Whenever china's modern history is talked about, it is full of blood and tears, especially the frequent aggression of the imperial powers, greedily dividing their interests from the decadent Qing Dynasty, and forcing the Qing government and even the later Beiyang government to sign one unequal treaty after another.
The Qing government paid compensation for the cession of land, and the indemnities in some treaties even had to be repaid for nearly a hundred years, and some of the lease period for cutting land was even a hundred years long, and the consequences of these treaties were also bad, fortunately, after the founding of New China, all unequal treaties were abolished and these treaties were not allowed to affect the construction of the country.
But there is a saying called: "No heart to plant willows in the shade".
Among the treaties signed by the Qing government and the Beiyang government, there were really some treaties that seemed useless at the time and benefited us infinitely today. As mentioned earlier, we have abrogated all unequal treaties, and those normal treaties which we have not declared null and void, have not been able to bring them to their value until many years later, when they have been taken out of their dusty history.
And there's a treaty like this,
It was signed 95 years ago, but decades later, it won an overseas enclave for Chinese in northern Europe near the North Pole, known as the Treaty of Svalbard.
In 1920, Norway, the United States, great Britain, Ireland, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the British Overseas Colonies and Sweden signed the Treaty of Spitsbergen (i.e. the Treaty of Svalbard) in Paris.
It is provided that Norway has "full and complete sovereignty" over the Spitsbergen Islands, together with Bear Island, etc., but that citizens of the Contracting States may freely enter and engage in legitimate production and commerce and scientific expeditions within the scope of compliance with Norwegian law.
Originally, this kind of thing could not be fought with the Eight Rods of China at that time, but in 1925, France took the initiative to send people to find Duan Qirui, who was in charge of the Beiyang government at the time, and asked him to send a representative to sign it, probably thinking that the number of people signed this treaty was too small, and several countries joined to improve their effectiveness.
At that time, Duan Qirui felt that this Svalbard Island was 18,000 miles away from China, and as far as China's conditions at that time could go there, he felt that there was no harm in this treaty, so he sent someone to go through a formality to sign the "Svalbard Treaty", and it did not take long to forget about this matter, and the number of signatories to the "Svalbard Treaty" reached 51 in the same year.
It can be said that at that time, except for Duan Qirui and the relevant personnel involved in the signing of the treaty, few people in China knew or cared about the signing of such a treaty.
After 66 years, the Treaty of Svalbard reappeared in front of Chinese with a very coincidental opportunity.
In 1991, at the invitation of Professor Y. Ye Xin of the Institute of Geophysics of the University of Bergen in Norway and supported by the travel expenses of the "Antarctic Expedition Office" at that time, Gao Dengyi, the first person of the Chinese Three Pole Expedition, participated in the international Arctic scientific expedition composed of scientists from Norway, the Soviet Union, China and Iceland.
At that time, the Arctic, the United States and the United Kingdom and other countries had their own research stations, and their scientific expedition personnel could easily rest in their own scientific research stations, while China did not even have a foothold, and if they wanted to carry out long-term testable research, it was impossible to achieve.
It so happened that Professor Y. Ye Xin at that time sent a copy of the Arctic Guide to Gao Dengyi, and this guide contained the Treaty of Svalbard, which stated that China had the right to conduct scientific investigations of Svalbard Island. Gao Dengyi went to ask Professor Y. Ye Xin about the construction of the research station the next day.
Y. Ye Xin excitedly said to Gao Dengyi, "Gao, China is a member of the Svalbard Treaty, why don't you organize Chinese scientists to come here for scientific investigation and establish a scientific research station for Chinese?!" ”
Professor Y. Ye Xin's message to Gao Dengyi
After returning to China, Gordon immediately reflected on this situation and received support to begin preparations for China's first Arctic scientific research station, with the help of this time-honored treaty.
Finally, in 2003, China built China's first Arctic research station, the Yellow River Station, on the island of Svalbard.
And according to the provisions of the Treaty of Svalbard, Chinese citizens can also freely enter and leave the island without restriction.
Unfortunately, Norway has passed a bill that stipulates that non-Norwegian citizens need to have a passport or visa to enter Svalbard. Of course, after entering, you can theoretically live as long as you want, as long as you abide by Norwegian law.