He served successively as China's Minister of Labour, First Party Secretary (top leader) of his native Shaanxi Province, and a Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
[1][2][3] After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Ma was elected an alternate member of the 8th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.
[4]: 116 The three main victims, Xi Zhongxun, Jia Tuofu, and Liu Jingfan, were labelled the "Xi-Jia-Liu anti-Party group".
Ma was then elevated to become a main conspirator of the group, now renamed "Xi-Ma-Liu clique", and subject to severe persecution.
[4]: 112 Ma was politically rehabilitated in 1977, after the end of the Cultural Revolution, and returned to work as the deputy chair of the State Planning Commission, and Vice President of the Central Party School.