Xi'an Incident
The Xi'an Incident ( Chinese 西安 事变 , Pinyin Xī'ān Shìbìan ) is an event in December 1936 in which nationalist troops under the warlord Zhang Xueliang , known as the "Little Marshal" and son of Marshal Zhang Zuolin , and General Yang Hucheng (Yáng Hǔchéng 杨虎城) mutinied against their Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (Jiǎng Jièshí) and took him prisoner on December 12th.
The Japanese troops had at that time already Manchuria due to the Manchurian crisis occupied and the puppet state of Manchukuo set up the China after the bombing of Shanghai had to recognize the armistice of the 1,933th At that time, China feared ending up as another Japanese colony .
At the same time, China was weakened by the Chinese civil war between the communists (CCP) under Mao Zedong and nationalists ( KMT ) under Chiang Kai-shek. The nationalists were able to push the CCP to Shaanxi ( Long March ) and isolate them there.
When Chiang Kai-shek visited the Little Marshal's troops who were surrounding the CCP, he was arrested by the latter. Mao Zedong was able to persuade Zhang Xueliang to do this by giving him hope that Moscow would help him to take power in China. Mao knew that Joseph Stalin was counting on Chiang in the fight against Japan, as Chiang was the only one who could unite China and thus prevent the Japanese from attacking the Soviet Union . Mao later claimed that he never received the telegram from Moscow. Mao tried to persuade Zhang Xueliang to kill Chiang Kai-shek, which later created difficulties within the CCP. However, Zhang Xueliang released Chiang after two weeks.
During this phase, the communists were able to force Chiang, also in exchange for Chiang Ching-kuo's only son, who was held in Siberia , that the communists were recognized as a party, were assigned their own province and were allowed to provide their own army , which was managed by Chiang was funded. In addition, Shao Lizi (邵力子), a communist mole (he accompanied Chiang's son to the Soviet Union in 1925) became the head of media relations in Chiang's Ministry of Propaganda, which led to a rapid improvement in the public image of the communists, and especially of Mao . The communist representative at the KMT was Zhou Enlai .
Just a year later, the Second Sino-Japanese War began . During the war, however, the two Chinese parties repeatedly fought each other. After the war, the civil war resumed. Previously the balance of power was 60: 1 for the KMT, after that it was only 3: 1.
The former site of the Xi'an Incident ( Xi'an shibian jiuzhi ) has been on the list of monuments of the People's Republic of China since 1982 (Resolution 2-6).
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Coordinates: 34 ° 21 '42 " N , 109 ° 12' 49" E