ABSTRACT
In Southern Xinjiang, Yakub Beg took power in 1865 and ruled Kashgaria until his death in 1877. The provincial government of Xinjiang was based in Urumqi: Kashgar and its region were to a large extent independent simply because of distance from the provincial capital and poor communications. The experience that Communist cadres gained in Kashgar and other parts of southern Xinjiang was not just as political activists or agitators. In 1938, CCP members were deployed to work in and liaise with Sheng Shicai's administration in Xinjiang, a warlord regime that was only nominally Nationalist. Sheng, who seized power in 1933, was obliged by the geopolitical situation to manage a complex balancing act. The regime that controlled Kashgar and the rest of Xinjiang before 1949 was not the one established by the PRC, there are interesting continuities which may be accounted for partly by the experience of the CCP cadres working during the governorship of Sheng Shicai.
