In recent years, some people have repeatedly said that Zhang Xueliang had no remorse for launching the "Xi'an Incident" in his later years, saying that he admitted to being "ashamed" of Chiang Kai-shek; some netizens believe that "the main reason why Zhang Xueliang did not return to the mainland is obviously that his conscience is uneasy and he is ashamed of his father and elderly."Some netizens say that Zhang Xueliang wrote a book in his later years, "Shame to Chiang Kai-shek", in order to prove the reliability of the "regret" statement. But in fact, the statement that Zhang Xueliang "regretted" launching the Xi'an Incident came from Zhang Shi's self-statement in the Era of Chiang Kai-shek, but its content was obviously instructed by Chiang Kai-shek, so the theory of "regret" was not Zhang Xueliang's true thought.
Zhang Xueliang later said very rudely in his oral history that "after the Xi'an Incident, Chiang Kai-shek's 'Xi'an Half Moon Chronicle of Chairman Chiang Kai-shek' published by Chiang Kai-shek is all fake" ——— in fact, Chiang Kai-shek instructed his secretary Chen Brei to fabricate it behind closed doors at the Xinxin Hotel in Hangzhou in February 1937, and printed 800,000 copies of it. Zhang also clarified that he had not written the "Confessions of the Xi'an Incident," which Chiang Ching-kuo adapted from a letter he wrote to Chiang Kai-shek and distributed to the army as political textbooks under the name of "Confessions." After Zhang raised objections to Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Kai-shek "criticized and replaced relevant personnel" and withdrew the magazine that published the article to put an end to the storm.
Although the Xi'an Incident completely changed Zhang Xueliang's fate, and after that he had many dissatisfactions and dissatisfaction with the results of the Xi'an Incident, Zhang Xueliang never expressed regret for the Xi'an Incident.
In 1989, Zhang Xueliang's first wife, Yu Fengzhi, wrote a memoir before his death, revealing that after the "Lugou Bridge Incident", Zhang Xueliang's request to resist the war was rejected by Chiang Kai-shek, and he was remorseful for sending Chiang Back to Nanjing: "The July Seventh War of Resistance broke out, and Han Qing was very excited when he learned about it, he said: This day has finally arrived!" He wrote to Mr. Jiang and asked that he be sent to the front. He must have died on the front line to serve the country. But like a stone sinking into the sea, there is no reply. It was another heavy blow to him. He said that he really regretted it and should not send Jiang back to Nanjing. His life's wish ——— died on the battlefield of the Anti-Japanese War and could not be realized. (Dou Yingtai, "Zhang Xueliang and His Wife Yu Fengzhi's Different Interpretations of the Xi'an Incident", Party History Expo, No. 2, 2011) Zhang Xueliang has a deep hatred for Japan, he once said: "I hate Japanese warlords, the main thing in my life is to (want) to resist Japan, and the saddest thing in my heart is that I was unable to participate in the War of Resistance Against Japan." So Zhang Xueliang insisted that there was nothing wrong with cooperating with the CCP for the sake of anti-civil war and anti-Japanese resistance.
In 1947, during his seclusion in Phoenix Mountain, Zhang Xueliang said to Zhang Yanfo: "The ten-year period has expired, and now that the War of Resistance has been won, the Japanese have surrendered and locked me up. Treating me like this, in any case, is illegal, and my heart is uneven. (Zhang Yanfo, "The Imprisonment of Zhang Xueliang by the Military Command Bureau", Wu Fuzhang, "Personal Experience of the Xi'an Incident", p416)
On May 29, 1991, Zhang Xueliang met with his compatriots from the northeast of Chinese mainland in Midtown Manhattan, and when someone asked about Zhang Xueliang's policy toward Chiang Kai-shek's policy of "staying inside and outside the country," Zhang Xueliang said with great certainty that he still believed that the policy of "staying inside and outside the country" was not advisable. He firmly believed that only when the Kuomintang and the Communists cooperated to "keep the outside" can they finally "settle inside." (The Legend of Zhang Xueliang's Century (Oral Transcript) P1111)
In 1992, Zhang said to Tang Degang: "As for you asking me why there was the Xi'an Incident, I can only say this, I believe that China must be reunified, and it must be shot at the outside world, and there should be no more civil war." This is my consistent belief, from the Northeast Yizhi to the Xi'an Incident, there is no regret or regret. (The Legend of Zhang Xueliang's Century (Oral Transcript) P1194)
In 1995, on his ninety-fifth birthday, Zhang Xueliang said: "Looking back on the course of my life in the past century, I have no regrets about the events launched in 1936, and if I go through the road of life again, I will still do the things of the Xi'an Incident." (The Legend of Zhang Xueliang's Century (Oral Transcript) P1142)
It can be said that Zhang Xueliang never admitted that the Xi'an incident was wrong when he was free to speak, nor did he express regret at all.