This article details the intricate historical origins of the Karakoram Corridor and its stakes between China and Pakistan, China and India, and India and Pakistan. Please like and follow my headline number and read my series of articles related to friends who like to follow China-Pakistan relations and the story of China-Pakistan joint confrontation against India.
I. A brief introduction to the Karakoram Corridor
The Trans-Karakoram Tract is located in the Kashgar region of China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, adjacent to Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
The Karakoram Mountains are of Turkic origin, which means "black mountains". The Karakoram Mountains are famous glacier mountains in Asia, with an average altitude of 5,500 meters, a width of about 240 kilometers, and a length of 800 kilometers. The Karakoram Mountains are strategically important because they are located on the borders of China, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, where several countries meet.
Karakoram mountain scenery
The Karakoram Corridor, located on the north side of the Karakoram Mountains, is dominated by a large canyon, mainly including the Shashgan Valley, which belongs to the alpine mountains and is not suitable for human habitation.
The Karakoram corridor covers an area of 5,800 square kilometers, which is the size of a city of Shanghai or 180 Macau.
Schematic diagram of the Karakoram corridor
The Karakoram Corridor has been Chinese territory since ancient times, and as early as the Western Han Dynasty, the mainland had set up a governor here to govern it.
Karakoram scenery
In the middle of the 19th century, after the British had fully invaded India and made India their largest colony, they began to extend the claws of aggression to China.
The British discovered the Karakoram Corridor in northern India to be a shortcut to western China. So in 1854, the British occupied the Karakoram Corridor in preparation for their invasion of Xinjiang and Tibet, and did not forget to inform the Qing government after the occupation that the land would later belong to the British government.
At that time, the Qing government, which had begun to move towards a weak situation, was unable to resist in the face of the British invasion, but it kept protesting verbally, and in this way, the Karakoram corridor was illegally occupied by the British.
Second, the significance of the Karakoram Corridor to China
The strategic location of the Karakoram Corridor to the west, adjacent to the Pakistan-controlled Kashmir region and to the south with the Indian-controlled Kashmir region, is very important.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the only highway we built for Xinjiang to enter Tibet was through the Karakoram Corridor.
The section of the Karakoram Corridor of the New Tibet Highway is called the Karakoram Highway.
Karakoram Highway
View of the Karakoram Highway
The Karakoram Corridor is also India's route into China's Xinjiang, and if China loses the Karakoram Corridor, it will expose the hinterland of Xinjiang to Indian threats.
Third, the Karakoram Corridor returns to China
Before the British withdrew from India in 1947, they divided India into two countries, India and Pakistan, and divided the Karakoram Corridor, which had occupied China, into Pakistan. India has always been obsessed with this, always coveting this land.
Pakistan, which is on the weak side, is unable to defend here, and instead of being snatched away by India, it is better to return to China, which is also conducive to the friendship between China and Pakistan.
So in 1963, through negotiations, Pakistan offered to return the Karakoram Corridor to China. This piece of China's homeland has finally returned to the embrace of the motherland.
The return of the Karakoram corridor has greatly changed China's strategic situation in the conflict between China and India, effectively safeguarded the security of China's Xinjiang and Tibet frontiers, and greatly promoted China-Pakistan friendship!