The Xi’an Incident 西安事变 was a Chinese political crisis that lasted from 12 to 26 December 1936. Soldiers of the Northeastern Army under the command of General Zhang Xueliang 張學良 arrested Chiang Kai-shek 蔣介石, the leader of the Nationalist government of China, while the latter was in Xi’an to review the troops. Zhang demanded that Chiang agree to a ceasefire in the Chinese Civil War so that the Nationalist government could ally with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) against Japanese expansionism.
Key Figures that Changed History 千古風流人物
First, let’s talk about the key figures that were involved.
Zhang Xueliang
Zhang Xueliang 張學良 (1901-2001) was the warlord in-charged of the Northeastern Army, taking over from his father, Zhang Zuolin 張作霖, after he was killed in the Huanggutun incident 皇姑屯事件1 (4 Jun 1928). Zhang Snr and Zhang were the military warlords of Fengtian Government 奉系軍閥 that controlled the Northeastern part of China that was headquartered in Fengtian 奉天 (modern day Shenyang)2.
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek 蔣介石 (1887-1975) was the de-facto leader of Republic of China during that period, leading the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) that consisted of different factions of KMT and CCP that subsumed Zhang Xueliang’s Northeastern Army as well.
Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai 周恩来 (1949-1976) was the founding Premier of People’s Republic of China. A native of Jiangsu, he was sent to Fengtian when he was very young to stay with his uncle who was working as a civil servant there. Zhou served under Chairman Mao Zedong and aided the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in rising to power, later helping consolidate its control, form its foreign policy, and develop the Chinese economy.
Fengtian Army and its subsequent alliances leading to the Japanese invasion
The Northeastern Army 东北军, also known as the Fengtian Army 奉军, was a Chinese army that existed from 1911 to 1937. General Zhang Zuolin developed it as an independent fighting force during the Warlord Era 军阀时期. He used the army to control Northeastern China (Manchuria) and intervene in national politics. During the mid-1920s the Northeastern Army was the dominant military force in China, but in 1928 it was defeated by the Kuomintang’s National Revolutionary Army 國民革命軍 (NRA) during the Northern Expedition.3
At the end of that campaign, Zhang Zuolin was assassinated by the Japanese and succeeded by his son Zhang Xueliang.
When Xueliang subsequently pledged loyalty to the Kuomintang (“Northeast Flag Replacement” or 東北易幟4), the Northeastern Army became part of the NRA and was officially rechristened the “Northeastern Border Defense Force”.
As a result, Japan found itself increasingly deprived of its influence in Manchuria. Believing that taking full control of Manchuria would be in the best interests of Japan, Kwantung Army Colonel Seishirō Itagaki and Lieutenant Colonel Kanji Ishiwara devised a plan to provoke Japan into invading Manchuria by setting up a false flag incident for the pretext of invasion.
Mukden Incident 九一八事变
The Chinese remembers the day as the September 18 Incident 九一八事变, historians called it the Mukden Incident. The Mukden incident was a false flag event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria. On September 18, 1931, Lieutenant Suemori Kawamoto of the Independent Garrison Unit of the 29th Japanese Infantry Regiment detonated a small quantity of dynamite close to a railway line owned by Japan’s South Manchuria Railway near Mukden (modern day Shenyang).
The explosion was so weak that it failed to destroy the track, and a train passed over it minutes later. The Imperial Japanese Army accused Chinese dissidents of the act and responded with a full invasion that led to the occupation of Manchuria, in which Japan established its puppet state of Manchukuo five months later.
On the morning of September 19, two artillery pieces installed at the Shenyang officers’ club opened fire on the Chinese garrison nearby, in response to the alleged Chinese attack on the railway.
Zhang Xueliang’s small air force was destroyed, and his soldiers fled their destroyed Beidaying barracks, as five hundred Japanese troops attacked the Chinese garrison of around seven thousand. The Chinese troops were no match for the experienced Japanese troops.
By the evening, the fighting was over, and the Japanese had occupied Mukden at the cost of five hundred Chinese lives and only two Japanese dead.
Zhang Xueliang personally ordered his men not to put up a fight and to store away any weapons when the Japanese invaded. Therefore, the Japanese soldiers proceeded to occupy and garrison the major cities of Changchun and Dandong and their surrounding areas with minimal difficulty.
