The Shanghai Massacre

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As a result of the Chinese Civil War, which took place in the Mainland China from 1927 to 1949 between the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) and the Chinese Communist Party, the original Republic of China has been split into two separated and independent political entities that practice two different ideologies. The Nationalist forces, led by the nominal leader Chiang Kai-shek, shifted the Nationalist government from Nanking to the Island of Taiwan and reestablished the government of the Republic of China while the Communist controlled by Mao Tse-tung took entire control of the Mainland China and formed the People’s Republic of China. The failure of the Nationalists in 1949 did not occur by chance. In other words, the Xi’an Incident that happened …show more content…

This crucial event took place in the City of Xi’an, at the Shanxi province on December 12th, 1936, before the Second Sino-Japanese War between the China and the Japan. Many historians believe that, without the Xi’an incident, the Chinese Communist Party may have been defeated by the Kuomintang during the Chinese Civil War. Due to the Shanghai Massacre, the “Long March” and other exterminating events led and caused by the Chiang Kai-shek’s government, the influence of the Chinese Communist Party was diminished and eliminated in the thirties. However, the Xi’an Incident had offered Mao Tse-Dong a chance to strengthen and consolidate his power by forcing Chiang Kai-Shek to obey to unite the two parties and fight against the Japanese collectively. On December 12th, 1936, warlords Zhang Xu-liang of Manchuria and Yang HuCheng of Shanxi …show more content…

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek of Kuomintang believed that without the Xi’an Incident, the Chinese Communist Party would be successfully eliminated by which he had stated “This incident has been a great loss for the Kuomintang…I thought it would only take us no more than two weeks to wipe out the bandits (Communists) after eight years of annihilating, and now everything is ruined overnight.”( Half Month In Xi’an, Forward) Chiang’s second wife, Soong May-ling, who played a major role in negotiating with Zhang Xue-Liang and Yang Hu-Cheng during the incident, also described this incident in her diary, Recollection of Xi’an Incident, “ Foreigners may regard this as a comedy; however, it is the last fight of justice in modern China,” she further stated that, “ This young man (General Zhang) acts so childishly which he has no idea about the importance of Chiang to the entire nation.”(Recollection of Xi’an Incident, pg1) Furthermore, Ta Kung Pao, a Kuomintang-oriented newspaper in China, deemed the kidnapping of Chiang by the two Generals as an act of treason, which they had betrayed Kuomintang and the Republic of China. The heading of the newspaper on December 13th, 1936, the following day of the incident, claimed, “ Shocking! Betrayer Zhang Xue-Liang, who has defected to the Communists, led a attempted coup in Xi’an yesterday. Our Generalissimo Kiang is now abducted by his army

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