The PLA's entry into Burma in 1960 was preceded and consequential 1: New China's first border agreement
After the founding of New China, the Chinese army went abroad to fight four times, of which the three times of sending troops to aid the DPRK, sending troops to aid Vietnam (including Laos) and the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam were very clear to everyone. What is less well known is that from the end of 1960 to the beginning of 1961, our army once crossed the border into Burma, cleared and suppressed the remnants of Chiang Kai-shek's army on the Burmese side of the border area, and fought a civil war outside the country, known in history as the "Sino-Burmese Joint Border Survey and Guard Operation." In this battle, the remnants of Chiang Kai-shek's army in Myanmar were eliminated and the stability of the Sino-Burmese border area was maintained.
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Historical Connections: Myanmar is a neighbor of China, located in the southwest of China, bordering Yunnan. Before the 11th century, the Burmese region was full of small states and had not yet formed a unified state. In 1044, Anuradha unified the Burmese region and established the Bagan Dynasty. It was the first great unified dynasty in Burmese history. Ancient Burma can be regarded as a member of the tributary system of the Central Plains Dynasty, but there was no agreed vassal relationship. Even the tribute did not become customized at that time, and the Bagan Dynasty only paid tribute to the Central Plains Dynasty twice in a period of more than 200 years. After The unification of Burma, Anuradha also created the Burmese script, which has a historical status in Burma, equivalent to china's Qin Shi Huang.
Over the next 1,000 years of history, Burma's relationship with the Central Plains dynasty has been mixed. In 1281, Yuan Shizu sent troops to attack and conquer Burma, but only established nominal vassal relations and tributary systems with Burma, that is, a ten-year tribute. In the 19th century, the British conquered Burma in 1885 through three wars, classified Burma as a province of British Indian colonies in 1886, and forced the Qing court to sign the Sino-British Burma Clause on July 24, 1886 (the 12th year of Qing Guangxu), the main contents of which were three: Britain allowed Burma to pay tribute to the Qing court every 10 years; the Qing court recognized all the privileges obtained by Britain in Burma; and the Sino-Burmese border should be jointly demarcated by China and Britain. By this time, Burma was no longer a nominal vassal state of China, and the tribute maintained by the treaty had effectively ceased. In the three dynasties of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, Burma paid tribute 33 times.
Historically, although Burma was a member of the tributary system, its relationship with the Central Plains Dynasty was far less close than that of the Dynasty and Vietnam, and its monarchs were not subject to the Central Plains Dynasty. The main reasons for this are: first, the mountains are high and the road is far away, and the whip is beyond reach; the second is that the culture is very different, Myanmar does not belong to the Han cultural circle, and its cultural roots are in India.
Border history: Due to the historical clan relationship between China and Myanmar, as well as the cross-border mixing of border people of the two countries in the border area, the border of the two countries of more than 2,100 kilometers has not been defined, and the two sides have kept their traditional borders. After britain began to rule Burma in 1885, it took the opportunity to cross the traditional border, occupy Chinese territory, expand the scope of colonization, and complicate the Sino-Burmese border issue. Before the founding of New China, the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China signed three boundary treaties with Britain on the boundary between China and Burma, namely, the Sino-Burmese Boundary Treaty of 1894, the Sino-British Treaty of Renewal of Burma in 1897, and the Sino-British Southern Boundary Exchange of Southern Yunnan and Burma in June 1941 (generally known as the 1941 Line).
[Kokang refugees fled into China, and a five-star red flag was planted in front of the shack to prevent shells from firing indiscriminately]
These three border treaties were unequal, and they were all forced by the British to take advantage of China's weakening national strength (Qing Dynasty) or the opportunity of the British (during the War of Resistance). The first two treaties pushed the traditional border between China and Burma to China on a large scale (kokang was assigned to British Burma in the 1897 treaty); the latter treaty modified the demarcated border according to British requirements to legitimize the forcible occupation of our territory. Among them, the essence of the 1941 "Sino-British Exchange of Borders between Yunnan and Burma" was that the British threatened to close China's wartime lifeline, the Burma Road, and forced the Chinese side to recognize the Burmese section of the McMahon Line. This method of the British is extremely ugly and despicable. Of course, in the history of Britain, especially during the colonization of colonies, similar things abounded.