Japan eventually occupied most part of Northeastern region of China, and established a puppet state, Manchukuo 滿洲國 (1932-1945), headed up by Puyi as emperor. Manchukuo was the primary launching ground for further invasion of China in the Second Sino-Japanese War, beginning with the Marco Polo Bridge incident 卢沟桥事件5 on 7 Jul 1937.
A museum now stands at the spot of the explosion. It is not just the Mukden Incident that they are remembering – it is the entire series of events that followed during the next 14+ years, until end of WWII in 1945.
Chinese Civil War – KMT vs CCP 十年内战
Over the 10 years between 1927-1937, China was embroiled in a civil war between KMT and CCP. From 1926 to 1928, the Kuomintang 國民黨 (KMT) under Chiang Kai-shek successfully unified China in the Northern Expedition against regional warlords, leading to the fall of the Beiyang government. After initially allying with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the First United Front6 (against warlordism), the party under Chiang purged communist members.
On 7 April 1927, Chiang and several other KMT leaders held a meeting, during which they proposed that Communist activities were socially and economically disruptive and had to be undone for the Nationalist revolution to proceed. On 12 April, many communists within the KMT were purged in Shanghai through hundreds of arrests and executions on the orders of General Bai Chongxi 白崇禧.
In 1931, the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria. Although the Japanese expansionism in China posed a clear threat to both sides of the civil war, at first it did not lead to a cessation of hostilities. Rather, Chiang believed that “The Japanese are a disease of the skin. The Communists are a disease of the heart.” He ordered his general in Manchuria not to resist the Japanese advance and instead focused on continuing the encirclement campaigns in the south. He called this policy「攘外必先安內」 “first internal pacification, then external resistance.” The CCP in turn reacted with disdain to Chiang’s policy of nonresistance, viewing him as a pawn of the Japanese. They saw fighting the Nationalist government as an essential part of resistance to Japan and called for “Resisting Japan and Opposing Chiang”.
“Uniting with Chiang Kai-shek to resist Japan”, 1 Aug 1935 「八一宣言」
During the seventh congress of the Comintern7, held in August 1935, Wang Ming issued an anti-Fascist manifesto, indicating that the CCP’s previous policy of “opposing Chiang Kai-shek and resisting Japan” was to be replaced by a policy of “uniting with Chiang Kai-shek to resist Japan”.
Zhou was instrumental in carrying out this policy. Zhou made contact with one of the most senior KMT commanders in the northwest, Zhang Xueliang. By 1935, Zhang was well known for his anti-Japanese sentiments and his doubts about Chiang’s willingness to oppose the Japanese. Zhang’s disposition made him easily influenced by Zhou’s indications that the CCP would cooperate to fight against the Japanese.8
The First Meeting in Yan’an, 7 Apr 1936 膚施會談
The first meeting between Zhou and Zhang occurred inside a church on 7 April 1936. Zhang showed a great interest in ending the civil war, uniting the country, and fighting the Japanese, but warned that Chiang was firmly in control of the national government, and that these goals would be difficult to pursue without Chiang’s cooperation. Both parties ended their meeting with an agreement to find a way to secretly work together.
At the same time that Zhou was establishing secret contacts with Zhang, Chiang was growing suspicious of Zhang, and became increasingly dissatisfied with Zhang’s inaction against the Communists. In order to deceive Chiang, Zhou and Zhang deployed mock military units in order to give the impression that the Northeast Army and the Red Army were engaged in battle.
Chiang in Lintong, 9 Dec 1936
In December 1936, Chiang Kai-shek flew to the Nationalist headquarters in Xi’an in order to test the loyalty of local KMT military forces under Marshal Zhang Xueliang, and to personally lead these forces in a final attack on Communist bases in Shaanxi, which Zhang had been ordered to destroy.
On 9 December, Chiang threatened Zhang and Yang that if they did not attack the Communists, he would remove them from command and have their forces reassigned to distant provinces.
The meeting was interrupted by the arrival in Lintong of tens of thousands of students demonstrating for a united front. Chiang demanded that Zhang disperse the crowd or he would have his guards open fire on them. Zhang promised the students “a definite reply in action within one week.”
Xi’an Incident, 12 Dec 1936 西安事變
Determined to force Chiang to direct China’s forces against the Japanese (who had taken Zhang’s territory of Manchuria and were preparing a broader invasion), on 12 December Zhang and his followers stormed Chiang’s quarters at Huaqing Pool, killed most of his bodyguards, and seized the Generalissimo in what became known as the Xi’an Incident.
