Zhang Xueliang (or Chang Hsüeh-liang) (1901–2001)

Chinese nationalist soldier who kidnapped Jiang Jie Shi (Chiang Kai-shek) in the Xi'an Incident of 1936. Convinced of the need for a united nationalist–communist front to fight against the Japanese threat Zhang held Jiang under house arrest at Xi'an, in Shaanxi, for 13 days while he persuaded him to accept reconciliation with the communists. Zhang was later arrested by Jiang and remained in confinement, in Taiwan, until the 1960s.

Known as the ‘Young Marshal’, Zhang succeeded his father, Zhang Zuolin, the ‘Old Marshal’, as military ruler of Manchuria when the latter was assassinated by Japanese military agents in June 1928. Before the Xi'an Incident, in 1930 he assisted Jiang Jie Shi (Chiang Kai-shek) in expelling the warlord Feng Yu-hsiang from Beijing, and with the Japanese in control of Manchuria from 1931, Zhang continued to assist Jiang Jie Shi in his campaign against the Chinese communists.