【Border residents on the Border between China and Myanmar, every household planted a five-star red flag】
Border negotiations: In 1955, the People's Liberation Army crossed the 1941 line in pursuit of the remnants of Chiang Kai-shek's army, resulting in a clash of border defense forces between China and Myanmar, known in history as the "Huangguoyuan Incident". The two countries began border consultations in 1956. After more than three years of negotiations, the two sides finally reached an agreement on the boundary dispute. On January 28, 1960, the two countries signed the China-Myanmar Boundary Treaty. The treaty consists of 12 articles, the main contents of which are: Myanmar agreed to return the areas of Katama, Gulang and Gangfang (an area of about 153 square kilometers) to China; China assigned the Mengjiao Triangle area (that is, Nankan, an area of about 220 square kilometers) to Myanmar. In exchange, Myanmar assigned the BanHong and Ban Lao tribal jurisdictions (an area of about 189 square kilometers) to China; some fair and reasonable adjustments were made to a small section of the 1941 line so that some riding line villages were no longer divided by the boundary line; other borders were demarcated according to the traditional customary line.
Between gains and losses: The Sino-Burmese Boundary Treaty signed in 1960, of which 18% of the disputed territory of the two sides was allocated to China and 82% to Myanmar. According to this, many people believe that China has made too big concessions in the border negotiations and suffered heavy losses. This issue should be viewed objectively and historically. Historically, China has signed many unequal treaties with Western powers involving territory. After the founding of New China, the principle adhered to in the border negotiations was: Resolutely not to recognize these unequal treaties, but we can discuss how to solve the problem on the basis of the boundary trend drawn by these treaties. The disputed territory with Myanmar was caused by the three unequal treaties mentioned above, that is, the areas allocated to Myanmar by the three treaties.
If New China does not recognize the treaties formally signed by the "former dynasties" at all, the border issue may never be resolved. Therefore, it is a more rational way to deal with such historical problems without recognizing unequal treaties, but also respecting history and reality, and resolving the most sensitive border issues between neighboring countries through friendly consultation, mutual understanding and mutual accommodation. Therefore, the principle of New China's handling of the boundary issue is completely reasonable and beyond reproach. If we want to say that we have suffered losses, we have already suffered losses when signing 3 unequal treaties, not that New China has suffered losses when it solves the border problem. The China-Myanmar border was the first boundary line negotiated and resolved by New China, and it also explored a way to resolve the border issue left over from history.
Myanmar has been at war to this day
Difficult demarcation problems: According to the procedure for resolving the boundary issue, after the signing of the boundary treaty, the next step is for the two sides to jointly demarcate the boundary. However, after the signing of the China-Myanmar Boundary Treaty, the demarcation work could not be carried out. Why? Because the China-Myanmar border is on the Burmese side (northern Myanmar), there are many places occupied by the remnants of Chiang Kai-shek's army. These remnants of the army, while fighting against the Burmese army, often harassed the territory of Yunnan.
[Remnants of Chiang Kai-shek's Army Defeated in Burma]
Readers may be a little curious: Yunnan has been liberated for 10 years, why are there still Chiang Kai-shek's troops in the border areas? In fact, at that time, in the northern part of Myanmar, near the border area between China and Myanmar, there was a remnant of Chiang Kai-shek's army, calling itself the "Volunteer Army", which was quite large, with nearly 10,000 people, occupying an area of nearly 200,000 square kilometers, and more than the land area of 5 Taiwan Islands. How did these remnants of Chiang Kai-shek's army come from, and how did they take root in northern Burma? Before introducing the Sino-Burmese joint demarcation operation, it is necessary to introduce the ins and outs of these remnants of Chiang Kai-shek's army.