January 5, 1946 was a shameful day for the Chinese people, and on this day, the Nationalist Government was forced by the Soviet Union to issue a proclamation recognizing the independence of Outer Mongolia. Although Outer Mongolia had achieved de facto so-called "independence" as early as the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China under the coercion of Russia, the successive Chinese governments did not recognize this result, and the result of the Nationalist Government's direct recognition of the independence of Outer Mongolia caused its separation is a fact, and it has also become a legal fact from the perspective of international law, resulting in the 1.8 million square kilometers equivalent to 44 Taiwan territories that can no longer be returned to the motherland. The wording of the Constitution of the Republic of China on territorial expression also makes Outer Mongolia a state of "independence without independence", and through the discussion of these words, it can be found that the law has the unexpected effect of locking up Taiwan independence, and it has practical significance for safeguarding national unity now and in the future.
Full map of the Republic of China
1. Historical facts
This article focuses on the issue of the reunification and independence of Outer Mongolia in the Constitution of the Republic of China, rather than its process of independence, but it is necessary to briefly summarize the historical facts before discussing it, so as to facilitate the clarification of the relationship between Outer Mongolia and the motherland. The Central Plains Dynasty ruled the Mongolian Plateau for the first time in 49 A.D. to establish the Xianbei Dadu Protector here, although with the fall of the Han Dynasty and the chaos of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, this place broke away from the rule of the Central Plains Dynasty, but in 646 A.D., the Tang Dynasty united with the Hui and other Tiele tribes to destroy Xue Yantuo, Tiele, Hui and other thirteen tribes attached to the Tang Dynasty, and the following year set up the Yanran Protectorate to the east to the Great Xing'an Mountains, west to the Altai Mountains, south to the Gobi, The fact that the entire Mongolian plateau stretched north to Lake Baikal and was later reorganized into the Anbei Metropolitan Protectorate shows that Inner and Outer Mongolia have been territories of the mainland since ancient times, and the establishment of the Qing Dynasty further strengthened this fact.
The territory of the Han Empire during the Han and Emperor periods
At the beginning of the 13th century, Genghis Khan, the leader of the Qiyan tribe, unified all the tribes in this region to establish the Great Mongolian State, and then the Mongol Empire annexed the Song Dynasty and established the Yuan Dynasty in the Central Plains, and after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, many Mongols flowed to the Saiwai to establish the Northern Yuan and Ming confrontations, during which the internal Mongolian tribes gradually formed the Mobei region (roughly the scope of present-day Outer Mongolia) "Seven Departments of Outer Khalkha" and the "Five Divisions of Inner Khalkha" in the middle of the 16th century At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Jin hit the Inner Khalkha to subdue the latter, and Mobei was a vassal after the defeat of the Chahar Khan Ezhe, at this time, in addition to the territory of the Dzungar Department, most of the territory except the western part of Outer Mongolia was possessed by the tribes that submitted to the Manchu Dynasty, and later the Qing Dynasty after many wars with the Dzungar Department, the entire territory of Mongolia, including today's Outer Mongolia, was incorporated into the territory of the Qing Dynasty during the Kangxi period.
Territory of the Qing Dynasty
However, since Outer Mongolia became China's inherent territory, greedy Russians have been eyeing this land. In 1727, China and Russia signed the Treaty of Brensky to confirm China's sovereignty over Mongolia, but it has been waiting to act, in 1854 the governor of Eastern Siberia, Muravyov, said that "in the event of a coup d'état in China, the new Chinese government should not be allowed to expand its power to Mongolia, in this case, Mongolia should be protected by Russia", and the Qing Dynasty, which was in a weakened period, gave Russia the opportunity to meddle in Mongolian affairs. Economic and cultural exchanges achieved the goal of splitting China in a subtle way, and after the Russo-Japanese War, Japan and Russia bypassed China and reached an agreement to divide their respective spheres of influence in Mongolia, and Outer Mongolia was rightfully regarded by Russia as its own territory and actively intervened.
