Zhang Xueliang (張學良) or Chang Hsüeh-liang in Wade-Giles or Peter H. L. Chang in English (June 3, 1901 - October 15, 2001), nicknamed the "Young Marshall", became the effective ruler of Manchuria and much of Northeast China after the assassination of his father Zhang Zuolin on June 4 1928 by the Japanese.
The Japanese were concerned that Manchuria would declare support for Chiang Kai-shek and believed that his son Zhang Xueliang, who was an opium addict, would be much more subject to Japanese influence. Unexpectedly, the younger Zhang proved to be more independent than anyone had expected. He overcame his opium addiction and declared his support for Chiang. 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 Russian military build-up.
In 1930, when Feng Yü-hsiang and Yen Hsi-shan attempted to overthrow Chiang Kai-shek’s government, Zhang 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, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Zhang to withdraw south of the Great Wall of China without a fight. Zhang later traveled in Europe before returning the China to take command of the Communist Suppression Campaigns first in Hebei-Henan-Anhui and later in the Northwest.
On April 6 1936, General Zhang met with Zhou Enlai to plan the end of the Chinese Civil War. In the Xian incident (December 12 1936), Zhang and another general Yang Hu-cheng kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek and imprisoned the head of the Nationalist government until he agreed to form a united front with the communists against the Japanese invasion. Chiang at the time took an non-aggressive position against Japan and considered the Communists to be 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, the Young Marshal was tried, convicted, and sentenced to ten years in prison. Chiang Kai-shek intervened and Zhang was placed under house arrest. In 1949, 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, Chiang Ching-Kuo, did he gain his freedom. Zhang was the world's longest-serving political prisoner.
He outlived Chiang Kai-shek and emigrated to Hawaii in the 1990s and spent the rest of his life there. He died of pneumonia at the age of 100.
Today, Zhang is widely considered a patriotic hero because at considerable danger to himself he compelled the forming of a United Front to fight against the Japanese.
