enterprise of the people. Further, there should be collaboration with the Chinese Kuomintang in a joint endeavor to establish a federated Chinese republic based upon the Three People's Principles and standing for the equality of the world's peoples, the overthrow of imperialism, and peace. The third plank of the platform clearly showed the alignment with the Chinese Kuomintang.

The new party was called the Inner Mongolian Kuomintang—in Mongolian, Totugadu Mongol-in Arad-in Hubisgaltu Nam. Its central executive committee of 21 men included Buyantai, Merse, Fumingtai, and Sayin-bayir. Buyantai was elected chairman; Merse became secretary general. Many of the committee members later occupied positions in the Kuomintang or in the National Government. Buyantai also established a Mongolian newspaper, the Mongol-in Arad-in Nam [Mongolian people's daily]. He organized an Inner Mongolian Revolutionary Army, with himself as commander in chief. The Mongolian Military Cadets School, which emphasized cavalry, trained more than 900 men — the first class at Heshigten, the second at Paotow, and the third at Ninghsia. The peregrinations of the school reflected the shifting political fortunes of the Inner Mongolian Kuomintang. Under Buyantai's leadership, the party sent over 200 young Mongols to study at Urga (Ulan Bator) and at Moscow. Among these students was Ulanfu (q.v.), who was destined to play a political role radically different from Buyantai. The government of the Mongolian People's Republic at Ulan Bator (Urga), despite the Soviet presence there, was moved in part by that same force of Mongol nationalism, Buyantai had visited Ulan Bator in November 1924 with the purpose of making use of that area as a base for the activities of the Inner Mongolian Kuomintang.

However, a rival Mongol political force was taking form: the Young Mongols led by Te Wang (Demchukdonggrub, q.v.). In October 1925, also at Kalgan, another organization also emerged: the Inner Mongolian People's Revolutionary party, clearly patterned after the governing party of the Mongolian People's Republic. Two streams of Mongolian nationalism were developing. In the spring of 1926, after the expulsion of Feng Yü-hsiang's power from Kalgan, the Inner Mongolian Kuomintang abandoned activities in the eastern sector of western Inner Mongolia and began to use as a base the Ikechao League region in the Ordos south of the great bend of the Yellow River. When the Second Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang held its third plenum at Wuhan in March 1927, the session passed a resolution supporting the Inner Mongolian Kuomintang. Soon thereafter, however, the break between the right and left wings of the Kuomintang affected both the internal structure of that party and its relations with the Mongolian People's Republic and the Soviet Union. In October 1927 the Mongolian Kuomintang convened a special conference at Ulan Bator to consider future policy. By that time, a number of the young Mongols whom Buyantai had sent to Moscow for study had returned to Ulan Bator, and they attended the conference. Fortunately for him, Buyantai was informed secretly by the chairman of the central executive, committee of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary party that these students, with the support of Comintern representatives, planned to use the conference to expel Buyantai and other pro-Chinese members. Buyantai fled south by car at night. He arrived at Nanking in November 1927, met with Chiang Kai-shek, and made his report. It was decided to merge the Inner Mongolian Kuomintang with the Kuomintang. A special section was created in the Kuomintang for handling Mongolian affairs, but no other trace remained of the Inner Mongolian Kuomintang.

Buyantai thereafter resided at Nanking. In the spring of 1928, Feng Yü-hsiang trapped and disarmed Buyantai's entire Mongolian force in Ninghsia. Buyantai protested several times to Feng, but without result. Buyantai's Inner Mongolian movement had disintegrated. His sometime collaborators, Merse and Fumingtai, still inclined toward the Mongolian People's Republic, hoping to obtain support there for a renewed political effort in Inner Mongolia. Buyantai occupied the nominally important position of state councillor in the National Government after its formal inauguration at Nanking in 1928. He was also named director of the preparatory office of the Mongolian- Tibetan Affairs Commission, which was to succeed the Mongolian-Tibetan Bureau at Peking. After the successful completion of the Northern Expedition in June 1928, he was given responsibility for reorganization of the Peking office.

