Draft:Liangguang Incident

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Liangguang Incident
The Liangguang Incident (兩廣事變) was a political crisis in 1936 in which the warlords of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, chen Jitang and Bai Chongxi respectively, conspired to overthrow Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government. It is seen as a prelude to the more famous Xi'an Incident later that year involving the kidnapping of Chiang.

Background
In May 1936, Chen Jitang's biggest political supporter, Hu Hanmin, died. Chiang Kai-shek saw this as an opportunity to weaken Chen further by suggesting an end to Guangdong's autonomy under Chen's control. Chen reacted by conspiring with the New Guangxi clique led by Bai Chongxi to overthrow Chiang, using the pretext of Chiang's failure to effectively confront Japanese aggression in Manchuria and northern China.

Events
Chen and Bai's plot to overthrow Chiang proved counterproductive, as many of Chen's own forces saw it as undermining the need for national unity against the growing Japanese threat. Notable defections from Chen's camp to the central Nationalist government included the future ace fighter pilot Guan Zhiliu.

Over the following months, political maneuvering, bribery, defections, and negotiations occurred between the various factions. The situation was eventually resolved peacefully in July 1936 when Chen resigned his position in Guangdong and fled to Hong Kong. Guangxi abandoned the anti-Chiang conspiracy in September.

Aftermath
The Liangguang Incident highlighted the tenuous hold that Chiang's central government had over regional warlords and militaries in 1930s China. It foreshadowed the Xi'an Incident later in 1936, in which Chiang was briefly kidnapped by Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng in an attempt to force him to united with the Communist forces against Japan.

Despite these challenges to his authority, Chiang was able to project a image of eventually establishing unified control and leading China's defense against full-scale Japanese invasion after 1937.