Zhang Zhizhong

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Zhang Zhizhong 張治中
1895 - April 1965
Place of birth	Caohu, Anhui
Place of death	Beijing
Allegiance	Republic of China People's Republic of China
Years of service	1928 - 1939
Rank	General 2nd Class
Commands	5th Army 9th Army Group
Battles/wars	Battle of Shanghai (1932), (1937) Battle of Changsha (1939)
Other work	Deputy Chairman, Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang

Not to be confused with fellow general Zhang Zizhong.

This is a Chinese name; the family name is zhang.

Zhang Zhizhong (Chinese: 張治中; pinyin: Zhāng Zhìzhōng) (1895-1965) was a general in the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China. He was in charge of the 5th Army during the 1932 battle at Shanghai. Commanding the 9th Army Group (第九集團軍), Zhang oversaw for a second time the defence of Shanghai in 1937.

In Jung Chang's book Mao: The Unknown Story, Chang and Halliday accused Zhang of being a undercover Communist mole and masterminding the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War through unprovoked attacks against the Japanese in Shanghai. (The Battle of Shanghai started in 13 August, while the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, seen as the start of the war, took place on 7 July.)

Zhang was later appointed Governor of Hunan and was responsible for the Great Fire of Changsha, a fire that got out of hand when he ordered key buildings razed in anticipation of a coming Japanese attack (which failed to materialize on time). He was relieved of his duty after this event and several individuals responsible for bad intelligence were executed.

In 1949 Zhang chose to remain on the mainland when Chiang and the remaining KMT forces fled to Taiwan. He joined the Communists afterwards.