Early on the morning of 12 December, Zhang and Yang sent telegrams to Nanjing and all across China, explaining what they had done and listing eight demands for the government:
- To reorganise the Nanjing government so that all political parties and groups can take part in it and assume responsibility for national salvation;
- To suspend the civil war all over the country and adopt a policy for united anti-Japanese resistance;
- To immediately release the [Seven] National Salvation Intellectual Leaders who were arrested in Shanghai;
- To release all the political prisoners in China;
- To liberate people’s patriotic movements;
- To guarantee all the political freedoms and rights of the people, as well as the freedom of assembly and association;
- To ensure compliance with the will of Sun Yat-sen; and
- To immediately convene a national salvation congress.
— Declaration of Eight-Point Demands
New Zealand journalist James Bertram, who managed to enter Xi’an shortly after the incident began, reported on the mood of the city. He observed fleets of government aircraft flying low over the roofs, and heard H. H. Kung’s declaration over radio that there would be “no dealings with armed rebellion, no truce with the ‘Communist bandits’.” The city’s population remained strongly supportive of the rebels and their cause.
Reactions to Chiang’s kidnapping in Yan’an (where Mao was) were mixed. Some, including Mao Zedong and Zhu De, viewed it as an opportunity to have Chiang killed. Others, including Zhou Enlai and Zhang Wentian, saw it as an opportunity to achieve a united-front policy against the Japanese, which would strengthen the overall position of the CCP. Debate within Yan’an ended when a long telegram from Joseph Stalin arrived, urging the CCP to work towards Chiang’s release9, explaining that a united front was the best position from which to resist the Japanese, and that only Chiang had the prestige and authority to carry out such a plan.
After initial communications with Zhang on the fate of Chiang, Zhou Enlai reached Xi’an on 16 December, on a plane specifically sent for him by Zhang Xueliang, as the chief Communist negotiator. At first, Chiang was opposed to negotiating with a CCP delegate, but withdrew his opposition when it became clear that his life and freedom were largely dependent on Communist goodwill towards him.
T. V. Soong, Chiang’s brother-in-law and leading Chinese banker, decided to fly to Xi’an after learning that Chiang was still alive. He arrived on 20 December. Zhang told him that he was ready to negotiate, but warned that he would turn Chiang over to the Communists if the Central Government launched a full-scale attack. Soong and Donald could not convince Chiang to negotiate and returned to Nanjing on 21 December. The following day, they returned with Soong Mei-ling and Dai Li, the head of the Nationalists’ military intelligence.
Finally, his wife was able to persuade Chiang to negotiate. He refused to sign any document, but verbally agreed to “reshuffle the government, hold a national salvation conference three months from now, reorganise the Kuomintang, and approve an alliance with Russia and cooperation with the Communist party.” He also authorized T. V. Soong to conduct further negotiations with his captors.
On 23–24 December, negotiations were held between Zhou, T. V. Soong, Soong Mei-ling, Zhang, and Yang that resulted in a more concrete agreement (although still not signed by Chiang). The civil war would be ended, the Communist party legalised, and the Red Army incorporated as a unit of the National Revolutionary Army.
On 25 December 1936, Zhang released Chiang and accompanied him to Nanjing. Subsequently, Zhang was court-martialed and sentenced to house arrest11, and most of the officers who participated in the Xi’an Incident were executed. Although the KMT formally rejected collaboration with the CCP, Chiang ended active military activity against Communist bases in Yan’nan, implying that he had implicitly given his word to change the direction of his policies. Following the end of KMT attacks, the CCP was able to consolidate its territories and to prepare to resist the Japanese.
The Second United Front
The Xi’an Incident launched a long series of negotiations led by Zhou Enlai and Chiang Kai-shek. The sticking points remained what they had been before the crisis: the independence of the Red Army and the political structure of the Communist base areas. No resolution was reached, but the negotiations continued through spring.
Publicly, the Nationalist government insisted that its policy towards the Communists had not changed. But a ceasefire was enacted and “Bandit Suppression Headquarters” was dropped from the name of the NRA’s northwest command. It was not until late September, several months after the Second Sino-Japanese War had already begun, that the final pieces of the Second United Front were formally agreed upon and enacted.
