He participated in his first rebellion at the age 18, joining a 1907 uprising of peasants and mountaineers against Shah Maqsud, hereditary ruler of Kumul (who was allowed semi-autonomous rule by Qing China).

These events sparked the Kumul Rebellion in 1931, which was led by Hui warlord Ma Zhongying in Gansu after his June 1931 meeting with Hoja Niyaz and Yulbars Khan.

Sheng Shicai gained support from USSR after confirming all secret agreements that previous Governor concluded with the Soviet Union and in June 1933 he made an alliance with Hoja Niyaz against Ma Zhongying.

But at night, Ma Zhongying suddenly came to the fortress, seized all Arsenal (12,000 rifles, 6 machine guns and 500,000 bullets) and joined Chinese garrison to his Tungan troops.

This happened on May 28, 1933 and on the next few days Hoja-Niyaz already met with the representatives of Soviet Consul-General in Urumchi Apressoff to start peaceful talks with Sheng Shicai.

Agreement of alliance between Sheng Shicaii and Hoja-Niyaz was signed on June 4, 1933 and at this time the Soviets gave Hoja Niyaz "nearly 2,000 rifles with ammunition, a few hundred bombs and three machine guns.

[2] Hoja Niyaz then fell back to Kashgar on January 13, 1934, retreating from Aksu through a 300 miles-long march by Tengri Tagh mountain road along the Soviet/Chinese border, bypassing this way general Ma Fuyuan's Tungan forces who waited him on the main road from Aksu to Kashgar, and assumed the Presidency of the self-proclaimed Turkic Islamic Republic of East Turkestan.

He was denied his request to meet Stalin in person and to settle the Xinjiang issue in accordance with the Right of nations to self-determination, which was officially supported by the USSR in its revolutionary doctrine.

[3] Other versions speculate he was held alive in prison as far as summer 1943, when he was executed on the orders of Chiang Kai-shek, who restored Kuomintang control over Xinjiang in 1943 following Sheng Shicai expelling Soviet military personnel and advisers from the province.