Late Qing Dynasty Emperor Russian Whale Swallowing Map
In the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, Russia took advantage of the political turmoil caused by the "indigestion" of the Qing Dynasty's previous new policy in Outer Mongolia to instigate splitting, established the so-called "Great Mongolia", and extended the claws of aggression to Inner Mongolia, but the conspiracy went bankrupt under the heroic resistance of the government army, and on September 18, 1913, the Sino-Russian Declaration Document was signed, China recognized the autonomy of Outer Mongolia, Russia recognized China's suzerainty in Outer Mongolia, and later signed the Kyakhta Agreement Outer Mongolia abolished its independence and exercised autonomy, and China's sovereignty over Outer Mongolia was temporarily retained. In the October Revolution of 1917, Russia fell into chaos, and Soviet Russia temporarily claimed to abolish a series of unequal treaties signed between Tsarist Russia and China in order to have a respite, and at this great moment, Xu Shuzheng led the army to recover Outer Mongolia in 1919, and Outer Mongolia was de jure and de facto to China, but Chinese mainland soon fell into warlord chaos again, leaving the government without time for the problem of Outer Mongolia, and the reforms implemented by Xu Shuzheng here were opposed by stubborn forces and showed signs of splitting, and the Slavs, who gradually eased up from the civil war, tore off their hypocritical faces and supported the Mongolian People's Party to control Outer Mongolia, and Outer Mongolia became de facto independent again.
In January 1920, the army of the Republic of China revoked the ceremony of autonomy of Outer Mongolia
On November 26, 1924, the "Mongolian People's Republic" was established, but neither the Beijing government nor the later Nationalist government recognized this Soviet-backed regime, but the end of World War II changed the situation. On the one hand, the poor performance of the Warring States Army in Henan, Hunan and Guizhou made the United States acquiesce to the Soviet Union's control of Outer Mongolia in exchange for the latter's troops, on the other hand, the Soviet Union used its hands and feet in Xinjiang and Northeast China to blackmail the Chinese government, and finally signed the "Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance" in August 1945, and the Nationalist Government recognized the independence of Outer Mongolia in January of the following year, and the subsequent reluctance could not change this fact, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China in October 1949, he gladly accepted this result, Guo Moruo was in the "People's Daily" as early as August of that year On October 16, Zhou Enlai replied to the head of the Mongolian government to establish diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level, so as to completely form a new relationship between Mongolia and China.
At that time, a certain newspaper reported on the issue of foreign Mongolia
2. It cannot be revoked
The Nationalist Government was very reluctant to recognize the independence of Outer Mongolia, so it prevented Outer Mongolia from completely obtaining the qualification of "independent legal person", that is, joining the United Nations, because the Kuomintang and the Communist Party had not yet torn their faces and did not want to offend the Soviet Union too obviously, so in July 1946, Dr. Tan Shaohua, the Chinese Minister to the United States, informed the U.S. State Department by telephone that China did not support Outer Mongolia's accession to the United Nations, and then on August 6, Xu Shuxi, the representative of the Republic of China to the United Nations, first said that he would support Outer Mongolia's accession to the United Nations in due course, and even voted in favor of Outer Mongolia's application for membership in August. The U.S. vote was very tacitly unsuccessful in voting against it, and it was a good tactic. However, the deterioration of the situation made the Nationalist Government no longer beat around the bush, on the one hand, the civil war broke out again, on the other hand, there was a direct confrontation with Outer Mongolia in the Beitashan incident, the Chinese government lodged a serious protest to the other side, in August 1947 the Chinese side refused to join the Union of Outer Mongolia on this matter, in 1949 Chinese mainland changed hands, the angry Nationalist Government directly submitted to the General Assembly the "Accusing the Soviet Union of Violating the Sino-Soviet Treaty and the UN Charter, Threatening China's Political Independence and Territorial Integrity and Peace in the Far East", accusing the Soviet Union of violating the agreement.
It is a historical fact that the Nationalist Government "recognized the independence of Outer Mongolia."
