Talk:Zhang Zhizhong

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I am rather incredulous of the idea that Zhang Zhizhong was a communist mole acting on Stalin's orders. I read that chapter in Mao: The Unknown Story in which the authors claimed that Zhang Zizhong pushed Chiang Kai-shek to fight in Shanghai, in an effort to sacrifice the KMT forces for the communists. I don't think the authors had much evidence other than saying that Zhang had an admiration for the communists. We cannot deny that Zhang Zhizhong was a communist sympathizer, who did defect to the communist side during the Chinese Civil War. However, the authors did not take into account the fact that Chiang already had plans for the Shanghai battle and had begun fortifying the area since 1935/1936. They also failed to mention the 1932 Shanghai war, which provided valuable lessons to the Chinese that led them to make the same stand in 1937. The authors also disregarded the need to open up a second front in East China so the Chinese armies had a better chance of resistance and gathering foreign sympathy. The authors also exaggerated way too much in claiming that Zhang was perhaps the greatest mole in history in single-handedly by destroying Chiang's armed forces. Again, what the authors claimed might rang more true, if they had provided better documentation and evidence, other than some unrelated crappy diary entry. In addition, all this sounds very much like a crackpot conspiracy theory, which is not helped by the authors' tendency to call Zhang Zhizhong "ZZZ," like some secret agent's codename. BlueShirts 09:19, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

My thoughts exactly. If you've got time, please write up more about it on the Mao: The Unknown Story article. In the meanwhile, we should find out more about Zhang Zhizhong so that the part about Jung Chang does not occupy half this article... -- Миборовский ^{U|T|C|M|E|Chugoku Banzai!} 02:52, 11 April 2006 (UTC)