Ulanfu (1903-), Tumet Mongol who joined the Chinese Communist party in 1927 and rose to become its principal representative in Inner Mongolia. In the 1950's and early 1960's he dominated party, government, and military structures in that region. Ulanfu became a target ofcriticism during the so-called Cultural Revolution and was removed from his posts in 1967. Little is known about Ulanfu's family background or childhood except that he was born in the village of Taputs'un in Inner Mongolia and was raised among the Tumet Mongols. The Tumet Banner, a numerically small and culturally sinicized group of Mongols, occupied the area west of Kweisui near the great bend of the Yellow River in what later became Suiyuan province. In contrast to other Mongol groups of Inner Mongolia, which retained nomadism and remained relatively free of Chinese infiltration, the Tumet Mongols at the turn of the century were largely sedentary, agricultural, and Chinese-speaking. Both cultural and linguistic factors made them closely related to Chinese influences.

Like many other young Mongols who became active in Inner Mongolian political affairs during the republican period, Ulanfu went to Peking to attend the Mongolian-Tibetan Academy. There, about 1923, he gained initial exposure to radical ideas. This exposure came through contact with Li Ta-chao, Teng Chung-hsia (qq.v.), and other members of the north China bureau of the infant Chinese Communist party who were attempting to stimulate interest in Marxism among student groups in the Peking area. In 1924, while a student at the Mongolian-Tibetan Academy, Ulanfu joined the Communist Youth League. The following spring he participated in anti-imperialist demonstrations organized by Peking students after the May Thirtieth Incident, when British police in the International Concession at Shanghai fired on Chinese. The year 1925 also marked Ulanfu's entry into political activity in Inner Mongolia. In October he participated in a Communistplanned gathering of Mongolian nationalists held at Kalgan which brought into being the Inner Mongolian People's Revolutionary party. This group diverged from the moderate political line adopted by the Young Mongols, of which Te Wang (Demchukdonggrub, q.v.) was an active leader. The Young Mongols aimed at establishment of an autonomous Inner Mongolian government within the framework of the Chinese nation. The Revolutionary party, as a united front organ of the Chinese Communist party, espoused a program which called for abolition of feudalism in Mongolian society, active resistance to Chinese rule over Mongolian territory, independence for Inner Mongolia, and close relations with the Mongolian People's Republic, which had been established in 1924 in Outer Mongolia under Soviet influence. The position of Ulanfu and the Inner Mongolian People's Revolutionary party in 1925 reflected the political alliance between the Chinese Communists and the Kuomintang and the common antagonism which both felt toward the Peking government which then ruled Inner Mongolia. Earlier that year a new party called the Inner Mongolian Kuomintang (see Buyantai) had also been formed, and it was that party which recruited many young Mongols for study at Ulan Bator (Urga) and Moscow. In the winter of 1925 Ulanfu was sent to the Soviet Union to study at Sun Yat-sen University, opened that year for training revolutionary cadres from China. While a student in Moscow, Ulanfu became a Communist in 1927. It is also possible that it was during this period in Russia that he dropped his original name, Yun-tse, and adopted that of Ulanfu, which, it has been suggested, may have been derived from that of Ulyanov, the family surname of Lenin. After graduation, Ulanfu worked for a period as a translator in the Soviet Union.

After four years in the Soviet Union, Ulanfu left Moscow in 1929 and went to the Mongolian People's Republic. He was briefly involved in an abortive movement, based at Choibalsan, aimed at achieving independence for the Hulunbuir Mongol area in eastern Mongolia (western Manchuria). In 1930 he returned to China, where a northern coalition of Kuomintang leaders (see Feng Yü-hsiang; Yen Hsi-shan) had been formed in opposition to Chiang Kai-shek's growing power at Nanking. Ulanfu became attached to the staff of one of Yen Hsi-shan's commanders, Fu Tso-yi (q.v.), and served as political officer in a cavalry regiment under Fu. With the defeat of the northern coalition, Fu Tso-yi became associated with Chang Hsuehliang, who had become the dominant figure in north China. After Fu Tso-yi became governor in Suiyuan in 1931, Ulanfu remained for a time in Fu's entourage and thus returned to his native province.

