ABSTRACT
Xinjiang was far from an unknown quantity to senior Communist cadres, although by 1942 many in Xinjiang could reasonably assume that the Communists working in Sheng Shicai's government had been removed for good. To encourage the Xinjiang separatist leaders to make what the CCP considered to be the right decision and to ensure the CCP's control of the region, units of the PLA were deployed to north-western China as soon as they became available from other missions. Mao Zedong met General Zhang Zhizhong in Beiping to inform him that the PLA was advancing on Xinjiang in a pincer movement. Zhang Zhidong was appointed by the National Government in Nanjing to take overall command of the military administrations of the whole of north-west China and concurrently as provincial governor of Xinjiang. The city of Kashgar, where Zhao Xiguang was based, was ethnically divided, the two distinct parts being known as Shufu and Shule or the Old City and the New City.
