First KMT–CPC United Front and Assassination of Zhang Zuolin

Abstract

This chapter studies how Zhou Enlai participated in the first Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)–Communist Party of China (CPC) United Front against the Beiyang warlords upon returning home from Europe through newly released documents, as well as how the assassination of the Beiyang-warlord leader, Zhang Zuolin, by the Japanese Kwantung Army, affected the civil war in China and Zhou’s career through newly released oral history of those who were directly involved in the assassination, including that of Zhang’s eldest son, Zhang Xueliang (1901–2001).