The original site of the Xi'an Incident The Xi'an Incident was a critically important historical event during the War against Japanese Aggression(1937-1945). It took place on the morning of December 12th, 1936. Two Nationalist generals, Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng, ordered their troops to capture and detain their leader, Chiang Kai-Shek, in Xi'an. There they forced him to negotiate with the armies of the CCP. The purpose is to combine their forces into an anti-Japanese alliance. This bold action caught the attention of the whole world and was the key to putting an end to the Japanese occupation of China.