Chiang Kai-shek as a war leader

Abstract

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (1887–1975), President of the Republic of China and C-in-C of the Chinese armed forces, was appointed supreme commander of the China theatre (see China–Burma–India theatre) by Churchill and Roosevelt in December 1941. In December 1936, in what became known as the Sian incident, he was kidnapped by rebel army officers in the city of Sian (Siking). They wished to force him to abandon his campaign of suppression against the Chinese Communist party; to form a united front with the communists and all other patriotic forces; and to lead China in a war of resistance against Japan whose occupation of Manchukuo and further encroachment into Chinese territory were soon to culminate in the Marco Polo Bridge Clash and the start of the China incident. When Chiang stubbornly refused to treat with the rebels, preferring, as he saw it, death to dishonour, some were prepared to kill him. Others, however, including the communist leader Chou En-lai, believed that despite the role he had played in the past, only Chiang was capable of leading the whole nation against the Japanese, and eventually a compromise was reached which allowed Chiang to return to the capital in safety, with the communists agreeing to incorporate themselves, at least in theory, into the national army under the generalissimo's command. The widespread and largely spontaneous rejoicing which followed Chiang's return to Nanking seemed to confirm that he was indeed the leader which China needed for the war of resistance.