The Nanking Incident (Chinese: 南京事件; pinyin: Nánjīng Shìjiàn; Wade–Giles: Nan2-ching1 Shih4-chien4) occurred in March 1927 during the capture of Nanjing (then spelt 'Nanking') by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) in their Northern Expedition.

On 23 March 1927, with the rapidly approaching National Revolutionary Army (NRA) about to reach Nanjing, Beiyang warlord Zhang Zongchang gave orders for his defeated troops to withdraw from the city.

Afterwards they entered the British, American and Japanese consulates to search for suspected enemies hiding inside, but left peacefully after none were found.

Five American destroyers were also sent to engage the NRA; including USS Noa under Roy C. Smith, William B. Preston, John D. Ford, Pillsbury and Simpson.

[1][2][4] At 3:38 pm, the NRA soldiers and Chinese rioters were driven off by high explosive rounds and machine gun fire from Emerald, Wolsey, Noa, Preston and Carlotto, and other warships may have participated in the bombardment as well.

After turning Kungwo over to the British, William B. Preston returned to Nanjing and later joined HMS Cricket and SS Wen-chow, 52 mi (84 km) south of Zhenjiang.

[1][2] Afterwards, the Nationalist Government issued a statement blaming the deserters from Zhang Zongchang's army for starting the attacks on the foreign consulates, and also accused the Communist soldiers within the NRA of committing atrocities which were wrongly assigned to the Kuomintang.

Therefore, the Nanking incident contributed to his decision to violently purge the communists from the Kuomintang in Shanghai on 12 April 1927, formally ending their First United Front and officially commencing the Chinese Civil War.

In 1928, Huang Fu, foreign minister of the newly formed Nationalist government in Nanjing, reached agreements with the United States and Great Britain to settle the damages caused by the Nanking incident, and the Kuomintang agreed to apologize and pay significant compensation to both countries without disclosing the exact sum.

Although the Kuomintang suffered financial loss as a result of this settlement, the Nationalist government did receive international recognition and established formal diplomatic relationship with two of the world's great powers for the first time after the Northern Expedition.