Zhang Xueliang

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This is a Chinese name; the family name is Zhang

Zhang Xueliang

Zhang Xueliang or Chang Hsüeh-liang (Traditional Chinese: 張學良; Hanyu Pinyin: Zhāng Xuéliáng; Wade-Giles: Chang Hsüeh-liang; English occasionally: Peter Hsueh Liang Chang) (3 June 1901 (according to other accounts in 1898 or 1900) in Haicheng County, Fengtian province of China – 14 October 2001 in Hawaii, United States), nicknamed the "Young Marshal" (少帥), became the effective ruler of Manchuria and much of North China after the assassination of his father Zhang Zuolin by the Japanese on 4 June 1928. As an instigator of the Xi'an incident he spent over half of his life under house arrest, but is regarded by the People's Republic of China as a patriotic hero.

1 Youth
2 Manchurian Warlord and Republican General
3 Xi'an Incident, House Arrest, and Later Life
4 See also

[edit] Youth

He was educated by private tutors, and, contrary to his father - felt at ease in the company of westerners. Zhang Xueliang graduated from Fengtian Military Academy, was made a Colonel in the Fengtian Army, and was appointed commander of his father's bodyguards in 1919. In 1921 he was sent to Japan to observe military maneuvers, where he developed a special interest in aircraft. Later he developed an air corps for the Fengtian Army, which was widely used in the battles which took place within the Great Wall during the 1920s. In 1922 he was advanced to Major General and commanded an army-sized force, two years later he was also made commander of the air units. Upon the death of his father in 1928 he succeeded him as the strongest warlord in Manchuria. In December of the same year he proclaimed his allegiance to the Kuomintang.

[edit] Manchurian Warlord and Republican General

The Japanese believed that Zhang Xueliang, who was a known as a womanizer and an opium addict, would be much more subject to Japanese influence. An officer of the Japanese Guandong Army therefore killed his father Zhang Zuolin by exploding a bomb above his train while it crossed under a railroad bridge. Surprisingly, the younger Zhang proved to be more independent than anyone had expected. He overcame his opium addiction and declared his support for Chiang Kai-shek. In order to rid his command of Japanese influence he had two prominent pro-Tokyo officials executed in front of the assembled guests at a dinner party in January 1929. Zhang also tried to eliminate Soviet influence from Manchuria, but relented in the face of a Soviet military build-up. At the same time, however, he developed closer relations with the United States.

In 1930, when warlords Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan attempted to overthrow Chiang Kai-shek's Guomindang government, Zhang Xueliang stepped in to support the Nanjing government against the northern warlords in exchange for control of the key railroads in Hebei Province and the customs revenues from the port city of Tianjin. Following the Mukden Incident and the Japanese invasion of Zhang's own domain of Manchuria in 1931, Zhang's armies withdrew from the front lines without significant engagements. There has been speculation that Chiang Kai-Shek wrote a letter to Zhang asking him to pull his forces back, but later Zhang stated that he himself issued the orders. Apparently Zhang was aware of how weak his forces were compared to the Japanese, and wished to preserve his position by retaining a sizeable army. Nonetheless this would still be in line with Chiang's overall strategic standings. Zhang later traveled in Europe before returning to China to take command of the Communist Suppression Campaigns first in Hebei-Henan-Anhui and later in the Northwest.

[edit] Xi'an Incident, House Arrest, and Later Life

On 6 April 1936, Zhang Xueliang met with Zhou Enlai to plan the end of the Chinese Civil War. In the Xi'an incident (12 December 1936), Zhang and another general Yang Hucheng kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek and imprisoned the head of the Guomindang government until he agreed to form a united front with the communists against the Japanese invasion.

Chiang at the time took a non-aggressive position against Japan and considered the Communists to be a larger danger to China than the Japanese, and his overall strategy was to annihilate the Communists, before focusing his efforts on the Japanese. However, growing nationalist anger against Japan made this position very unpopular, leading to Zhang's action against Chiang.

The ensuing negotiations were delicate and were not recorded. The apparent outcome was that Chiang agreed to focus his efforts against the Japanese rather than the Communists and in return Zhang would become Chiang's prisoner and cease any political role.

Following Chiang Kai-shek's release, Zhang Xueliang was tried, convicted, and sentenced to ten years in prison. Chiang Kai-shek intervened and Zhang was placed under house arrest. In 1949 with the evacuation of the Republic of China, Zhang was transferred to Taiwan where he remained under house arrest, spending his time studying Ming dynasty poetry. Only in 1990, after the death of Chiang's son and successor, Chiang Ching-kuo, did he gain his freedom. Zhang was probably the world's longest-serving political prisoner.

After regaining his freedom, he emigrated to Honolulu, Hawaii in 1993. There were numerous pleas for him to visit mainland China, but Zhang, claiming his political neutrality towards both the Communists and the Guomindang, declined. He never set foot in mainland China again. He died of pneumonia at the age of 100 (following the Chinese way of counting his age is often given as 101) and was buried in Hawaii.

[edit] See also

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