A group of Kazakhs, originally numbering over 20000 people when expelled from Sinkiang by Sheng Shih-ts'ai in 1936, was reduced, after repeated massacres by their Chinese coreligionists under Ma Pu-fang, to a scattered 135 people.
As a matter of maintaining autonomy and rejecting foreign intervention, the official church has no official contact with the , and does not recognize its authority.