Sailaifengye (Chinese: 赛莱菲耶) mean Salafiyah (Salafi) in China. The sect is part of the Salafi Movement which was founded a few hundred years ago.
History
Its founder Ma Debao (1867–1977), when he undertook the Hajj, was influenced by the Salafi movement in Mecca. Upon his return to China he began to preach the Salafi ideology. The movement criticizes orthodox Islam. It opposes new movements which it believes are against the Sunnah.It opposes the influence of Chinese culture on Islam. The sect was mainly found in Hezhou of Gansu province but now spread in many places notably Ningxia, Qinghai, Yunnan, Tianjing with support of Saudi religious organizations. None of the four Sunni Madhhab (مذاهب) are followed by the Salafis.
Ma Debao and Ma Zhengqing promoted Salafism as the main form of Islam. But it was opposed by a number of Hui Muslim sects such as the Gedimu, Sufi Khafiya and Jahriyya, to the extent that even the fundamentalist Yihewani (Ikhwan) Chinese sect, founded by Ma Wanfu after Salafi inspiration, condemned Ma Debao and Ma Zhengqing as heretics. They were branded traitors and Wahhabi teachings were deemed as heresy by the Yihewani leaders.
The Kuomintang Sufi Muslim General Ma Bufang, who backed the Yihewani (Ikhwan) Muslims, persecuted the Salafis and forced them into hiding. They were not allowed to move or worship openly. The Yihewani had become secular and Chinese nationalists; they considered the Salafiyya to be "heterodox" (xie jiao) and people who followed foreigners' teachings (waidao). After the Communists took power, Salafis were allowed to worship openly again.
Even among Hui Salafis and Uyghur Salafis, there is little coordination or cooperation and the two take totally different political agendas, with the Hui Salafists content to carry out their own teachings and remain politically neutral.