Editing Xi'an Incident (section)

===Stalin's intervention and CCP reversal===
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| The December 14 article in ''Pravda'' "Events in China" condemned the coup as a Japanese plot
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Moscow received news of Chiang's arrest on December 13. The head of the Comintern, [[Georgi Dimitrov]], was delighted. He was preparing to authorize Chiang's execution until he read the articles in ''[[Pravda]]'' and ''[[Izvestia]]'', which condemned the Xi'an Incident as a plot by "pro-Japanese elements". In a subsequent meeting, Stalin made it clear to Dimitrov that he viewed Chiang as indispensable.{{sfn|Pantsov|2023|p=248}}

Stalin feared that in Chiang's absence, a figure like Wang Jingwei, perhaps assisted by He Yingqin (who had already contacted Wang in Italy after Chiang's arrest), would take control of the Nationalists and create a pro-Japanese Chinese regime, placing the Soviet Union in extreme danger of a Japanese invasion of the Soviet Union. His anxieties were confirmed when Chiang's rival Wang Jingwei met with Adolf Hitler to discuss the prospect of China enlisting in the anti-Communist Axis in exchange for greater German aid to China.{{sfn|Frank|2020|pp=21-22}} Following Chiang's abduction, Pan Hannian had advised Stalin that without Chiang, "China would be without a leader to fight the Japanese and this would not benefit the Soviet Union."{{sfn|Frank|2020|pp=21-22}}{{efn|Wang Jingwei was in Europe recovering from an assassination attempt the previous year. He Yingqin notified him when Chiang was abducted, but he did not arrive back in China until January 14, 1937, after the incident was already over.{{sfn|Worthing|2016|pp=174-175}}{{sfn|So|2002|p=244}}}}

Following Stalin's orders, the Comintern sent a telegram on December 16 instructing the CCP to bring the Xi'an incident to a peaceful conclusion.{{sfn|Pantsov|2023|p=249}}{{sfn|van de Ven|2003|p=187}} The telegram was not received until the 17th, and would not be fully decrypted for several days. However, by the 17th the CCP's leadership had already learned of Moscow's stance from public news sources and decided to change course.{{sfn|Pantsov|2023|pp=249-250}} On that day, the CCP announced that they desired a peaceful settlement. On December 18, they recanted their former call for a public trial of Chiang as "inappropriate".{{sfn|van de Ven|2003|p=187}}