Although the U.S. still had a P5 seat, the U.S. was in a wait-and-see state on the situation in China, so the U.S.'s accusations were not heeded at the time, and it was not until the outbreak of the Korean War that the UN General Assembly changed its attitude, and in December 1950, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 383 to investigate the Soviet Union's breach. In 1952, the government again sued the Soviet Union, and the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 505 with 25 votes in favor, 9 votes against, and 24 abstentions, condemning the Soviet Union and ruling that the Soviet Union had not fulfilled the treaty, and on February 24, 1953, the Taiwan legislature abrogated the "Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance" and revoked its recognition of Outer Mongolia, thus once again stating that "the territory of the Republic of China still contains Outer Mongolia, which resembles begonia leaves" At the 704th plenary meeting of the Security Council in December 1955, Jiang Tinghuang voted against blocking Outer Mongolia from joining the United Nations, and at the 790th plenary meeting of the Security Council in December 1956, he blocked Outer Mongolia again, and Outer Mongolia "returned to the map" in this way.
Full map of the Republic of China
In fact, as early as 1950, before the adoption of the 505 Resolution, the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China signed the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance, which declared the 1945 Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance invalid, and the adoption of the 505 Resolution seems to have denied the independence of Outer Mongolia from the legal point of view. However, it is a pity that international law does not recognize the concept of civil law, and the recognition of a new country cannot be revoked, and it is inappropriate to use an inappropriate analogy that a unilateral reversal by a party after a divorce does not affect the result of divorce. Assuming that after a country recognizes one of its homelands as a state, when other countries establish relations with the latter, such relations are unlikely to be invalidated by the repudiation of the former fatherland, so the unilateral revocation of recognition in international law applies only to the government that rules a country (severance of diplomatic relations), not to the state (note that the state and the government should be separated here).
Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance
In addition to the above-mentioned reasons, in fact, the government itself later carried out the act of de facto recognition of the secession of Outer Mongolia. In 1961, the Soviet bloc and the African bloc reached an agreement to support Outer Mongolia's accession to the United Nations, which caused the United States to worry that the Chiang Kai-shek government with the P5 seats would always prevent Outer Mongolia from joining the United Nations and would damage US-African relations. In 2012, the Taiwan administrative authorities (during the Ma Ying-jeou period) issued a press release stating that "Outer Mongolia is no longer an inherent territory", so it seems that even the "parties" have recognized this result, and there is no longer a denial from the inside out. The wording of the concept of territory, which is derived from the mainland's 1947 constitution, is currently used by Rantai to make Outer Mongolia "independent but not independent".
Outer Mongolia today
3. Unification of jurisprudence
One might wonder why domestic law should be entangled in domestic law when the outcome is already a fact in international law. In fact, the two are not subordinate or subordinate relations, the two are the field of well water does not violate river water, international treaties need to comply with international law, but the specific performance of the contracting parties is based on their own legal operations, in fact, for most countries international law is lower than domestic law, as for whether the operation process violates international law is another matter, it depends on whether the parties will not be afraid to take diplomatic risks in order to maintain their own constitutional authority, so the performance of international law is in fact backed by strength, and the binding force on the subject involved is actually lower than domestic law。 In the case of Mongolia, it is true that its diplomatic recognition and the specific operation of its administrative organs are fulfilling its international obligations, but as far as its internal law is concerned, it has not completed the legal process, and we can use the inappropriate analogy of the delivery of immovable property.
The delivery of immovable property is based on registration, assuming that Outer Mongolia is "immovable property", and at present the "recipient" (the international community) has "paid the consignor and been recognized by the latter" (recognized by the country concerned) and "handled residence" (accession to the United Nations, establishment of diplomatic relations, etc.), but because the "immovable property" has not been registered in accordance with the "Property Law" (domestic law), the "delivery" has not been completed, but the "Contract Law" (international law) also stipulates that "the ownership of the subject matter shall be transferred from the time of delivery of the subject matter" (the recognition of the new state is irrevocable). At present, the "parties" have indeed been actively performing the contract, but the subjective and objective reasons have not completed the "registration", so the performance of the obligations of the "Contract Law" (international law) has not been completed in accordance with the "Property Law" (domestic law), if it is really a civil act, it is really easy to adjudicate, but the "Property Law" and the "Contract Law" mentioned here are not in the same field, so what provisions in the Constitution formulated by the mainland in 1947 caused such a situation?
