‘Forced Advice’: The Revolt Against Chiang Kai-shek, 1936

Abstract

In the last three months of 1936, important events took place in China in which Zhang Xueliang was directly involved. The international diplomatic arena was also seething with activity during that period. The Rome–Berlin Axis agreement was signed in October, setting out the very clear division between the two sides in the forthcoming war in Europe. Within three weeks, Germany announced its objection to the international supervision of its waterways. It was just one more step in its determined fight against the Versailles Treaties of the post-World War I years that had disabled it. At the end of November, the German–Japanese Agreement was signed, followed by the Italian–Japanese Agreement against international communism, the Comintern. The ‘Axis’ countries, Germany, Italy and Japan, were now one group. The developments in Xi’an should not be viewed separately from the international political developments that were taking place because from an international perspective, China was an important front in the deployment of forces between the two fighting camps in World War II.