The Wakhan Corridor is currently the only border between China and Afghanistan. This section of the road is about 400 kilometers in total, we occupy 100 kilometers, and the rest is from Afghanistan.
This corridor is actually artificial, and there was no such concept in the past. The main reason is that when Tsarist Russia and British India were fighting on the Pamir Plateau, in order to avoid war, they drew such a buffer zone between their respective spheres of influence. As a result, it was accidentally turned into a border zone between China and Argentina.
Back then, Tsarist Russia and Britain both wanted to eat the Pamirs, why didn't they fight here? Who did the Pamirs belong to in the past?
The Pamir Plateau is originally a green ridge in China
The Pamir Plateau, known as the Buzhou Mountains in ancient Chinese texts, is located northwest of the Kunlun Mountains. During the Western Han Dynasty, merchants who traveled to Central Asia and Europe through the Silk Road had to pass through the Pamirs.
During the Han Dynasty, the Pamir Plateau was called the Green Ridge because it was covered with wild onions, or because the top of the mountain was lush and green. The Han Dynasty set up the Western Regions Protectorate here, and included the Green Mountains under its jurisdiction.
In the Tang Dynasty, the entire territory of the Green Mountains was once again included in the scope of rule, and the garrison here and the establishment of the Green Mountains guard, responsible for the management of the territory of western Xinjiang and eastern Central Asia.
After the Anshi Rebellion in the 8th century, the Tang Dynasty lost its ability to rule the Western Regions, causing the Pamirs to fall into the hands of the Great Food Kingdom and Tibet. It was not until the 13th century that the Mongol army marched westward and once again took the Pamir Plateau into its pocket, becoming part of the Great Mongolian State.
In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, after the destruction of the Dzungar Khanate in 1757, the Central Plains Dynasty once again gained control of the entire Pamir Plateau. At that time, the Pamirs were mainly divided into eight pa, which were:
and Shkuzhuk Pamir, Sarez Pamir, Langkuli Pamir, Archul Pamir, Great Pamir, Lesser Pamir, Taktun Pash Pamir, Wakhan Pamir.
One of the more famous is the Wakhan Pamir, because the Wakhan Corridor on the Sino-Arab border is part of the Wakhan Pamir.
In the late 19th century, Britain and Tsarist Russia were eyeing the Pamirs at the same time. The British occupied the Indian subcontinent, established British India here, and continued to expand abroad. Tsarist Russia, on the other hand, seized most of Central Asia in the mid-19th century and continued to expand eastward and southward.
In 1892, Tsarist Russia forcibly occupied more than 20,000 square kilometers south of the Sarykole Ridge
In 1881, after Tsarist Russia and the Qing Dynasty signed the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty, they took away more than 70,000 square kilometers of land in the northwest outside the Qing Dynasty.
Even so, they refused to give up and once again invaded the Pamirs. Originally, according to the provisions of the "Sino-Russian Treaty on the Continued Exploration of the Kashgar Boundary", Tsarist Russia cut off the area from the Suyok Pass to the Uzberi Pass, and the area south of the Uzberi Pass was mainly divided into three parts:
Tsarist Russia from here to the southwest, China from here to the south, the middle of the two lines, is the waiting area.
It can be seen from this that all the territory south of the Uzberi Pass should be owned by China. This is already the result of China's acceptance of unequal treaties and the compromise of the whole.
But Tsarist Russia was still not satisfied with this, and they not only wanted to cut off the territory, but also to wait for the district. The waiting area even reached out to the territory of the Chinese side. The Pamir Plateau, which is more than 20,000 square kilometers west of the Sarykole Ridge, was also forcibly occupied by Tsarist Russia in 1892. Since then, China and Russia have never added any unequal treaties to this area, so this is an illegal occupation.
At the same time, the British sphere of influence was advancing northward, having previously invaded Afghanistan twice before, thus gaining partial domination of the country.
At this time, Tsarist Russia also wanted to come to Afghanistan to get a piece of the pie, and the two sides met in the Pamirs. No one dared to do it easily, so everyone took a step back and did not eat Afghanistan directly, and at the same time drew the Wakhan Corridor as the boundary between the forces of the two sides in the Pamirs, and gave it to the Kingdom of Afghanistan.
In fact, according to the treaty between China and Russia, part of the Wakhan Corridor belongs to China, and part of it belongs to the Sino-Russian Waiting Area. As a result, the two of them gave the Wakhan Corridor to Afghanistan without China's permission, which is simply incredible.
In 1963, the boundaries of the Wakhan Corridor were officially demarcated
After the formation of the Wakhan Corridor, it has long been a buffer zone between Britain and Russia. This situation has not changed regardless of whether Russia has gone through the Tsarist or Soviet eras.
Fortunately, in the course of World War II, Britain and Russia came together, so Afghanistan, as an area contested by both sides, also escaped the flames of World War II.
However, the situation changed after World War II, British India was gone, Britain returned to live in their homeland, and the Soviet Union lost its opponents in Afghanistan, so it brazenly launched a war of invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, and fought for 10 years. As a result, the Soviet Union failed to gnaw Afghanistan down, but allowed the Soviet Union to usher in disintegration.
As early as 1955, China and Argentina began to establish diplomatic relations, and in 1960, the two sides began to negotiate on the border issue. The border was officially demarcated in 1963.
The vast majority of the 400-kilometer Wakhan Corridor was originally China's territory, but under the influence of Britain and Russia, most of the area fell into the hands of Afghanistan. As a result, 300 kilometers to the west of the Wakhan Corridor were owned by Afghanistan, while 100 kilometers to the east were assigned to China. The length of the border between the two sides is only about 93 kilometers.
The Wakhan Corridor is of great significance to Chinese civilization. Our senior monk Faxian in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and Xuanzang in the Tang Dynasty all arrived in Tianzhu through the Wakhan Corridor to study Buddhism.
If it weren't for the Anglo-Russian rivalry over the Pamirs, the Wakhan Corridor would have always been within China's sphere of influence. Of course, the Wakhan Corridor has now become a channel for trade exchanges between China and Arab countries, and it may shine in the future.
Tajikistan emerged as the biggest winner
In fact, in the process of Britain and Russia competing for Pamir, it was not Afghanistan that benefited the most, but Tajikistan later. Afghanistan received only one Wakhan corridor, while Tajikistan received nearly half of their territory.
The disputed area forcibly occupied by Tsarist Russia and more than 20,000 square kilometers of the Chinese part were all included in Tajikistan by the Soviet Union during the Soviet era.
Tajikistan has only 140,000 square kilometers of land, and the disputed area, together with the more than 20,000 square kilometers forcibly occupied by Tsarist Russia, accounts for almost half of Tajikistan's territory. Coupled with the Outer Northwest Territories that Tsarist Russia ceded from the Qing Dynasty, it can be said that Tajikistan is the country that has benefited the most.
Logically speaking, the disputed area was put aside, and the more than 20,000 square kilometers forcibly occupied by Tsarist Russia had no treaty as evidence, and must be returned to China.