Certificate of immovable property registration
"The territory of the Republic of China shall not be changed in accordance with its inherent boundaries without a resolution of the National Assembly", this sentence is located in Article 3 of the "General Program" of the 1947 Constitution, which shows the importance attached to national sovereignty, but because the "inherent territory" does not specify which territories to protect, this has given rise to controversy. Some people believe that the "inherent territory" should be the territory under the actual control of the constitution at the time of the constitution, which does not include Outer Mongolia, which was divided in 1946, and the Taiwan administration, which has lifted martial law, also recognized the international status quo of Outer Mongolia on the grounds that "the procedure for changing the territory without the National Congress when the recognition was revoked in 1953." In 1993, when the legislature made an interpretation of the term "inherent territory", the judiciary might have to take into account the actual situation on the one hand, and on the other hand, it would not dare to become a "de jure traitor", so it made a vague interpretation that "the definition of the inherent territory is a major political issue and should not be interpreted by the constitutional interpretation organ exercising judicial power."
The current judicial organs of Taiwan
The interpretation neither affirmed nor denied, and at the same time did not approve which body had the right to interpret it, but the executive and legislative organs have been carrying out what they think is acting, and no one in the judiciary has dared to make a ruling on such acts. Politics aside, the word "inherent" means "already there", and it is obviously inappropriate for some to ridicule whether this "inherent" can be traced back to the Mongol Empire, but it is not to be rashly determined the actual scope of control at the time of the constitution (i.e. 1947) (which has been interpreted by judicial officers), but we can deduce the approximate span from an example, taking the recent handover of Hong Kong as an example.
The return of Hong Kong
What was Taiwan's attitude when Hong Kong returned to the motherland in 1997, when the administrative authorities said that "for Hong Kong's return to the Chinese nation...... Feel relieved". The mainland is an indisputable legal sphere, but if Hong Kong and Macao, which were not under actual control at the time of the constitution formulation (47 years), really follow what some people say, this kind of return involves the matter of territorial change and must be subject to the resolution of the National Assembly? The Taiwan side obviously did not carry out this procedure, but was happy about Hong Kong's return to the motherland, and the judicial organs did not request additional procedures because of this result. inherent territory", and then it is determined that the "inherent territory" is at least before the cession of Hong Kong in 1842, and at that time Outer Mongolia was a part of China in terms of both international law and actual control, so it is obviously inappropriate to deny that Outer Mongolia is not an "inherent territory" based on the actual control time.
Map of the situation at the end of the Qing Dynasty
Of course, excluding the view of the "actual control faction", the current view is to deny that Outer Mongolia is not an "inherent territory" by combining the government's first diplomatic recognition with the vague concept of "inherent territory" in the law. As for the first time to recognize this viewpoint, it has already been said that international law and domestic law are not things in the same field, and it is inappropriate to confuse them, but in terms of the ambiguous relationship between Outer Mongolia and the "inherent territory", in fact, we can judge by sorting out the history of the legal provisions on territory since the founding of the Republic of China, and the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China, the first bourgeois constitutional document in China, stipulates that the territory of the Republic of China is divided into 22 provinces, Inner and Outer Mongolia, Tibet, Qinghai, which clearly indicates that Outer Mongolia is part of the mainland (note: the 22 provinces do not include Taiwan and therefore have limitations), and the Statute of the Republic of China, which later replaced it, stipulates that "the territory of the Republic of China shall be subject to all the territories of the former empire", which is vague but states that it includes all the territory of the former empire (Qing Dynasty), which naturally includes Outer Mongolia.