During the next few years, Ulanfu pursued a dual career as pro-Communist and anti-Japanese propagandist. The Japanese military occupation of Manchuria in 1931, followed by penetration of Jehol and Chahar in 1932-33, evoked a complex series of challenges and responses throughout Inner Mongolia. Because the National Government at Nanking made no serious effort to resist Japanese aggression, some Mongol leaders began to search independently for measures to ensure maximum protection of their interests. One group, led by Te Wang and the Young Mongols, attempted to organize an Inner Mongolian autonomous government under the general supervision of Nanking but outside the jurisdiction of the provincial governments of Chahar and Suiyuan. In April 1934 the Mongolian Local Autonomous Political Council, designed to provide partial recognition of these Mongol aspirations, was established at Pailingmiao. Within a few months, Te Wang, for a variety of reasons, had developed closer relations with the Japanese. During these years Ulanfu had been working in Inner Mongolia to organize resistance against Japan. As provincial governor of Suiyuan, Fu Tso-yi was strongly opposed both to Japanese aggression and to Inner Mongolian autonomy. Fu thus encouraged Ulanfu, a Tumet Mongol, to mobilize Mongols of the Ikechao League in an attempt to counter the activities of Te Wang and his supporters, many of whom were of the Silingol and other Mongol leagues.

Chinese Communist policy during this period aimed at formation of a united front composed of all anti-Japanese forces in the country. Neither the Communists nor the Kuomintang could condone the growth of a variety of Inner Mongolian autonomy which might further weaken China and which would strengthen the position of Japan on the mainland. As a result of the agitation directed by Ulanfu and other political heirs of the People's Revolutionary party, the Chinese Communists were able to gain footholds in Inner Mongolia after 1935. In February 1936 Ulanfu was involved in an uprising at Shiramuren near Pailingmiao which was designed to split the Mongol membership of the Political Council there. When Te Wang and his associates, with Japanese support, launched an attack on Suiyuan in November 1936, Ulanfu reportedly was with the forces of Fu Tso-yi, which participated in the resistance and in the capture of Pailingmiao. Early in 1937, after the Sian Incident (see Chiang Kai-shek; Chang Hsueh-liang) temporarily eased relations between the Nationalists and Communists, Ulanfu emerged as political commissar of a Mongolian peace preservation corps in Suiyuan commanded by Pai Hai-feng, a Mongol long associated with the Kuomintang. After the outbreak of full-scale war between China and Japan in July 1937, Ulanfu was assigned to lead an independent brigade formed of Mongols of the Ikechao League.

After the Japanese military drive into Suiyuan, Ulanfu escaped to Yenan, the wartime capital of the Chinese Communists in northern Shensi, where for the first time he established relations with the central party apparatus. During the war years he headed the so-called Mongolian Cultural Association at Yenan and was active in the Nationalities Institute, the organ primarily responsible for political training of Mongol and other non-Chinese cadres. He served concurrently as director of the nationalities affairs commission of the Shensi-Kansu- Ninghsia Border Region Government and thus was involved with Communist plans and policies in this realm. When the Seventh National Congress of the Chinese Communist party met at Yenan (April-June 1945), Ulanfu was elected to alternate membership on the Central Committee. From 1944 to 1946, just before and after the close of the Second World War, Inner Mongolia was the scene of growing political competition. The Kuomintang, the Chinese Communists, the Mongols of Inner Mongolia, and the Mongols of Outer Mongolia all vied for influence and power within a new and sharply altered framework of Sino-Soviet-Mongolian relations. Various Mongol autonomy movements, some old, some new, appeared both in eastern Mongolia (western Manchuria) and in Inner Mongolia proper. In the early autumn of 1945 Soviet military forces moved southward to occupy Manchuria and parts of Inner Mongolia for a period. But the decisive new element in the situation was the fact that the Chinese Communists, partly through the ineptness of the Kuomintang and partly through the efforts of Ulanfu, now possessed a framework for political and military action aimed at winning control of all of Inner Mongolia.

