Lincheng Outrage

The Lincheng Outrage, also known as the Lincheng Incident (Chinese: 临城劫车案; pinyin: Lín chéng jié chē àn), refers to the seizure of the luxury "Blue Express" train traveling between Shanghai and Beijing and the taking of over 300 hostages by bandits near the town of Lincheng, China on the night of May 5–6, 1923.

Attack and hostage-taking

On May 5, 1923, twelve hundred bandits, mostly former soldiers under General Zhang Jingyao who followed Shandong warlord Sun Meiyao (孙美瑶) after their discharge from the military, attacked and then derailed the "Blue Express" near the town of Lincheng (Xuecheng) on the Tianjin-Pukou Railway in Hebei Province close to the Jiangsu-Shandong border.[1] The bandits looted the train and killed a number of Chinese passengers [2] as well as a British subject, Joseph Rothman [3] after he refused to surrender his valuables.[4] They took 300 passengers hostage, including 25 westerners, most of whom were Americans.[5] British, French, Italian, German, and Danish nationals were also among those captured. The hostages were forced on a 10-day march to the bandits' mountain base at Paotzeku. Some of the more prominent hostages included Lucy Aldrich, eldest daughter of U.S. Senator Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island and sister-in-law of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. J. B. Powell, editor of China Weekly Review,[6] and Commodore Guiseppe Musso, a wealthy and influential Italian who was the chief attorney in the Shanghai French Concession.[7]

The women were released within a couple of days of the kidnapping,[8] while the remaining male hostages were held for over a month[5] as negotiations led by the U.S. Minister to China Dr. Jacob Gould Schurman and American China hand Roy Scott Anderson took place. The bandits demanded as ransom the removal of Chinese government troops from Shandong, an official pardon for the kidnappers, reinstatement or enrollment into the army for those among the bandits who wished it, and guarantees by six foreign powers that the demands would be met. Ultimately the Shanghai Green Gang leader Du Yuesheng secured the release of the remaining hostages on June 12, 1923 [9] with an $85,000 ransom ($1.2 million in today's prices).

Aftermath

Many of the bandits were accepted into the military and Sun Meiyao and other leaders received military commissions. Within six months, most of the bandits inducted into the military were machine-gunned and their chief, Sun Meiyao, was executed for suspected ongoing ties to local bandits.[10]

The capture of the "Blue Express" created an international sensation and symbolized for many the collapse of legitimacy of the Chinese government.[11] Following the incident, foreign governments pressured the Chinese to increase security along railway lines. Expatriate communities in China feared the episode signaled a new "Boxer Rebellion" and put into question the stability of the Chinese government. As a result, foreign powers urged that railway security be placed under foreign control.[5] The Chinese government resisted, instead placing the railway system under military control and creating a special railway guard under the command of General Tang Zaili. Armed guards were placed on every train. Foreign powers also used the incident to place financial pressure on the fragile Chinese government, demanding indemnities and compensation for medical expenses for foreign hostages and repayment of lost earnings.

The Lincheng Outrage provided the inspiration for the 1932 Marlene Dietrich film Shanghai Express.[2]

References
  1. French, Paul (2006-10-01). Carl Crow - A Tough Old China Hand: The Life, Times, and Adventures of an American in Shanghai. Hong Kong University Press. p. 117. ISBN 9789622098022.
  2. Fairbank, John K.; Feuerwerker, Albert (1986-07-24). The Cambridge History of China: Volume 13, Republican China 1912-1949. Cambridge University Press. p. 107. ISBN 9780521243384.
  3. Bourne, Kenneth; Watt, Donald Cameron; Office, Great Britain Foreign (1994). British documents on foreign affairs: reports and papers from the Foreign Office confidential print. From the First to the Second World War. Europe, 1919-1939. Central Europe, 1919-1922. University Publications of America. p. 189. ISBN 9780890936139.
  4. French, Paul (2006-10-01). Carl Crow - A Tough Old China Hand: The Life, Times, and Adventures of an American in Shanghai. Hong Kong University Press. p. 120. ISBN 9789622098022.
  5. Craft, Stephen G. (2015-01-13). V.K. Wellington Koo and the Emergence of Modern China. University Press of Kentucky. p. 77. ISBN 9780813157566.
  6. Lary, Diana (1985-06-20). Warlord Soldiers: Chinese Common Soldiers 1911-1937. Cambridge University Press. p. 65. ISBN 9780521302708.
  7. Martin, Brian Gerard (July 1991). THE GREEN GANG IN SHANGHAI, 1920-1937: THE RISE OF DU YUESHENG. Australian National University. p. 113.
  8. The China Year Book ... Brentano's. 1924. p. 818.
  9. Reeves, Caroline (November 2001). "Holding Hostages in China, Holding China Hostage: Sovereignty, Philanthropy, and the 1923 "Lincheng Outrage"". Twentieth Century China. 27: 36–39. doi:10.1179/tcc.2001.27.1.39.
  10. "The Blue Express Incident: The Story of the Foreigners Kidnapped in Republican China | The Nanfang". The Nanfang. 2015-06-24. Retrieved 2018-03-12.
  11. Martin, Brian G. (1996-04-15). The Shanghai Green Gang: Politics and Organized Crime, 1919-1937. University of California Press. p. 67. ISBN 9780520916432.
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