ABSTRACT
Wang Mo was the founder of the CCP’s modern press and publishing enterprise in Kashgar. His original name was Wang Mo, but in his work in Xinjiang he also went by the name of Wang Moxing. His roots were in Xinjiang County in Shanxi Province – the name of his home county is a coincidence as the Chinese character for jiang is completely different form the character used in Xinjiang. His university degree was in Chinese literature and he joined the Chinese Communist Party in February 1939 and then went to Yan’an to ‘join the revolution’. In October 1939, he was sent by the Communist Party central Committee to
work in Xinjiang where he was to be assigned to editorial work with Xinjiang ribao [Xinjiang Daily], the provincial newspaper that was published from Urumqi. A newspaper of the same title exists in Xinjiang today but it is not a continuation of the pre-1949 publication. In March 1940, he was transferred from Urumqi to Kashgar where he began work as the editor of the Kashgar edition of Xinjiang Daily and deputy head of the paper’s Kashgar Bureau. He was among the 130 members of the CCP who were arrested by Sheng Shicai in 1942, and remained in prison until the whole group was released on the intervention of the CCP leadership in 1946. Wang then travelled to Yan’an and began a career in the press and propaganda that was to continue long after 1949. He was editor-in-chief of Masses Daily [Qunzhong ribao] published by the Northwest Bureau of the CCP and was in charge of propaganda for the north-west and later deputy head of the Propaganda Bureau of the CCP Central Committee. He died in 1965.
