No, I don't think Stalin would try occupying Xinjiang as a whole. What he might try to do is to pressure the KMT into recognizing a continuing de facto Soviet protectorate in the "Three Districts" or "Three Regions" shown in red on this map:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...n_China.svg/250px-Second_ETR_in_China.svg.png As I wrote here in 2015:
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See my post "Sheng Shih-ts'ai Sticks with Stalin " at
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/soc.history.what-if/03FHdWEQ638/qhrCRt0d48AJ
Incidentally, that was not the last chance of the Soviet Union to dominate Xinjiang; there was also the Ili Rebellion which I discuss at
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/soc.history.what-if/FnFZxyNb1uY/MbBsO1W8owAJ (The source I give there, Mark Dickens, "The Soviets in Xinjiang," is now available at
http://www.oxuscom.com/sovinxj.htm) As I note there, the Ili National Army could easily have overrun Urumchi in 1945 but Stalin held it back and brokered a compromise with Chiang instead. Dickens writes, " Why did the Soviets agree to negotiate this treaty when their puppet regime was so close to taking over the entire provincial government? One Western scholar [Andrew D. W. Forbes, *Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: A Political History of Republican Sinkiang 1911-1949*] suggests a number of possible reasons: 'The Soviet Union had attained its primary aims in Sinkiang and had no good reason for encouraging further INA advances on Urumchi. By extending its 'all-out support' to the Ili rebels,... the Kremlin had effectively re-established its primacy in the traditionally Soviet-influenced border districts of Ili, Chuguchak and Shara Sume.' 96 This had given the USSR access to the valuable natural resources found in the area, including oil, tungsten, copper, gold, and uranium. In addition, control of the "Three Regions," as the border districts were called, 'provided the Soviet Union with an important political card which could be played both in the international theatre... and on the regional stage, where Stalin remained uncertain as to the eventual outcome of the Nationalist-Communist power struggle in China and therefore as to which side to back.' 97 Finally, 'the further the rebel forces pushed from Ili, the weaker Soviet control became over the movement.... beyond the narrow confines of the Ili Valley anti-Soviet sentiment was rife amongst the independent Kazakhs of the Altai region, and still more so amongst the traditionally conservative Muslim population of the Tarim Basin.'"
My guess is that after World War II, Stalin was no longer so interested in Xinjiang *as a whole* (as opposed to the traditionally Russian-dominated "Three Regions"). During the war Xinjiang had been important as providing access to KMT-controlled China at a time when Japan otherwise blocked access by controlling Manchuria and Inner Mongolia. After the war, Xinjiang lost this importance. So if Chiang recalled Sheng as governor, no matter how pro-Soviet Sheng was, I don't think Stalin would try to resist except to the extent of retaining de facto control of the Three Regions.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...remains-a-soviet-puppet.362353/#post-11115746