"We respect General Zhang not only because he was a famous figure but for his persistent patriotism," said Zhang Zhiqiang, a history researcher with the Liaoning Provincial Academy of Social Sciences.

Zhang Xueliang, born on June 3, 1901 on a horse-drawn carriage in northeast China's Liaoning Province, is now living in Hawaii in the United States with his wife Zhao Yidi.

His fellow townspeople have prepared two woodcarvings and a wicker basket as birthday gifts.

The wicker basket contains soy beans and grain sorghum which were abundant in northeast China, hometown of General Zhang who has not visited there for 70 years, ever since the Xi'an Incident. Zhang was instrumental in arresting Chiang Kai-shek, enemy of the Communist Party of China, during the famous Xi'an Incident in the 1930s.

Zhang and General Yang Hucheng arrested Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Kuomintang, and tried to force him to stop the civil war and turn to fighting against the Japanese invaders, on December 12, 1936. This has since been known in modern Chinese history as the Xi'an Incident.

Chiang was released unharmed after negotiations in which late premier Zhou Enlai played a crucial role. However, Zhang was imprisoned by Chiang, and spent decades under house arrest in Taiwan under the Kuomintang.

According to the China-based Zhang Xueliang Foundation, this is the first time that people from the Chinese mainland, Taiwan, and the United States will all celebrate the General's birthday.

(People’s Daily 06/02/2000)