ABSTRACT
The Qing withering state created opportunities for power squatters; and there were plenty of them. Among the squatters, the Muslims had a goal of ethnic cleansing against the Han Chinese but no plan for an alternative power centre. 1 When the Qing army finally resumed control of Shaanxi and Gansu, many Muslim perpetrators fled to Russia. The Nians were purely opportunistic predators, living on plundering. 2 The Taiping Movement was the only one attempted on building a state.
