Xi'an Incident
Before the incident, Chiang Kai-shek had followed a public strategy of "first internal pacification, then external resistance" that entailed eliminating the CCP before confronting Japanese aggression.
This strategy was deeply unpopular among many groups in China, including the Northeastern Army tasked with suppressing the main Communist base in Yan'an.
[1] Unaware of these developments, the commanders of the Northeastern Army, generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng, hatched an independent conspiracy to kidnap Chiang.
Combined with the mobilization of an expeditionary force by He Yingqin to attack Xi'an, the Communists and Zhang Xueling were pressured into creating a United Front under Chiang's leadership.
[6] The CCP delegation to the 7th World Congress of the Comintern, headed by Wang Ming, published the "1 August Declaration", which for the first time called for a united front of all parties in China opposed to Japanese imperialism, including the KMT.
[9] When the full details of the Long March and the CCP's devastating defeats in south China reached Moscow, the pressure to find an end to the civil war mounted.
It called for "the most broad national united front" to resist Japan, and announced that they would suspend class conflict in the interests of cross-class collaboration.
As a basis from which to resist the Japanese, the Manifesto called for the Red Army to be expanded to 1 million men and for the Chinese Soviet to dramatically increase its land area.
[16][17][18] Chiang also faced Relations between Tokyo and Nanjing worsened over events in North China, and negotiations had reached an apparent impasse by October.
Soong Ching-ling managed to recruit a Communist priest, Dong Jianwu, to cross the front lines and bring the CCP the message that Chiang was interested in ending the civil war.
The Red Army treated their POWs well and gave them a political education, sending them back to spread the word that the Communists wanted to form an anti-Chiang and anti-Japanese alliance.
They planned to use Soviet support to take over Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, and Xinjiang and turn northwest China into a base under Zhang's command to resist Japan and oppose Chiang.
[44] But they absolutely vetoed the CCP's plan to form a base in the northwest, knowing that such a move would scuttle any chance for a united front with the KMT.
The Second and Fourth Corps of the Red Army marched north to pick up supplies dropped in Mongolia by the Soviet Union, but found themselves trapped on the wrong side of the Yellow River.
During his birthday celebrations on October 31, Zhang Xueliang and Yan Xishan attempted to convince Chiang to give up the bandit suppression campaign and focus on Japan instead.
According to Zhang's later account, Yang Hucheng suggested that they should take Chiang hostage in order to force him to agree to a negotiated peace.
[62] On December 9, 1936, a crowd of tens of thousands of students marched towards Lintong to demand that Chiang end the civil war and resist the Japanese.
[66] At 10 PM on Friday, December 11 Zhang Xueliang ordered Sun Mingjiu (孫銘九), the captain of his personal guard, to arrest Chiang Kai-shek.
[66][71] Meanwhile, troops from the Northwestern Army seized important locations around Xi'an, taking over the government headquarters, the airport, the police station, and the Western Capital Hotel where Chiang's associates were staying.
[76] They also notified the Comintern of what had occurred and asked permission to form a "revolutionary government of national defense" with Zhang, Yang, and other dissent Nationalists.
[83] American journalist James Bertram recalled feeling how another civil war was about to break out, and personally observed fleets of government aircraft flying low over the roofs of Xi'an.
'"[84] By mid-December, Nationalist aircraft were bombing the railway line through the Shaanxi mountains, accompanied by a spearhead of several elite divisions from the Central Army.
[82] The Northeastern Army had attempted to broadcast their demands to explain why they had seized Chiang, but Nationalist censorship prevented their publication outside the Communist-held areas.
He was preparing to authorize Chiang's execution until he read the articles in Pravda and Izvestia the next morning, which condemned the Xi'an Incident as a plot by "pro-Japanese elements".
"[86] Fearing a possible two-front war with both the Nazis and the Japanese, and potentially a pro-Japanese China in support, Stalin ordered that the CCP settle its disagreement with Chiang peacefully and release him alive.
He observed that the Xi'an crisis "fostered another spontaneous outburst of nationalism throughout the country and caused universal rejoicing when the Generalissimo was released on Christmas Day.
Yang Hucheng and the Anti-Japanese Comrade Society wanted to stand and fight if the KMT army attacked, and refuse to negotiate until Zhang was released.
However, when a conference of Northeastern officers in January 1937 overwhelmingly resolved not to surrender peacefully, the CCP reluctantly decided that they could not abandon their allies and pledged to fight alongside them if the KMT attacked.
Chiang's leadership over political and military affairs in China was affirmed, while the CCP was able to expand its own strength under the new united front, which played a role in the Chinese Communist Revolution.
[101] In present day China, Zhang Xueliang is portrayed as a patriot who was shocked by Chiang's unwillingness to face the looming threat of Japan, rather focusing on fighting his fellow Chinese.
