Xi'an Incident

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or Sian Incident

Seizure of Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek by one of his generals, Chang Hsüeh-liang (Zhang Xueliang; 1898–2001), in order to persuade Chiang to postpone his war on the Chinese communists until the invading Japanese had been defeated.

As a result of the incident, the Nationalists and communists formed an alliance that turned its attention to the Japanese in Manchuria. See also Manchukuo; People's Liberation Army.

More on "Xi'an Incident" from Britannica Concise:

Xi'an - City (pop., 2003 est.: 2,657,900), capital of Shaanxi province, central China.

More on "Xi'an Incident" from the 32 Volume Encyclopædia Britannica:

Sian Incident - (Dec. 12-25, 1936), in Chinese history, seizure of the Nationalist generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek by one of his own generals, Chang Hsueh-liang (q.v.). Chang, commander of the Northeastern (Manchurian) forces at Sian, in Northwest China, opposed Chiang's policy of continuing to fight the Chinese Communists rather than devoting the Nationalists' full effort to fighting the Japanese, who had ...

Sian - capital of Shensi sheng (province), China, located on the loess plain of the Wei River southwest of Beijing. It was important in history as the capital of several ruling dynasties and as a market and trade centre. Sian was the eastern terminus of the Silk Road, the ancient trade route that connected China with the Mediterranean.

Soong Mei-ling - second wife of the Nationalist Chinese president Chiang Kai-shek. Her family was successful, prosperous, and well-connected: her sister Soong Ch'ing-ling (Song Qingling) was the wife of Sun Yat-sen, and her brother T.V. Soong was a prominent industrialist and official of the Nationalist Chinese government.

Chiang Kai-shek - soldier and statesman, head of the Nationalist government in China from 1928 to 1949, and subsequently head of the Chinese Nationalist government in exile on Taiwan.

China - In the meantime, the communists had created 15 rural bases in central China, and they established a soviet government, the Jiangxi Soviet, on Nov. 7, 1931. Within the soviet regions, the communist leadership expropriated and redistributed land and in other ways enlisted the support of the poorer classes. The Japanese occupation of Manchuria and an ancillary localized war around Shanghai in 1932 ...

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