Monday 29 December 2014  Chang Hsueh-liang  CHANG HSUEH-LIANG,
who has died aged 101, was one of the most intriguing figures in
the history of 20th-century China.  For 53 years he was kept
under house arrest after kidnapping Chiang Kai-shek, China's
Nationalist leader in the Xi'an Incident in 1936. It made him
the world's longest serving political prisoner.  Before that
Chang had been dubbed the "Young Marshal" after inheriting a
600,000-strong army from his warlord father in Manchuria. As
Governor of Manchuria until the Japanese set up the State of
Manchukuo, he was also known as the "Dancing Despot" for his
pursuit of the good life - which in his case included a number
of concubines and a taste for narcotics.  Chang Hsueh-liang was
born on May 29 1900, the son of Marshal Chang Tso-lin, who had
once led a band of thieves but rose to become warlord of the
three eastern provinces of Manchuria and the leader of the
northern forces during China's civil war.  As a boy, Chang
travelled with his father on his milit