In 1931, Ulanhu was chosen to run the military and intelligence offices in Mongolia, serving in Ikh Juu League (now the city of Ordos).

[citation needed] During the Great Leap Forward, Ulanhu delayed de facto communization in Mongol pastoral areas.

Ulanhu used troops at his disposal to repel them, only to be later undone by military forces sent in by leftist leaders in Beijing, ousting him from office.

He was accused of "ruling Inner Mongolia like an independent kingdom",[6] and persecuted as a suspected member of the independence-leaning Inner Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, a charge later proven to be false.

However, while he was a target for struggle, Ulanhu survived the Cultural Revolution without enduring some of the more severe physical hardships inflicted upon some of his colleagues, largely owing to the support of Premier Zhou Enlai.

[citation needed] Ulanhu was politically rehabilitated in 1973, prior to the 10th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, with the personal blessing of Mao Zedong.

His Selected Works were published in 1999 at a dedication ceremony attended by Jiang Zemin, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.

In 2009, the historic epic Spring Comes Early to the Grasslands aired on China Central Television, and depicted some of Ulanhu's activities during the revolution.

His granddaughter (Buhe's daughter) Bu Xiaolin was appointed Chairwoman of Inner Mongolia in March 2016, making her the third generation of the Ulanhu family to hold that position.