Muhammad Amin Bughra (also Muḥammad Amīn Bughra; Uyghur: مۇھەممەد ئىمىن بۇغرا, محمد أمين بغرا, Мухаммад Эмин Бугро; Chinese: 穆罕默德·伊敏; pinyin: Mùhǎnmòdé·Yīmǐn), sometimes known by his Han name Mao Deming (Chinese: 毛德明) and his Turkish name Mehmet Emin Buğra (1901–1965),[2] was a Uyghur Muslim leader who planned to set up a sovereign state, the First East Turkestan Republic.

At the same time, educational reforms, which attacked basic Islamic principles and the atheistic propaganda program, which was being extended into the south, were further alienating the local population from Sheng's administration.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan under Sardar Mohammad Hashim Khan, Muhammad Amin Bughra, the exiled leader of the Turkish Islamic Republic of East Turkestan (TIRET, known as the first East Turkestan Republic), had approached the Japanese ambassador in 1935 with "a detailed plan proposing the establishment of an 'Eastern Turkestan Republic' under Japanese sponsorship, with munitions and finance to be supplied by Tokyo... he suggested as the future leader of this proposed Central Asian 'Manchukuo' none other than Mahmud Sijang (Mahmut Muhiti - commander of the 6th Uyghur Division, stationed in Kashgar as part of the Sinkiang provincial armed forces, since July 20, 1934), amongst the invitation at such political entity as Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere how active member."

[4] Those who were pro-Soviet in any way were executed and yet another independent Muslim administration was set up under leadership of the close associate of Mahmut Muhiti General Abduniyaz (killed in action in Yarkand on August 15, 1937), who adopted a command of troops, which enlisted about 4,000 soldiers and officers, consisted of 4 regiments, two of them being stationed in Kashgar, one in Yangihissar, one in Yarkand, also one brigade was stationed in Ustin Atush and one cavalry guard escadron in Kashgar.

[5] In 1940 Isa Yusuf Alptekin and Ma Fuliang who were sent by Chiang Kai-shek, visited Afghanistan and contacted Bughra, they asked him to come to Chongqing, the capital of the Kuomintang regime.

[11][12] Upon the approach of the Chinese People's Liberation Army to Sinkiang in September 1949, Muhammad Amin Bughra fled to India, then to Turkey, where he joined another exiled Uyghur leader, Isa Yusuf Alptekin.