ABSTRACT
Members of the Chinese Communist Party working in the Kashgar area in the 1930s were not simply there as propagandists. Many had real jobs and practical roles, often in local government, which enabled them to acquire first-hand knowledge of how the local economy and society of the Uyghurs worked. No tasks illustrate this better than the mundane but economically essential work of officials in the county tax offices and those charged with implementing the currency and financial reforms of Mao Zemin, the younger brother of Mao Zedong, in the rural areas.
