Xi'an Incident

After the North China Incident the national crisis deepened, and calls across the country to end civil war and unite against Japan grew louder. Inspired by the Communist Party's policy of an anti-Japanese national united front, Zhang Xueliang, commander of the Northeast Army, and Yang Hucheng, commander of the Northwest Army, who had been sent to “suppress” the Red Army in the northwest, made a truce with the Red Army and repeatedly urged Chiang Kai-shek to ally with the Communists against Japan. Chiang, however, held to “first internal pacification, then resistance to foreign aggression” and obstinately refused. On 12 December 1936, after repeated remonstrances failed, Zhang and Yang staged a “military remonstrance”, detaining Chiang at the Huaqing Pool in Lintong and telegraphing the nation eight anti-Japanese demands, including reorganizing the Nanjing government, ending all civil war and immediately freeing arrested patriotic leaders: the “Xi'an Incident”. Putting national interests first, the Communist Party favored a peaceful settlement and sent Zhou Enlai and others to Xi'an to negotiate. Through the efforts of all sides Chiang accepted conditions including “halting the suppression of the Communists and uniting with the Red Army to resist Japan”, and the incident was settled peacefully. On 25 December Zhang accompanied Chiang from Xi'an; on returning to Nanjing he was detained and placed under long house arrest, and Yang Hucheng was later also imprisoned and was killed in 1949. The peaceful settlement became a pivot of the situation: the ten years of civil war largely ended, domestic peace was achieved at first, and the two parties began their Second Cooperation.