ABSTRACT
Lanchow, the largest and most strategic city in northwest China, is the official capital of Kansu Province and the unofficial capital of the entire northwest. Ethnically, most Chinese Muslims are a racial mixture, combining Chinese blood with that of various Muslim groups that migrated to China centuries ago from the “West,” from various parts of the region between Arabia and Afghanistan. Organization of Chinese Muslims is largely on a regional basis. When compared with the past, present relations between the Muslims and other Chinese can be described as relatively friendly and peaceful. The Provincial Government in Ninghsia is less thoroughly Muslim than in Chinghai, and Ma Hung-k’uei has the reputation of treating Muslims and Han Chinese without discrimination. The techniques of control and mobilization employed in Ninghsia—by a Governor who asserts, feelingly, that what contemporary China needs all else is “strict law"—are varied and effective.
