Sun Li-jen
In contrast to the Imperial Maritime Customs Service, the Salt Administration had only a few dozen foreign employees and more than 5,000 Chinese ones. It did not enter domestic salt trade and tax collection; it concerned itself only with gathering salt revenues to repay the Reorganization Loans and depositing the "salt surplus," that is, what was left over, to foreign banks for use by whichever Chinese government was recognized by the foreign powers. But after 1922, Chinese provincial leaders and local military commanders no longer allowed these funds to leave the territories they controlled; central government salt revenues fell disastrously, though payments to foreign governments continued. The Salt Administration was also useful in organizing and financing army units. The eight regiments under General Sun Li-jen were among the most effective Chinese troops during the Second Sino-Japanese War.