The Ma clique or Ma family warlords[1] is a collective name for a group of Hui (Muslim Chinese) warlords in Northwestern China who ruled the Chinese provinces of Qinghai, Gansu and Ningxia for 10 years from 1919 until 1928.

The clique was begun by Muslim generals who served in the military of the Qing dynasty, most notably in the Kansu Braves army, who fought in the Boxer Rebellion against invading foreign forces.

After the Xinhai Revolution overthrew the Qing, the Ma Clique Generals declared their allegiance to the Republic of China.

40 years before, Ma Biao had fought in the Boxer Rebellion against the Eight Nation Alliance.

Ma Bufang was ordered by the Kuomintang to invade Xinjiang in the 1940s to intimidate and help oust the forces of the pro Soviet Governor Sheng Shicai.

[8] Their father, Ma Qi (1869–1931), was based in Xining, controlling what is today Qinghai Province.

The Ma clique traces its origins to the officers of Qing dynasty General Dong Fuxiang.

General Ma Anliang was the de facto leader of the Muslims of northwest China.

[9] The Three (or Five) Ma took control of the region during the Warlord Era, siding first with the Guominjun and then the Kuomintang; they fought against the Red Army during the Long March and the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

The Ma Clique controlled vast amounts of land in the northwest, including Xining and Hezhou.

During one campaign against the Communists in the Civil War, in Gansu, Qinghai, and Ningxia, Muslim soldiers numbered 31,000.

[12] During the final stages of the Chinese Civil War, the Ma fought for the Kuomintang side in defiance until the communists wiped out his cavalry and took Gansu in August 1949, just months before the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

In October 1949, Chiang Kai-shek urged him to return to the Northwest to resist the PLA, but he chose to migrate to Saudi Arabia with more than 200 relatives and subordinates, in the name of hajj.