The March 1926 Zhongshan Gunboat Incident: Coup and Countercoup in the Pearl River Delta

Tensions come to a head between Chiang Kai-shek, Wang Jingwei and General Kuibyshev, as a Soviet plot backfires spectacularly.

Further Reading:
C. Martin Wilbur and Julie Lien-ying How, Missionaries of Revolution: Soviet Advisers and Nationalist China, 1920-1927
Wu Tien-wei, “Chiang Kai-shek's March Twentieth Coup d'Etat of 1926”
Barbara Tuchman, Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-1945

Some names from this episode:
Mikhail Borodin, Comintern agent and head of Soviet mission to aid the Guomindang
Wang Jingwei, Leader of Guomindang government in Guangdong in late 1925 and early 1926
Dai Jitao, Right-wing Guomindang ideologue
Nikolay Kuibyshev, Soviet general and head of military mission in Guangdong in late 1925 and early 1926
Victor Rogachev, Soviet general and adviser to Chiang Kai-shek
Li Zhilong, Communist in Guomindang navy
Hu Hanmin, Leader of Guomindang right-wing, spent a period of exile in the USSR
Andrei Bubnov, Headed Soviet military inspection mission to China
General V. A. Stepanov, Headed Soviet military mission after Kuibyshev left and before Blyukher returned
Vasily Blyukher, Soviet general whose return was requested by Chiang Kai-shek
Chen Duxiu, General Secretary of the Communist Party

Support the show