Conclusion
Although never personally a communist, Zhang is regarded by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People’s Republic of China as a patriotic hero for his role in ending the encirclement campaigns and beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).12
KMT was the sole ruling party of China from 1928 to 1949 but gradually lost control while fighting the Empire of Japan in the Second Sino-Japanese War and giving the CCP breathing space to regroup during the years leading up to 1949.13 KMT was defeated by the CCP and retreated to Taiwan.
Chiang passed away on 5 Apr 1975, Zhou in 1976. Zhang was taken to Taiwan, where he remained under house arrest until Chiang’s death in 1975. On March 26, 1988, two months after the death of Chiang Kai-shek’s son Chiang Ching-kuo, Zhang’s freedom was officially restored.
The Mukden Incident was just the spark that really set the stage for subsequent atrocities Empire of Japan performed in China that would explain why Sino-Japanese relationships have been rocky ever since.
While the intention was good, the approach taken to get both sides to work together against the Japanese invasion was clumsy and led to violent endings. IF (a big if) Chiang had stuck to his plans, would there be a different ending?14 I am just an armchair historian so I will leave it as that, a personal opinion.
Photos taken from Xi’an Incident Memorial Museum (Former Residence of Zhang Xueliang) Mar 2025 and Zhang Xueliang Residence in Shenyang and Tianjin, Oct 2025. Historical photos were taken from internet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons unless otherwise stated.
Footnotes :
- Zhang Zuolin was killed when his personal train was destroyed by an explosion at the Huanggutun Railway Station that had been plotted and committed by the Kwantung Army 關東軍 of the Imperial Japanese Army. Zhang’s death had undesirable outcomes for the Empire of Japan, which had hoped to advance its interests in Manchuria at the end of the Warlord Era, and the incident was concealed as “A Certain Important Incident in Manchuria” (満州某重大事件/まんしゅうぼうじゅうだいじけん) in Japan. The incident delayed the Japanese invasion of Manchuria for several years until the Mukden Incident in 1931. https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/皇姑屯事件, accessed 22 Nov 2025 ↩︎
- Fengtian 奉天 (modern day Shenyang 瀋陽), aka Mukden ᠮᡠᡴ᠋ᡩᡝᠨ (meaning Shengjing 盛京 or “Rising Capital” in Manchurian). Historians used Mukden when talking about the Manchu influence, Nationalists called it Fengtian (a term used since the Ming dynasty). ↩︎
- 1927年张作霖自命中华民国陆海军大元帅，摄行大总统职责。1928年，奉军被蒋介石、李宗仁、冯玉祥、阎锡山的北伐军联军打败，退回南滿。因一直未回应日军对南滿的种种经济和政治上的诉求，张作霖乘火车，被日本关东军行刺，炸成重伤，当日送回奉天官邸后即死去，是為皇姑屯事件。其子张学良趕回東北继任，隨即歸順國民政府，史稱東北易幟。https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/东北军 / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeastern_Army, accessed 22 Nov 2025 ↩︎
- 原本割据關外的張學良，自此與蔣介石關係緊密，之後參加中原大戰，進兵山海關，支持蔣介石，打敗閻錫山、冯玉祥的反蔣聯軍。不過蔣對東北的掌握不深，作為交換，張學良也因此役而獲得華北的獨立治權，包括北平市、天津市、河北省、河南省、山東省、山西省部份的徵稅、駐軍，以及人事任命權等行政權力，這讓他年紀輕輕就成為當時僅次於蔣介石的中華民國實權第二號軍事人物。https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/东北易帜, accessed 22 Nov 2025 ↩︎
- The Marco Polo Bridge incident, also known as the Lugou Bridge incident or the July 7 incident, was a 3-day battle that began on 7 July 1937 in the district of Beijing between the 29th Army of the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China and the Imperial Japanese Army.
Since the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, there had been many small incidents along the rail line connecting Beijing with the port of Tianjin, but all had subsided. On the night of 7 July, Japanese garrison troops at Lugouqiao held an unusual manoeuvre; and, alleging that a Japanese soldier was missing, demanded entry into the City of Wanping to conduct a search. Fighting broke out while the Japanese complaint was still under negotiation. However, the missing Japanese soldier had already returned to his lines. The Marco Polo Bridge incident is generally regarded as the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Polo_Bridge_incident, accessed 22 Nov 2025 ↩︎ - The First United Front, also known as the KMT–CCP Alliance, of the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was formed in 1923 as an alliance to end warlordism in China. Together they formed the National Revolutionary Army and set out in 1926 on the Northern Expedition.