In spite of Buyantai's efforts, it was not long before Mongolian-Chinese relations were strained. On 29 August 1928 the Kuomintang Central Political Council, of which Buyantai was a member, discussed a proposal for converting the Mongolian special districts of Jehol, Chahar, and Suiyuan into provinces. Buyantai did not attend the meeting because he was ill, and the proposal passed without opposition. The Mongols of Inner Mongolia were distressed; they viewed the action as a measure to bring them under firmer Chinese control. They resented Buyantai's absence from the critical meeting, some doubting his illness, others suspecting that he did attend, but did not oppose the measure. All the Mongol leagues and banners of Inner Mongolia were dissatisfied, and the Mongolian demand for autonomy was strengthened. Mongols at Peking also resented the takeover of the Mongolian- Tibetan office there. A Mongolian delegation led by Wu Ho-ling visited Nanking in November 1928 to press for the self-determination and self-rule which had been promised China's minority peoples in Sun Yat-Sen's Principles of National Reconstruction. Although Buyantai did not openly oppose that move, he clearly did not lend it his support. As a result, the opposition between the conservative pro-Chinese Mongols and the more radical nationalist elements of Inner Mongolia was intensified, and these factions could not be reunited. Buyantai's position as the leading Mongol in the Chinese Nationalist regime consequently was shaken. When the Mongolian-Tibetan Affairs Commission was established at the end of 1928, he did not receive the position of chairman, although he was made a member. On 1 January 1929, Yen Hsi-shan, the veteran ruler of Shansi province, assumed the post of chairman of the new Mongolian-Tibetan organ. Buyantai was made a member of the provincial government of Ninghsia, which was the home of many Mongols in northwest China. Buyantai was still at Nanking, however, when Wang Ching-wei (q.v.) issued a statement from Shanghai in March 1929 opposing Chiang Kai-shek's leadership at Nanking. Buyantai was included among the 12 co-signers of the telegram. He did not deny his position and soon left Nanking for Canton, where he became associated with Wang Ching-wei's so-called reorganizationist group. In the summer of 1930, with the establishment at Peiping of an opposition regime headed by Wang Ching-wei, Feng Yü-hsiang, and Yen Hsi-shan, Buyantai also went north to participate in that effort against Chiang Kai-shek. When the northern coalition collapsed in September 1930, Buyantai returned to Canton. The temporary retirement of Chiang Kai-shek in December 1931 and the return of Wang Ching-wei to a position of authority in the National Government enabled Buyantai to return to Nanking and to be reelected to the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang at its Fourth National Congress. In January 1932 he became a member of the standing committee of the Mongolian-Tibetan Affairs Commission. In 1933, Te Wang launched an Inner Mongolian autonomy movement at Pailingmiao in Suiyuan province. Since the move was, at least in part, an attempt to check the Japanese advance into Inner Mongolia, it attracted more than usual interest from the National Government. It also promised to have greater strength than previous Mongolian movements. On 28 February 1934, the Central Political Committee passed the Mongolian Autonomy Act, which the Mongols of Inner Mongolia accepted. Te Wang became chairman of the newly instituted Mongolian local autonomy commission, and Buyantai was appointed to membership. Later developments cast doubts upon Nanking's bona fides with respect to any grant of self-rule to the Mongols, however, and Te Wang's movement experienced many vicissitudes. In addition, the Japanese pressure on both north China and Inner Mongolia continued to mount. In late 1935, when Te Wang's anti-Japanese position seemed to weaken, Buyantai visited him at Pailingmiao, saw that the Mongol resistance was too weak to stop the Japanese advance, and returned to Nanking to make his report.

After the outbreak of war with Japan in mid- 1937, Buyantai accompanied the National Government to Hankow and to Chungking. During the war years, he attended meetings of the Supreme National Defense Council and of the standing committee of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang. After the Japanese surrender, he was made head of a comfort corps to visit the Mongols who had lived under Japanese rule. On arrival at Peking, however, he found it impossible to proceed to Inner Mongolia because of the presence there of Soviet and Chinese Communist forces. A new struggle for power was taking shape in China.

In February 1946, at the second plenum of the Sixth Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang, Mongol members — Buyantai, Pai Hai-feng, and Li Yung-hsin—proposed the restoration of the Mongolian local autonomous political committee at Pailingmiao in Suiyuan and the clear demarcation of the territorial division between Mongol league and banner governments on the one hand, and the Chinese provincial/hsien administration on the other. That proposal was passed and, if carried out, would have favorably influenced Mongol loyalties in Inner Mongolia. In fact, however, Hsiung Shih-hui and Fu Tso-yi, who then wielded top authority in Manchuria and Suiyuan respectively, did not implement the decision. At the National Assembly that met at Nanking in November 1946, the Mongol delegation of which Buyantai was a member proposed that the new constitution of China make explicit provision for Mongolian autonomy. The Mongols did receive nominal recognition of their right to self-rule in the new constitution, which stated that the local selfgovernment system of the Mongolian leagues and banners should be "prescribed by law." In the spring of 1947, when Hsu Shih-ying became chairman of the Mongolian-Tibetan Affairs Commission, Buyantai was made its vice chairman. Hsu resigned his post in December of that year, and Buyantai succeeded to the chairmanship. By that time, however, the tide of the civil war with the Communists was running against the Nationalists. In 1948 they suffered the calamitous loss of Manchuria; by mid- 1949 they had lost their capital, Nanking. In the final confusion on the mainland, Buyantai resigned his position as chairman of the Mongolian-Tibetan Affairs Commission in August 1949. He followed Chiang Kai-shek across the Taiwan Strait to the island of Taiwan. There he presided at official functions held by the Mongol community, notably the celebration in 1962 of the 800th anniversary of the birth of Genghis Khan. He continued to hold nomina
ly senior sinecure positions in the National Government and the Kuomintang.