Today, our country has a vast territory of 9.6 million square kilometers, and we have a vast land. From north to south across the temperate zone and the tropics, and from west to north also across several time zones. This is our vast motherland, but in the course of our thousands of years of history, our country reached its peak during the Yuan Dynasty.
At that time, our territory stretched from the Sea of Japan in the east, to the cold Siberia in the north, to the Persian Gulf in Central Asia in the south, and our land once reached the Danube River in Europe. But because all the dynasties and dynasties have put the political center in our central plains, they are keen to expand their territory, but they are not good at ruling the frontier areas. Moreover, our central plains alone are enough for the people to multiply, and for the governance of the frontier, the rulers have always been a free-range policy. This is the main reason why we are keen to expand our land and have no colonies. But what most of us don't know is that we have our stake in the distant and cold Arctic Circle today. And we have permanent rights to this land.
This land is a coincidence for us, and this land was obtained during the Republic of China period. At that time, Yuan Shikai overthrew the rule of the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty fell. After overthrowing the feudal imperial system, Yuan Shikai was short-sighted and engaged in a restoration farce. But the era did not allow for the existence of a feudal monarchy, so his regime failed after less than a hundred days. Since then, our Central Plains has fallen into the era of warlord chaos, which is what we know as the Beiyang warlord government.
At that time, the country was in ruins, the warlords on all sides continued to expand their power, and the country was in chaos. During this period, neither domestic politics nor economic development improved, let alone developed. But one thing is worthy of our affirmation, that is, although the country is divided and the warlords on all sides are also fighting openly and secretly, none of the warlords have succumbed to imperialism for their own power. They have never bowed their heads in the face of such a matter of principle as the sovereignty of the state, and they have never bowed their heads and sought glory. Not only that, but it also recovered Outer Mongolia during this period and signed the "Svalbard Treaty" with European and American countries, and the delegation has been making efforts for the interests of the Beiyang government and people. It was this mistake that gave us access to a large area of the Nordic Islands.
The island is Svalbard, located in scenic Norway. According to the treaty of Svalbard, sovereignty over the island belonged to Norway, but countries could engage in some reasonable exploitation of the land as long as they complied with Norwegian law. For example, scientific research activities, various production and operation. Although the island is not large, but because of its geographical location, the most important types of resources are very rich, especially with the development of science and technology, found that this island contains a large number of mineral resources, coupled with a unique geographical location, marine resources are nothing to say. Therefore, it has attracted the attention of all countries to this island.
Because all countries are very greedy and unwilling to give in, they have signed treaties to restrain them in order to avoid war. The treaty stipulates that everyone can share resources on the island, whether it is fishing or settling, or doing business and scientific research activities. In order to maintain this situation for a long time, the 18 countries led by Britain and the United States signed a treaty in 1920 stipulating that the island could not be used for military purposes. As a result, Svalbard became the first and only demilitarized zone in history.
In 1925, the Svalbard Decree was adopted. A further 33 countries were added to the decree, including China, represented by the Beiyang government. At that time, Duan Qirui sent our famous diplomat Gu Weijun to sign the contract. However, due to the fact that during the Beiyang government period, the whole country was in a turbulent era, and there was still no time for the country to take care of itself, let alone to fight for and realize the legitimate rights and interests in the treaty. So we just signed the contract and didn't enjoy the power we deserved.
This continued until the 1980s. At that time, our country had gone from standing up to reform and opening up, the country became rich and strong step by step, and its position in the international community became more and more important. Therefore, after many negotiations, we got the consent of the Western countries to take back the original power on this island. We can conduct research on this island and set up our own research station.
The island is located in the Arctic Circle and offers beautiful aurora sights. Especially under today's environmental protection and ecological development concept, countries are now more likely to build research stations on this island for the study of the Arctic. The Arctic Yellow River Research Station, as we know it, was established on this island and was completed and put into use in July 2004. It can be said that the wrong actions of the Beiyang government at that time had a profound impact on us today. Perhaps Mr. Gu Weijun did not expect that the treaty that was acceded to at that time would benefit us immensely today.