Ma Hongkui (traditional Chinese: 馬鴻逵; simplified Chinese: 马鸿逵; pinyin: Mǎ Hóngkuí; Wade–Giles: Ma Hung-k'uei, Xiao'erjing: مَا خٌ‌کُوِ; March 14, 1892 – January 14, 1970) was a prominent Muslim warlord in China during the Republic of China era, ruling the province of Ningxia.

In 1932 he was appointed Governor of Ningxia Province and fought Communist forces in the Shaanxi–Ningxia area for the next several years, up to the all-out Japanese invasion in 1937.

In 1933, Chiang Kai-shek attempted to strengthen the Nationalist government and to weaken the Ma clique by ordering the unreliable National Revolutionary Army general Sun Dianying to move his private army to Qinghai's Qaidam Basin, ostensibly to colonize it.

From then on, however, the situation went out of control and Sun Dianying decided to conquer Ningxia on his own to prevent his troops from mutinying.

During the early 1930s Edgar Snow in his book Red Star Over China said that the Communist media (who were enemies of Ma Hongkui) claimed that Ma received some weapons from Japan when he was fighting the Communists, and met visiting delegations, but after Japan's invasion of China in 1937 he fought against Japan, supporting the imam Hu Songshan in spreading anti-Japanese propaganda,[21] and sending limited numbers of troops to his cousin Ma Hongbin to fight the Japanese.

[23][24][25][26] In 1940 Ma Hongkui's Muslim troops took part in the Battle of West Suiyuan against Japan and their Mongol puppet state Mengjiang.

[28] Ma Hongkui attacked the Inner Mongol Prince Darijaya and defeated the Mongol banner militia under his command in March 1938, accusing the Prince of collaborating with Japan, arresting him and saying he was "annihilating and extirpating pro-Japanese elements in Alashaa Banner."

Ethnic Mongolian guerilla units were created by the Kuomintang Nationalists to fight against the Japanese during the war in the late 30s and early 40s.

Ma and his Muslim army ruled over a non-Muslim majority of about 750,000 people in Ningxia, which did not have the natural defenses of Qinghai.

[30] In March 1948, at Ichuan, Peng Dehuai led Communist forces in launching a surprise attack against Gen. Hu Zongnan's troops, inflicting 20,000 casualties upon them and driving all the way, with 60,000 soldiers, into southern Shanxi province to reach Sichuan.

[33] Ma Hongkui met with Chiang Kai-shek in Chongqing to plan an attack on the PLA.

Accused of "frustrating the fulfilment of the military plan" by the Control Yuan, because he failed to defeat the Communist forces in his defense area, he moved to San Francisco with the help of Claire Chennault.

At a 1951 press conference in the United States, Ma Hongkui urged the country to aid the KMT in Taiwan.

[37] Chiang Kai-shek addressed Ma Hongkui as Shao Yun shixiong, which refers to the son of a friend.

[41] Ma Hongkui stood out from the other provincial governors with the degree of his strong rule over Ningxia.

[44] He constantly drilled his peasant Muslim army in combat, who were armed mostly with swords, spears and rifles.

[27][51] The Yihewani Imam Hu Songshan and Ma cooperated in founding several Sino-Arabic schools in Ningxia to promote Chinese- and Arabic-language Islamic education for Chinese Muslims in the 1930s and 1940s.

Ten days prior to the end of Ramadan in 1935, Ma arranged for Chinese New Year celebrations.

Hu Songshan pronounced takfir upon Ma for this, while delivering an aggressive and fierce sermon in public.

She arranged the building of the cemetery plot in Taipei where he is buried along with his eldest son and his fourth wife.

Among the artifacts were a white marble tablet from the Tang dynasty, gold nails and bands made out of metal.

It was not until 1971, after Ma died, that his wife went to Taiwan to bring the artifacts to Chiang Kai-shek, who handed them to the Taipei National Palace Museum.