Exiles from the Northeast founded a Northeast National Salvation Society in order to put pressure on the Chinese government to end its policy of non resistance to the Japanese who had invaded Manchuraia after the Mukden Incident

Mukden Incident

The Mukden Incident, also known as the Manchurian Incident, was a staged event that was engineered by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for invading the northern part of China known as Manchuria in 1931....

 and to assist the volunteer armies

Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies

After the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, and until 1933, large volunteer armies waged war against Japanese and Manchukuo forces over much of Northeast China....

, especially in Liaoning

Liaoning

' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the northeast of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "辽" , a name taken from the Liao River that flows through the province. "Níng" means "peace"...

. One of its chief supporters was Zhang Xueliang

Zhang Xueliang

Zhang Xueliang or Chang Hsüeh-liang , occasionally called Peter Hsueh Liang Chang in English, nicknamed the Young Marshal , was the effective ruler of Manchuria and much of North China after the assassination of his father, Zhang Zuolin, by the Japanese on 4 June 1928...

 who privately supported this resistance

Pacification of Manchukuo

The Pacification of Manchukuo, was a campaign to pacify the resistance to the newly established puppet state of Manchukuo between the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies of Manchuria and later the Communist Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army and the Imperial Japanese Army and the forces of the...

, despite his public obedience to the government policy of non resistance. Zhang was not publicly associated with the Society and never held office in it, but provided funds and allowed it to use his name when communicating with volunteer armies.