Chiang Kai Shek is Kidnapped
Channel: The Chinese Revolution
Date: 2024-01-08

Chiang Kai-shek kidnapped by Zhang Xueliang (Chang Hsueh-liang) and Yang Hucheng in the Xian Incident.  

The Communist Party (CPC) helped resolve the Xi'an Incident and benefited from it.

After the Long March, the Chinese Communists (CPC or CCP) settled in northern Shaanxi.  Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi) wanted the Communists encircled by Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng.  Instead, they kidnapped Chiang Kai Shek in the Xian Incident (Xi'an Incident).

Japan had continued its aggression in China after it set up the puppet state of Manchukuo under Emperor Pu Yi.  It manufactured incident after incident and had expanded its army’s reach into northern and northeast China.  It was trying to influence Inner Mongolia and Hebei, around Beijing.  It looked to set up warlords as puppet leaders under Japanese control.
Students and intellectuals in Beijing and other Chinese cities began protesting against the Japanese and against politicians that they perceived as being too friendly to Japan.  It was a reminder of earlier demonstrations against Japan like the May Fourth movement of 1919.  

The Communist Party and Comintern supported these student protests against Japan.  The Soviet Union was very concerned by Japan’s aggression and the fact that Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan had signed an anti-Comintern pact in late 1936.  Stalin wanted either an anti-Japanese China, or alternatively, a Communist controlled buffer state between it and Japan.  

Chiang Kai-shek and his KMT government in Nanjing was prioritizing pacifying internal enemies before resisting foreign aggression.  Chiang was not against resisting Japan.  He had done so when Japan had attacked Shanghai and at other times, but Chiang Kai-shek's strategy was clear-cut.  First, eliminate the internal threat posed by the Chinese Communists, then turn attention towards the aggressive expansion of Japan.

His subordinates, especially Generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng had other ideas.  Zhang Xueliang was the Young Marshall, raised as a prince in Manchuria while his father, the Manchuria Warlord Zhang Zuolin, ran northeast China.  Chiang Kai-shek appointed him and Zhang’s Dongbei Army, which was made up of veterans from areas now controlled by Japan, to lead an encirclement of the new Communist base in northern Shaanxi.  This Northeastern Army, composed largely of troops exiled from their homeland in Manchuria by Japanese forces, believed that the immediate threat of Japanese expansion should be the priority. 

Yang Hucheng was commander of the Northwestern Army and had also been ordered to destroy the Communists in the area.

Yang was influenced by the local Communists and his wife had fallen under Communist persuasion.  

To gain a breather, the Communists under guidance from Moscow, changed their messaging from class warfare to a united front against Japan.  That move was successful.  Ordinary soldiers and commanders both preferred to fight the Japanese instead of Communists, who they saw as fellow Chinese.

While Zhang’s army did do battle once with the Communists, it lost that skirmish and then agreed to a ceasefire.   Zhang became friendly with the Shaanxi Communists, who then agreed to retreat further north if they had help to purchase food and supplies.  Zhang gave the Communists funds to do so, all without informing Chiang Kai-shek or Nanjing.

But the KMT had its spies in Shaanxi and knew that the mood there was changing.

Zhang Xueliang spoke with Chiang Kai-shek directly about changing national policy but did not volunteer about his contact or support for the Communists.  After weeks of being unable to convince Chiang Kai-shek to abandon his policy of encircling the new Communist base in favour of war against Japan, Zhang Xueliang made a fateful decision.

In the ancient city of Xi'an, in southern Shaanxi, Zhang Xueliang seized and detained China’s national leader Chiang Kai-shek.  He was placed under house arrest.  This happened on December 12, 1936, and is known as the Xi'an Incident.  It would drastically shift the direction of Chinese history, paving the way for monumental changes in the policies of China.

The two generals, Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng, men who were supposed to be loyal to Chiang Kai-shek, kidnapped their own leader.
The generals' motivations were rooted in their profound disagreement with Chiang's strategic focus.

To them, the real enemy was Japanese invasion.

In their eyes, Chiang's preoccupation with eliminating the communists was a misguided strategy that was leaving China vulnerable to foreign aggression.

They believed that the civil war needed to end, and that the country must unite to resist the Japanese expansion.

By taking Chiang captive, they aimed to pressure him into shifting his focus from the communists to the Japanese.

It was a direct challenge to Chiang's authority.  Madame Chiang Kai Shek helped to free her husband

This is episode 56 of the Chinese Revolution series.