Saifuddin Azizi

Saifuddin Azizi
سەيپىدىن ئەزىزى‎ 赛福鼎·艾则孜
CCP Committee Secretary of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
In office July 1972 – January 1978 (Acting: July 1972 – June 1973)
Preceded by	Long Shujin
Succeeded by	Wang Feng
Chairman of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Regional Revolutionary Committee
In office October 1955 – January 1967
Preceded by	Burhan Shahidi (as Governor of Xinjiang)
Succeeded by	Long Shujin
Other positions Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference In office 27 March 1993 – 13 March 1998 Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress In office 27 September 1954 – 27 March 1993 Chairman of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Regional Political Consultative Conference In office February 1955 – September 1955 Preceded by Burhan Shahidi Succeeded by Burhan Shahidi Minister of Education of the East Turkestan Republic In office 13 March 1945 – 27 June 1946 Preceded by Habib Yunich
Personal details
Born	(1915-03-12)12 March 1915 Artush, Xinjiang, Qing dynasty
Died	24 November 2003(2003-11-24) (aged 88) Beijing, China
Nationality	Chinese
Political party	Chinese Communist Party (joined 1949)
Other political affiliations	All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (1935–1949) Democratic Revolutionary Party (1947–1948) East Turkestan Revolutionary Party (1946–1947)
Awards	Order of Liberation (First Class)
Military service
Allegiance	People's Republic of China (after 1949)  East Turkestan Republic (1944–1946)
Branch/service	People's Liberation Army (after 1949) East Turkestan National Army (1945–1949)
Rank	Lieutenant General of the PLA
Battles/wars	Ili Rebellion (1944–1946)
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	赛福鼎·艾则孜
Traditional Chinese	賽福鼎·艾則孜
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Saìfúdǐng Àizézī Wade–Giles Sai4-fu2-ting3 Ai4-tse2-tzu1 IPA [sâɪfǔtìŋ âɪtsɤ̌tsɹ̩́]
Uyghur name
Uyghur	سەيپىدىن ئەزىزى‎
Transcriptions Latin Yëziqi Seypidin Ezizi Yengi Yeziⱪ Səypidin Əzizi Siril Yëziqi Сəйпидин Əзизи
Russian name
Russian	Сайфутдин Азизов
Romanization	Sayfutdin Azizov

Saifuddin Azizi (officially transcribed as Seypidin Azizi;^[1][2] 12 March 1915 – 24 November 2003) was a Chinese politician who occupied several top positions in the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC). An ethnic Uyghur, he is best known for serving as the first chairman of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region as well as (to date) the only Communist Party committee secretary for the region who was ethnically Uyghur. Before the proclamation of the PRC in 1949, he served in the government of the breakaway Second East Turkestan Republic, as Minister of Education.

Azizi was born in Tacheng to an influential Uyghur trader family originally from Artux (Artush).^[3][4] He attended school in Xinjiang and then moved to the Soviet Union, joining the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and studying at the Central Asia Political Institute in Tashkent.^[5] He returned to Xinjiang as a Soviet agent, instigating the Soviet-backed Ili Rebellion against the Republic of China government in northwest Xinjiang. He served as Minister of Education in the Second East Turkestan Republic and Commissioner of Education in the Zhang Zhizhong Ili Rebel-Kuomintang coalition government from 1945–1948.^[3] In September 1949, Saifuddin attended the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference endorsed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), becoming a member of the new Communist government.^[6] In October, the 1949 Chinese revolution brought the Communists to power in Xinjiang and in China more generally; at this point, Saifuddin held various posts for Nationalities and Political and Legal Affairs for the new government.^[3]

From December 1949 through January 1950, he accompanied Mao Zedong in his trip to Moscow to negotiate the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and it was there on 27 December 1949 where he quit the CPSU and joined the CCP in accordance with recommendation of Mao himself. In 1955, he was given the rank of Lieutenant General of the PLA. In the same year, he registered with Mao his strong objection to proposals to name Xinjiang the "Xinjiang Autonomous Region", arguing that "autonomy is not given to mountains and rivers. It is given to particular nationalities". As a result, the administrative region would be named "Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region".^[7]

Uyghur linguist Ibrahim Muti'i opposed the Second East Turkestan Republic and was against the Ili Rebellion because it was backed by the Soviets and Stalin. Saifuddin Azizi later apologized to Ibrahim and admitted that his opposition to the East Turkestan Republic was the correct thing to do.^[8]

At the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing, he secured the role of regional Chairman of Xinjiang, a job he kept from 1955 to 1978, with a brief respite during the Cultural Revolution.^[9] He was a vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the First through Seventh National People's Congress and an alternate member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party of the 10th and 11th CCP Central Committee.^[2] From 1993 to 1998, he served as a vice-chairman of the CPPCC National Committee.^[10] He died of illness at the age of 88.^[2]