Ulanfu himself occupied a key position, not in the Inner Mongolian nationalist movement, but in the major radical force in Chinese national political life. In 1944, before the Japanese defeat, he organized a so-called democratic anti-Japanese government in the Ikechao League which served to harass Japanese-held territories. In this effort and in later operations, Mongolian cadres trained by Ulanfu at Yenan played a key role in helping him to consolidate his new position in Inner Mongolia. In November 1945, as the military contest between the Nationalists and Communists brewed, this Yenan group took the lead in organizing the Inner Mongolian Autonomy Association, a group based at Kalgan and headed by Ulanfu, which was designed to provide firm Chinese Communist direction of indigenous desire for self-determination in western Inner Mongolia. In March 1946 another conference, with Ulanfu again in a dominant position, met at Chengteh in Jehol. This meeting brought together representatives from both western and eastern Inner Mongolia, and Ulanfu succeeded in effecting a merger of the two groups in a new joint committee under Chinese Communist direction. The Chengteh meeting reflected this direction by denouncing the Chinese Nationalists and by announcing support for creation of a new "democratic" autonomous government in Inner Mongolia. These pronouncements were premature, however, for during the latter part of 1946 the Nationalists made significant military advances in Suiyuan and Jehol as well as in north China and Manchuria.

Ulanfu and his supporters then moved to eastern Mongolia. There, on 1 May 1947, the "People's Government of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region" was established at Wangyeh-miao (renamed Ulanhot, or Red City, in Mongolian). This regime, controlled by Mongols who were strong supporters of the Chinese Communists, was headed by Ulanfu, who was also identified as secretary of the Inner Mongolia sub-bureau of the Chinese Communist party and as commander and political commissar of a new Inner Mongolian People's Self-Defense Army. The significance of this new regime was not immediately apparent even though cavalry units associated with the Ulanhot regime fought with regular Chinese Communist armies in the Manchurian campaigns of 1947-48. These units later were incorporated into the People's Liberation Army. Representatives from the Communist-controlled Inner Mongolian regime also attended the meeting at Mukden in August 1949 at which a new regional Northeast People's Government (see Kao Kang) was established.

In September 1949, when the People's Political Consultative Conference met at Peiping, it became evident that the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region would be an integral political unit in the new People's Republic of China. With the establishment of the Central People's Government in October 1949, it was confirmed that Ulanfu would continue to lead the effort to extend Chinese Communist authority throughout Inner Mongolia. In addition to regional responsibilities, Ulanfu now held senior posts at the national government level: member of the Central People's Government Council, president of the Central Institute of Nationalities, deputy director of the Nationalities Affairs Commission, and others. For several years after its formation at Ulanhot in the spring of 1947, the development of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region was marked by two trends: steady growth in the geographical area embraced by the region and increasing consolidation of effective Chinese Communist authority. Reflection of these processes was seen in early 1950 in the movement of its capital from Ulanhot to Kalgan in Chahar province. The most important Mongolian areas not included in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region in 1949-50 lay in Suiyuan, which then had been governed for some two decades by Fu Tso-yi. Although Fu had surrendered Peiping to the Communists without a fight at the beginning of 1949, two of his subordinate generals, Tung Ch'i-wu and Sun Lan-feng (qq.v.), had retained control of substantial elements of Fu's troops in Suiyuan itself. Because of this situation, the Communists permitted Tung Ch'i-wu to remain as governor for some time after the formal surrender of the province.

