Zhongshan Warship Incident

The Zhongshan Warship Incident (Chinese: 中山舰事件; pinyin: Zhōngshān Jiàn Shìjiàn), or "March 20th Incident", on March 20, 1926, involved a suspected plot by Captain Li Zhilong of the warship Chung Shan to kidnap Chiang Kai-shek. It triggered a political struggle between the Communist Party of China and Kuomintang. Left wing led by Wang Jingwei against Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang Right wing faction resulting in Chiang becoming the head of the Kuomintang party and commander-in-chief of all the armies for the Northern Expedition.

Historians still disagree on whether Li Zhilong really intended to kidnap Chiang Kai-shek, whether the incident was plotted by Chiang Kai-shek to accuse the communists, or whether the whole affair was just "the consequence of a series of miscommunications, misunderstandings, faulty telephone connections and personal rivalries among junior staff"^[1] – or even whether Li Zhilong was actually the warship’s captain.^[2]

Notes

1. Van de Ven (2003) p.102.
2. Zhang Qian-wu (2005). “The Truth of the Event of the Warship "Zhongshan"”, Journal of Xidian University, Social Sciences Edition, 2005-02.

See also

• Warlord Era

External links

• Ah Xiang “Tragedy of Chinese Revolution – Part II – The Zhongshan Warship Incident” (first paragraph)
• Van de Ven, Hans (2003). War and Nationalism in China: 1925–1945. Studies in the Modern History of Asia, RoutledgeCurzon, London, New York, 2003, 377 pp. ISBN 978-0415145718 (pp. 101–107: “The 20 March Incident”)
• Zhou Enlai “The Communist International and the Chinese Communist Party”, July 14 and 15, 1960. From the Selected Works of Zhou Enlai, Vol. II, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1989, pp. 306–319.