James Munro Bertram - Xi'an Incident

Xi'an Incident

On December 12, 1936, in Peking Bertram observed an anti-Japanese student demonstration of some five thousand students which he described in his article "The Twelfth of December". It was later learnt that General Chiang Kai-shek had been seized earlier that day by the North-eastern Dongbei troops loyal to the Young Marshal in Xi'an until Chiang agreed to enter into a united front with the communist forces against the Japanese. Bertram travelled to in a difficult eleven-day journey including crossing the frozen over Yellow River on foot to report on what later became known as the Sian Mutiny or the Xi'an Incident. He was the only foreign journalist to reach the city which was under blockade by the Kuomintang. Mail and telegraph communications being blocked, Bertram joined Agnes Smedley in providing radio reports on the situation in the rebel capital during his month-long stay. The Xi'an Incident is seen now as a turning point in modern Chinese history as it marked the formal end of the ten year civil war between Nationalists and Communists and the beginning of an effective United Front of resistance to Japan.

On the basis of his Xi'an reports, Bertram's Rhodes travelling fellowship was renewed for a second year. Back in Peking, together with Edgar Snow he founded an English-language journal 'Democracy' which was translated into Chinese and widely circulated. The material published in the journal formed the core of his book Crisis in China(1937) which he wrote in the home of Ida Pruitt.

In July 1937, shortly after arriving in Tokyo on his first visit, Japan launched the second phase of its invasion of China. Bertram hurriedly returned to Peking just days before the Japanese captured the city. Together with Edgar Snow, they evacuated to Tientsin (Tianjin) with Zhou Enlai's wife Deng Yingchao disguised as Snow's household servant before finding their way back to Xian.