In mid- 1952, in a series of new moves designed to consolidate direct control over Suiyuan, Peking announced major changes. On 1 July 1952 the principal organs of the government of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, together with the Inner Mongolia regional apparatus of the Chinese Communist party, moved from Kalgan to Kweisui (Huhehot) in Suiyuan. (The Communists officially changed the name of Kweisui to Huhehot, or Blue City in Mongolian, in the spring of 1954). Peking then announced that Ulanfu, head of the Autonomous Region government, had been named concurrently governor of Suiyuan, replacing Tung Ch'i-wu. On 1 August, the Suiyuan and Inner Mongolia military districts were merged into a unified (Sui-Meng) military district. The full merger of Suiyuan into the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region was approved by the Peking authorities in January 1954, and the two areas were amalgamated in March. Two years later, in the spring of 1956, the territories inhabited by the Alashan and Edsingol Mongols in Ninghsia were similarly incorporated into the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. Throughout these administrative changes during the decade after 1947, Ulanfu remained the most active Chinese-oriented Mongol Communist in Inner Mongolia, and he dominated party, government, and military structures in that region. As first secretary of the Inner Mongolian Communist party committee, head of the government, and commander of the Inner Mongolian military district, Ulanfu held an apparently undisputed position. When an Inner Mongolia University was established in 1957, he became first president of that institution. And in May 1962 he presided over the celebrations at Huhehot which marked the fifteenth anniversary of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region.

At the same time, Ulanfu held senior positions at Peking. In 1953 he was a member of the commission charged with drafting a new constitution for the People's Republic of China. After the reorganization of the Central People's Government in 1954, he served as a member of the State Council and as member of the National Defense Council with the rank of general in the People's Liberation Army. He was concurrently chairman of the Nationalities Affairs Commission, in which capacity he announced official policies toward non-Chinese minority groups. He represented Inner Mongolia as a deputy to the first, second, and third sessions of the National People's Congress. In 1956, at the Eighth National Congress of the Chinese Communist party, Ulanfu was elected to membership on the party Central Committee and to alternate membership on its Political Bureau. As senior-ranking non-Chinese member of the Chinese Communist hierarchy, Ulanfu also occupied a prominent position in Peking's international political programs. Because of the importance of relations between China and Outer Mongolia, he headed Peking's delegations to Ulan Bator to observe successive congresses of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary party: the twelfth (1954), the thirteenth (1958), and the fourteenth (1961). In 1955 he headed China's delegation to Czechoslovakia to attend celebrations marking the tenth anniversary of the ending of the German occupation; in 1961 he went to France to observe the sixteenth Congress of the French Communist party. In 1956 he headed the Chinese delegation to attend the coronation ceremonies of King Mahendra of Nepal. And late in 1957 he was a member of the major delegation that accompanied Mao Tse-tung to Moscow for the observance of the fortieth anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution.

For 20 years after his participation in the establishment of the Inner Mongolian People's Revolutionary party in 1925, Ulanfu served as principal Chinese Communist activist in that region. For another 20 years after 1945 he was the leading individual involved in implementing Chinese Communist policies in Inner Mongolia. These assignments were made difficult because of long-standing political and economic tensions between the pastoral Mongol nomads and the agricultural Chinese and because of dilemmas in balancing national requirements as set by Peking against local attitudes and aspirations. Mongol-Chinese antagonisms with respect to collectivization and other programs of socio-economic reorganization were complicated after 1955 by significant Chinese migration into the region (where Mongols comprised only about one-sixth of the total population in 1954). Despite these obstacles, Ulanfu and his Chinese Communist associates were successful in their efforts to bring a measure of stability to that strategically important borderland region.

For a period, Ulanfu's ability to curb anti- Chinese local nationalism in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region was related to Peking's willingness to tolerate gradualism in implementation of radical reforms in non- Chinese minority areas. Yet the very measure of stability attained in Inner Mongolia made Ulanfu a target of bitter attacks during the Cultural Revolution after 1966. The turmoil associated with the Cultural Revolution in Inner Mongolia led to heavy pressure upon entrenched bureaucracy and upon individuals alleged to have followed policies castigated ex postfacto as creations of Liu Shao-ch'i (q.v.). An obvious scapegoat because of his virtual monopoly of senior bureaucratic positions in Inner Mongolia, Ulanfu was publicly condemned by revolutionary activists in August 1967. Near the end of that year, he was denounced for "towering crimes" against the people of Inner Mongolia and was removed from official positions.