Ma Pu-fang (1903-), Chinese Muslim general who was governor of Tsinghai from 1938 until 1949. He later served the National Government in Taiwan as ambassador to Saudi Arabia, but he resigned in 1961.

Linhsia (Hochow), Kansu, was the birthplace of Ala Pu-fang. He was the younger brother of Ma Pu-ch'ing (q.v.) and the son of Ma Ch'i, who served as governor of Tsinghai from 1 929 to 1931. Ma Ch'i was succeeded as governor by his brother. Ma Lin. Although Ma Pu-fang received a primary education designed to prepare him for a career as a Muslim Imam, he soon decided that he would rather be a military man. After being graduated from the Ninghai Officers Training Corps, he joined the Ninghai Army in 1920 as a deputy battalion commander. By the end of 1930 he had risen to become commander of the Provisional 1st Division (later the 9th Division) in the Nationalist forces of Ku Chu-t'ung (q.v.), then the pacification commissioner for northwest China. Ku appointed Ma garrison commander for all of southern Tsinghai and ordered him to march on Ma Chung-ying (q.v.) who had been attempting to consolidate an independent base of power in Kansu. Ma Pu-fang soon drove Ma Chung-ying westward, scattering his forces. He then returned to his garrison station at Yüshu in Tsinghai.

Early in 1932 Ma Pu-fang cooperated with Liu Wen-hui (q.v.) in working out a plan for ending the Chinese-Tibetan struggle that had begun with the Ta-chin-ssu affair of 1930, when Tibetan lamas and Chinese soldiers had clashed at Kantzu. They recovered Kantzu and Chanhua, and by July 1932 their forces had reached the Chin Sha River. Liu Wen-hui signed a local agreement with the Tibetans in October 1932, and Ma Pu-fang negotiated a Tsinghai-Tibetan peace treaty which was submitted for National Government approval in July 1933. I Although Ma Lin was the titular head of the Tsinghai government from 1931 to 1938, Ma Pu-fang was named acting governor of Tsinghai and commander of the 82nd Division. He was confirmed as governor in 1938, whea Ma Lin received membership in the State Council. By this time, the Sino-Japanese war had broken out and the 82nd Division had been reorganized as the Eighty-second Army. The retreat of the National Government to Chungking greatly increased the strategic importance of northwest China. Ma Pu-fang, to strengthen his province and to block Japanese intrigue among the Chinese Muslims of the northwest, undertook what he termed ''The Six Great Tasks"—the organization of a pao-chia system, the creation of a military reserv^e, the enforcement of prohibitions on opium, the improvement of literacy, the construction of provincial highw-ays, and the development of forests. Ma Pu-fang's administration was one of the most efficient in China. He introduced modern medicine to the province, initiated irrigation projects, and built factories for the manufacture of such goods as pottery, chemicals, and matches. By government order, everyone in the province—even officials, lamas, and students—had to plant several trees each year as part of the reforestation program. The citizens of Sining periodically had to meet a daily quota of dead flies, their contribution to Ma's sanitation program. Ma paid special attention to education. Citizens between the ages of 15 and 20 were taught 1,000 Chinese characters in special classes, and by 1942 almost 100,000 of them had learned to read. Ma's government established primary and secondary schools throughout the province and provided all Tsinghai students With uniforms, books, and other school supplies. Ma also gave strong moral and financial support to a private school system known as the K'unlun Schools, which provided comprehensive education for Muslim students. Although Ma's regime was highly authoritarian, it was a benevolent dictatorship. Furthermore, the reform and development programs did not place a heavy tax burden on the people, for the gov^ernment supported itself mainly through industrial and commercial monopoly. In 1943 Ma Pu-fang was appointed commander in chief of the Fortieth Group Army, with Ma Pu-ch'ing as deputy commander. Two years later, he became a deputy chairman of Chiang Kai-shek's northwest headquarters and a member of the Kuomintang's Central Executive Committee. The Fortieth Group Army was disbanded in 1946, just a few months after the War in the Pacific ended, and Ma was given the post of deputy director of the northwest military and political affairs administration at Lanchow. When Chang Chih-chung (q.v.) declared allegiance to the Chinese Communists in 1949, Ma succeeded him as director of the northwest headquarters. After returning from a conference at Canton with acting President Li Tsung-jen (q.v.) and other Nationalist leaders in July, Ma packed his possessions and moved to Hong Kong. Lanchow and Sining fell to the Chinese Communists soon after he left Tsinghai. Ia Pu-fang went to Egypt in the early 1950's and remained there until that country recognized the People's Republic of China in 1957. He then accepted an appointment as Nationalist ambassador to Saudi Arabia. In May 1961 the National Government in Taiwan announced that he had been charged with corruption and incompetence and that his resignation had been accepted by the ministry of foreign afTairs. Ma Pu-fang continued to live in the Middle East.