ABSTRACT
After the coalition disintegrated in the summer of 1947, Chinese militarists dominated Nationalist policy in Xinjiang. Although Zhang was no longer chairman of the province, he was still commander of the Northwest Military Region and continued to take an active interest in Xinjiang, attempting to use his influence with the Ili faction to bring it back into the coalition. This chapter discusses three major areas of political development in the last period of Nationalist involvement in Xinjiang, between 1947 and 1949. After the last Ili delegates had returned to Ili in August 1947, Zhang wrote to the Ili group to defend Nationalist policy in Xinjiang and to accuse the Ili faction of having caused the dissolution of the coalition. Despite the seeming strength of the garrison at the time, soldiers in Yining suffered from poor morale and had only outmoded and inadequate equipment.