Provisional Statute of the Republic of China
Leaving aside the later "Cao Kun Constitution", which is less legally rational, the first two quasi-constitutions actually clearly stipulate that Outer Mongolia is the inherent territory of the Republic of China, and even if the name of the Nationalist Government remains unchanged, the change of government does not affect the relationship between Outer Mongolia and this unchanged national name. Of course, based on the revolutionary nature, some people will deny the legal rationality of Beiyang because of the emergence of the Nationalist Government, but even so, the first article of the "Republic of China Discipline and Administration Period Law" promulgated in 1931 stipulates that "the territory of the Republic of China is the provinces and Mongolia and Tibet", here do not confuse Inner Mongolia or Inner Mongolia because of the word "Mongolia", here it is written "provinces" to indicate that the main body of this article is a first-level administrative unit, and the current Inner Mongolia belongs to the four provinces of Ningxia, Rehe, Chahar and Suiyuan in the "provinces" at that time, so immediately followed " "Mongolia" of course refers only to the administrative unit of Mongolia (Outer Mongolia).
The administrative division of "Inner Mongolia" in the 30s
As a quasi-constitutional document of a special period, the "Covenant Law" naturally has a successor relationship with the later formal constitution, and when the Nationalist Government recognized Outer Mongolia in 1946, this quasi-constitution did not undergo any amendment or invalidity, of course, we cannot say that the Nationalist Government violated the law, because the Judicial Yuan during the period of discipline was a subordinate department of the Nationalist Government, and the Nationalist Government did go through the complete procedures, and the contradiction between administrative acts and the judiciary naturally arose during the special period of discipline in which power was greater than the law, and the contradiction between administrative acts and the judiciary could not be denied. It is precisely because of this that there is a loophole in the decree on the territorial issue, and the "Covenant Law" that "retains Outer Mongolia" was not naturally repealed until the establishment of the "Constitution of the Republic of China" in 1947, after the government's diplomatic recognition of Outer Mongolia, and the "inherent territory" in the Constitution was naturally inherited from the "Covenant Law" Therefore, from the perspective of domestic law, only the procedure of completing the resolution of the National Assembly can solve the judicial defects arising in the special period, but this procedure has never been completed, so the issue of Outer Mongolia has taken on a state of "independence but not independence".
The flag of the Taiwan Marine Corps that is still in use today
Fourth, special role
In addition to the accidental factor, there seems to be a man-made inevitable factor that causes this special situation. One of the most striking aspects of the "Fifth Five-Year Constitution" in the preparatory stage before the formal promulgation of the Constitution is that it adopts enumeration in the territorial provisions, that is, "the territory of the Republic of China shall be Jiangsu、...... Mongolia, Tibet and other inherent territories, the territory of the Republic of China, must not be changed without the National Assembly", this article not only clarifies all the recognized territories including "Outer Mongolia", but also adds a "etc" to the future such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and other temporary territories to return to the gap, which is a more perfect expression, at that time it was a period of "golden decade" national strength improvement, may have given the people the confidence to return to their homeland, so Mongolia was explicitly listed to arouse the heart of the nation, but the Lugou Bridge incident changed the development of the situation.
The Lugou Bridge Incident
The war created the possibility of territorial change, so in 1943 the National Council for the Promotion of Constitutional Affairs proposed that "the constitutional provisions on territory should be summarized according to the situation after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War". On the one hand, not only did it not negate the future possibility of the return of the relevant homeland, but at the same time, in that difficult period when the national strength was weakened by the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, it would not have caused serious diplomatic disputes to make the domestic situation worse because the constitution listed the names of territories and places in sensitive hot spots, which had the effect of killing two birds with one stone。
CPPCC meeting
The provisions in the French language are not only aimed at Outer Mongolia, but also have the same effect on the Taiwan issue, which is more pressing at present. Taiwan independence elements have been clamoring for "de jure Taiwan independence" to incite populism, but in fact this is not feasible; as mentioned earlier, territorial changes need to be resolved by the National Congress, what is the National Congress? The National Congress is the embodiment of Sun Yat-sen's democratic centralism, and its status is higher than that of the Legislative Yuan. After the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, Chiang Kai-shek used the right of amendment to exercise the right of amendment by using the right of amendment to the National Assembly, which had just reached half (the threshold for a meeting) who had moved to Taiwan. However, with the successive deaths of members of the National Assembly and the impossibility of electing new members of the National Assembly in the mainland, based on the actual conditions, the Taiwan side hastened to let the National Congress decentralize power through a series of "additions and revisions" around the turn of the century, even though the members have not yet left.