The CCP joined the KMT as individuals, making use of KMT’s superiority in numbers to help spread communism. The KMT, on the other hand, wanted to control the communists from within. Both parties had their own aims and the Front was unsustainable. In 1927, KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek purged the Communists from the Front while the Northern Expedition was still half-complete. This initiated a civil war between the two parties that lasted until the Second United Front was formed in 1936 to prepare for the coming Second Sino-Japanese War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_United_Front, accessed 22 Nov 2025 ↩︎ - Comintern or Communist International, and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_International, accessed 22 Nov 2025 ↩︎
- Barnouin and Yu (64–65) : Barnouin, Barbara; Yu, Changgen (2006). Zhou Enlai: A Political Life. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press. ISBN 962-996-280-2. ↩︎
- Stalin feared that in Chiang’s absence, a figure like ex-Premier Wang Jingwei, perhaps assisted by He Yingqin (who had contacted Wang in Italy after Chiang’s arrest), would take control of the Nationalists and create a pro-Japanese regime, placing the Soviet Union in extreme danger of a Japanese invasion. His anxieties were increased when Wang Jingwei met with Adolf Hitler to discuss the prospect of China enlisting in the anti-Communist Axis in exchange for greater German aid to China. Following Chiang’s abduction, Pan Hannian had advised Stalin that without Chiang, “China would be without a leader to fight the Japanese and this would not benefit the Soviet Union.” pp. 21–22. Frank, Richard (2020). Tower of Skulls: A History of the Asia-Pacific War: July 1937 – May 1942. W. W. Norton & Company. ↩︎
- 威廉·亨利·端纳（英語：William Henry Donald；1875年—1946年11月9日），男，澳大利亞人，曾先後擔任過中國國父孫中山、張學良和前故中華民國總統蔣中正、前故中華民國第一夫人蔣宋美齡夫婦私人顧問。[1]:374一生事業都在中國，曾贊助辛亥革命，後來又成為中華民國北洋政府客卿。是中华民国时期中国政坛上最为活跃的西洋人，有“中国的端纳”之稱。https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/威廉·亨利·端纳, accessed 22 Nov 2025 ↩︎
- He was sentenced to ten years in prison, which Chiang commuted to house arrest. Zhang would remain under house arrest for over 50 years until 1990, after the deaths of both Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo. pp. 48–49. Eastman, Lloyd E. (1991). “Nationalist China during the Nanking decade, 1927–1937″. The Nationalist Era in China, 1927–1949. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521385911. ↩︎
- 江泽民在西安事变六十周年纪念大会：“西安事变的发生及和平解决，结束了十年内战，促成了第二次国共合作，推动了中国从长期内战到全面抗日的重要历史转折。正如周恩来同志所说的，张、杨两将军的义举‘有大功于抗战事业’，是中华民族的‘千古功臣’。” 江泽民. 江泽民在西安事变六十周年纪念大会上的讲话（一九九六年十二月十二日）. 人民網. 人民日報社. 1996-12-12 [2012-08-13]. （原始内容存档于2020-03-27）.
西安事变是一件大事，在中华民族解放斗争史上写下了光辉的篇章。今天我们纪念它，就是要弘扬张学良、杨虎城将军和中国人民表现出来的高度的爱国主义精神和民族团结精神。
↩︎ - 張在口述歷史中，亦承認周說他是共產黨之「救命恩人」《張學良、宋子文檔案大揭秘》. 台北: 時報文化. 2007. ISBN 978-957-13-4772-1.。 ↩︎
- 蒋介石在《西安半月記》稱：此次事變，為我國民革命過程中一大頓挫。八年剿匪之功，預計將於兩星期至一個月可竟全力者，幾全毀於一旦。而西北國防交通、經濟建設，竭國家社會數年之心力，經營敷設，粗有規模，經此叛亂，損失難計。欲使地方秩序，經濟信用恢復舊觀，又決非咄嗟可辦。質言之：建國程度，至少要後退三年。可痛之至！蔣堅決相信，造成中國共產黨坐大、神州沉淪之導火線就是西安事變林博文. 《張學良、宋子文檔案大揭秘》. 台北: 時報文化. 2007. ISBN 978-957-13-4772-1.。 ↩︎
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