He is best known for his role in the Xi'an Incident in 1936, in which he arrested Chiang Kai-shek and forced him to form a Second United Front with the Chinese Communist Party against the Japanese.

Zhang followed Chiang's policy of nonresistance to the Japanese invasions of Manchuria in 1931 and Rehe in 1933, after which he was forced to resign as head of the Northeastern Army.

In 1935, Zhang was again appointed its commander to suppress the Communists, but became disillusioned with Chiang's policy of "stabilizing China before resisting Japan", and helped to plan the Xi'an Incident.

On this premise, an officer of the Japanese Kwantung Army therefore killed his father, Zhang Zuolin, by exploding a bomb above his train while it crossed under a railroad bridge.

Surprisingly, the younger Zhang proved to be more independent and skilled than anyone had expected and declared his support for Chiang Kai-shek, leading to the reunification of China in 1928.

With the assistance of Australian journalist William Henry Donald and Dr. Harry Willis Miller, he overcame his opium addiction in 1933 with the administering of Cantharidin auto-serum therapy.

[citation needed] In order to rid his command of Japanese influence, he had two prominent pro-Tokyo officials executed in front of the assembled guests at a dinner party in January 1929.

In addition, the Japanese government, dissatisfied with the pro-Kuomintang policy of Zhang Zuolin, and now his son, threatened to "take the most decisive measures to ensure that the Kuomintang flag never flies over Manchuria".

The "Young Marshal" supported Nanjing, and Feng's troops were pushed back to the outlying provinces of Chahar and Suiyuan, and in July 1929, Japan officially recognized Kuomintang China.

At the same time, Zhang Xueliang and Chiang Kai-shek held a personal meeting in Beiping, at which a decision was made on the armed seizure of the Chinese Eastern Railway or CER.

Apparently, Zhang was aware of how weak his forces were compared to the Japanese and wished to preserve his position by retaining a sizeable army.

On October 2, 1935, Chiang granted to Zhang's request, but only because he needed the Northeastern Army's support to crush the final Communist base at Yan'an.

Growing nationalist anger against Japan made this position very unpopular, and led to Zhang's action against Chiang, known as the Xi'an Incident.

In December 1936, Zhang and General Yang Hucheng kidnapped Chiang, imprisoning him until he agreed to form a united front with the communists against the Japanese invasion.

[15] Li Liejun then presided over a show trial which convicted Zhang of abducting the Generalissimo and attempting to change government policy, sentencing him to ten years in prison.

Zhang and his wife, Edith, became devout Christians who also regularly attended Sunday services at the Methodist chapel in Shilin, a Taipei suburb, with Chiang Kai-shek's family.

[21] In 1991, Zhang made his first trip abroad after being released from house arrest, visiting San Francisco to see friends and family who had moved there.