The scene of the meeting of the National Congress
In 2005, the National Congress was "frozen" and its historic mission came to an end. Some people may wonder if this practice does not violate the fundamental principle? Actually, no, "freezing" is not an abolition, and it can be "unfrozen" when conditions permit, and the current Taiwan society is actually operating on the basis of a "temporary law"; as mentioned earlier, the amendment is not a change to the original text, and at the same time, it cannot violate the general principle, so the "addition and amendment" is to freeze part of this article and revise it in the form of an additional article and amendment on the basis of not amending the original article, and "add and amend" The text is not embodied in the original, but is made in a separate volume, so since it cannot violate the general principle, it certainly includes the principle of "inherent territory", and the organs that can really change the "inherent territory" in the general principle are also frozen, so any subsequent "additions" cannot involve this level.
The Constitution of the Republic of China, enacted in 1947, can be found in Article 4 of the Territorial Section
Some people may be concerned that the territorial change bill has been decentralized, but in fact, the predecessors have left a hand, and all the "additional provisions" may differ depending on the color of the political party, but the preamble of the text reads "to meet the needs of the country before reunification...... This shows that all the "additions and amendments" at present and in the future cannot go against national reunification, and neither the original major principle nor the minor principle of the "additional" text can be changed, and "before reunification" also shows that Taiwan is still in a "temporary tense" at this time, and there is no need to think about the so-called "de jure Taiwan independence." It is precisely because the "legality" of "Taiwan independence" does not exist at all that it is sad and ridiculous for the current green camp to try to change the concept by changing the brand name, or to use historical nihilism such as "negating the Cairo Declaration" to deviate from the "perspective of international law". Judging from the current balance of forces, the clamoring for Taiwan independence by the green camp is completely unrealistic, but the so-called killing of people and the ability to punish people must not only have the strength to kill, but also the ability to punish Taiwan independence.
The Cairo Conference made it clear that Taiwan belongs to China
If they don't even recognize this, then they can't even trace their basic rights under the current situation. The most recent example is that in May last year, Taiwan's administrative organs issued a "letter of interpretation" on the compensation dispute caused by the accidental death of a mainland man in Taiwan, deliberately stripping away the identity of the people on both sides of the strait. However, the letter has aroused excitement in Taiwanese society, which shows that the entire Taiwanese society has been deeply poisoned under the coercion of populism, which may further stimulate the green camp to bypass the law and do illegal things, and Taiwanese young people will pay a heavy price for this.
Chen Chien-jen, head of the administrative agency of the Taiwan Green Camp
Just imagine that today's green camp can illegally seek power in the name of unjustifiable, and the next step can also deprive ordinary people of their rights in the name of "justice", this kind of tragedy in the history of China and foreign countries is not without tragedy in which people are attracted by the exaggerated future touted by populism and make all generations pay the price for their actions. Therefore, I would like to advise the younger generation in Taiwan to be rational and study more history and law under the sensibility of allowing them to "catch up with fashion" in this best era, otherwise there will be no regret medicine to take when the tragedy comes, and Taiwan and other inherent territories of China will always be an inalienable part of China! By the way, the preamble of the "Constitution of the People's Republic of China" that "Taiwan is a part of the sacred territory of the People's Republic of China" also indicates that the most pressing issue in the current form is the Taiwan issue. Please also check whether the specific expressions such as area are embodied in the Constitution, and you can judge for yourself whether Outer Mongolia is still part of China.