Ma Chan-shan (1885-29 November 1950), governor of Heilungkiang at the end of 1931. He and his Manchurian troops gained worldwide attention during the Nonni River battle of November 1931.

Little is known about Ma Chan-shan's family background or early years except that he was born in Huaiteh, Fengtien Liaoning;, and that he joined the Fengtien 2nd Cavalry- Brigade about 1907. He rose to the rank of battalion commander before being transferred in 1927 to the army of Wu Chün-sheng, the military governor of Heilungkiang. After distinguishing himself in action against the "Little White Dragon" band and against Mongolian bandits, he was promoted to brigadier general and was given command of the 2nd Cavalry Division. When Wu Chün-sheng died in the bomb explosion that also killed Chang Tso-lin (q.v.) in June 1928 and the Northern Expedition forces captured Peking, Ma Chan-shan was assigned to bandit-suppression duties in Heilungkiang. In the summer of 1929, at the time when the National Government and Chang Hsueh-liang (q.v.) were planning anti-Soviet action in Manchuria, Ma was appointed garrison commander at Taheiho, across the Amur River from Blagoveskchensk. When the Japanese invaded Manchuria on 18 September 1931, Chang Hsueh-liang and many of his Northeastern troops were absent from the area. Wan Fu-lin, the governor of Heilungkiang, had gone with Chang to Peiping, leaving the affairs of Heilungkiang in the hands of his feckless son. Wan Hai-p"eng. In the absence of strong provincial authority, Chang Hai-p'eng, the T'ao-Liao defense commissioner, reached agreement with the Japanese Kwantung Army, which gave him equipment and political support; and in early October, he proclaimed himself Mongolian border commissioner and advanced northward along the Taonan-Angangchi railway toward Tsitsihar, the capital. Ma Chan-shan resisted the advance of Chang's force and blew up several of the railway bridges, including the one that spanned the Nonni River. The two armies then camped on opposite banks of the river. On 12 October 1931, the National Government appointed Ma acting governor of Heilungkiang, and he assumed office at Tsitsihar ten days later. The Japanese, who had provided the capital for the construction of the Taonan-Angangchi railway and who still held a lien on it, requested that Ma Chan-shan have the bridge over the Nonni repaired as soon as possible because the interruption of rail traffic interfered with the movement of supplies to Japanese-occupied Liaoning. Ma did not comply, and when a small group of railway workers tried to inspect the damage on 20 October, his troops fired on them. On 28 October, Major Hayashi, the Kwantung Army representative in Tsitsihar, demanded that repairs be completed by 3 November, failing which railway engineers would make the repairs under the protection of Japanese troops. As the deadline approached, Hayashi ordered both Ma and Chang Hai-p'eng to move their forces ten kilometers back from the river, and they complied. A small Japanese force and a group of engineers moved into the area, and repair work began on the morning of 4 November. However, a Japanese infantry company soon advanced beyond the bridge in the direction of the Tahsing station, still occupied by the Chinese. Ma's forces drove them back, and they advanced the next day only to be repulsed again. Such was the Nonni River battle. Two days of fighting had resulted in about 180 Japanese casualties and about 200 Chinese casualties, but because the League of Nations was investigating the Japanese presence in Manchuria and the area was much in the news, the battle gained world-wide attention. Major Hayashi ordered reinforcements, and the Kwantung Army took Tahsing on 6 November. After a series of skirmishes accompanied by Japanese demands and Chinese refusals, the Japanese occupied Tsitsihar in November 1931. Ma Chan-shan withdrew to Hailun, regrouped his forces, and established a provincial government there. Soon afterwards, he was confirmed as governor of Heilungkiang.

By February 1932 Ma Chan-shan had been cut off completely from potential aid. Because he was isolated and without ammunition, his only recourse, as he later said, was to slow up the enemy advance, conserve his strength, and wait for an opportunity to act. On 14 February, he met at Harbin with the Kwantung 2nd Division commander and agreed to collaborate with the Japanese. He then attended several conferences regarding the creation of Manchoukuo and became minister of war in the new^ state when it was established in March. In return for his collaboration, the Japanese allowed him to retain office as Heilungkiang governor and conceded a delay of three months before assuming control of key bureaus in the provincial government. Ma bided his time, and then, on 1 April 1932, he left Tsitsihar before dawn with a convoy of trucks loaded with valuable supplies and a large sum of money from the newly replenished Heilungkiang treasury. By the time his departure was discovered at daybreak, he was miles away at Taianchen. He further confused the Japanese by sending them three contradictory telegrams explaining his departure. On 12 April he issued a public telegram from Taheiho in which he explained his seeming defection from the service of the National Government, reported some of his observations of Japanese activities, and announced his determination to resist Japanese encroachment.

Ma Chan-shan launched a general offensive against the Japanese near Hulan on 29 April 1932. As of 18 May, his troops reportedly were within five miles of Harbin, but they were forced to withdraw at the end of May by the Kwantung 14th Division. They then adopted guerrilla tactics and managed to hold their position near Tsitsihar until November, when the Japanese administered a series of defeats to loyalist forces throughout the Northeast. Ma Chan-shan and several other officers escaped to the Soviet Union, traveled through Germany, and arrived in Shanghai in June 1933. On 22 June, Ma was appointed to the Military Affairs Commission in recognition of his valiant efforts in Manchuria. However, he took up residence at Tientsin and avoided Nanking because he disapproved of the Tangku truce {see Ho Ying-ch'in).

After the Sino-Japanese war began in 1937, Ma Chan-shan was assigned to the Eighth War Area, under the over-all command of Chu Shao-liang (q.v.). Late in 1937 he was given the mission of helping to counter the Japanese offensive in Inner Mongolia west of Paotow. That winter, his forces engaged in a sharp action against the Japanese near Wuyuan in western Suiyuan which halted their drive and helped to preserve the flow of war supplies then coming to China overland from the Soviet Union. In 1941 he was reappointed governor of Heilungkiang; and he later became an alternate member of the Kuomintang's Central Executive Committee. After serving briefly as deputy commander of the Twelfth War Area just before the war ended in 1945, he returned to Manchuria as deputy commander of the Northeast Peace Preservation Corps. However, he and other natives of that region were not allowed by the Kuomintang to play significant roles in the ensuing Nationalist-Communist struggle for control of Manchuria. He moved to Peking after the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China was established, and he died there on 29 November 1950.