In 2011, the border issue between China and Tajikistan was successfully resolved, and the mainland quietly recovered thousands of square kilometers of land.
No one expected that this land would be rich in mineral resources, which was the envy of other countries.
Why, then, did China quietly reclaim this territory, which had been lost for more than 100 years, and what treasures does this territory contain?
Roof of the World: The Pamirs
This reclaimed territory is the Pamirs, and in our primary school textbooks, there is an article about the Pamirs, which is called the Roof of the World.
Although the Pamir Plateau is far away from the Central Plains, it has been an inseparable part of China since ancient times.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Buzhou Mountain was located on the west side of Kunlun Mountain, and later because of several wars, this mountain became famous, and later, Buzhou Mountain was renamed Green Ridge, and it is said that the mountain was full of wild onions at that time.
By the time of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, the Western Regions Protectorate was established and had direct jurisdiction over the entire Pamir Plateau, even in the Tang Dynasty, so the Pamir Plateau was incorporated into the Chinese territory very early on, and it was a natural barrier between us and Central Asia.
It's a pity that during the Qing Dynasty, the national strength declined, and the Western hostile forces were eyeing the continent and constantly using various methods to invade the mainland.
In 1884, China was once again defeated in the struggle, and afterwards negotiated terms with Tsarist Russia and signed the Sino-Russian Treaty on the Renewal of the Kashgar Boundary, and thus the Pamir Plateau was occupied by them.
However, the ambitions of Tsarist Russia were not satisfied, and they intensified their attack to the south, and along the way, the surrounding countries were almost offended by them, resulting in being targeted later, and Russia in order to protect itself, even "cut off its arms to survive" to cede part of the territory of the Pamirs as a military strategic buffer zone.
Russia's broken arm survived, in fact, it didn't hurt at all, after all, it was not his own arm that was broken, at this time, Tsarist Russia continued to fight, and the Pamirs were finally occupied by Britain and Afghanistan.
Originally, we did not share a border with Afghanistan, but since the Wakhan Corridor, the two countries have been connected, which is another big threat to border security.
After the founding of the state, we sought common ground while reserving differences, abandoned the Wakhan Pamir, but did not expect that in the 90s the Soviet Union was drawn into a political crisis, and many allied countries declared independence, including Tajikistan.
Opening the world map, we find that China has the longest land border in the world, with a total length of about 22,800 kilometers, which shows that our territory is vast, but because there are too many bordering countries, it also brings us thorny border problems.
In 1999, when the United Nations convened a meeting, China and Tajikistan once again sat down at the negotiating table, intending to redraw the border in order to resolve the conflict.
But in the years that followed, as China gradually grew in power and became a world power, Tajikistan's attitude also underwent a subtle change, and they even took the initiative to return 1,158 square kilometers of territory on the mainland, and finally reached an agreement.
On September 20, 2011, China and Tajikistan finally successfully resolved their territorial dispute at Pillar 75, and on the same day, the handover ceremony of the newly demarcated national border was held, and after more than 130 years, the Pamir region once again returned to the embrace of the motherland.
Perhaps because of the shame of taking the initiative to return the territory, Tajikistan did not widely publicize the incident, and the Chinese side also expressed its understanding and adopted a low-key approach in policy to quietly regain a large piece of territory.
The news of the Pamir's return was heartening, and the people of the whole country celebrated, especially for the older generation, who sincerely felt the great influence of the new China on the international stage.
At this point, the Pamirs are over, and according to Chinese tradition, some people choose to settle here, and a large team of experts have come here to explore.
It didn't take long for the corresponding geological exploration work to follow, and during this period, we also asked Tajikistan for geological exploration materials, but they did not show them to China, which made us feel that there were no valuable resources in the local area.
Geological exploration experts believe that Tajikistan acquired this land relatively late, and may not have explored much, let alone draw conclusions based on the level of science and technology at that time.
With this in mind, the experts came to the Pamirs and began to explore with all kinds of precision instruments, and at first, we found only some natural resources on the surface, but the distribution area was too small to be worth exploiting.
In 2011, the technology was not as good as it is now, and due to various factors, we missed out on the treasure resources of the Pamirs and eventually left disappointed, but it was not long before the discovery of large metal veins in Mongolia and Tajikistan once again inspired exploration teams to explore.
In fact, the scientific community has long found that the Pamir Plateau is located just at the junction of tectonic plates, and according to common sense, metal resources are easy to precipitate and accumulate here, perhaps because they are buried too deep to be explored.
Therefore, the team of experts set out again, and people carried out systematic surveys and surveys of the Pamir Plateau through satellite remote sensing, geological exploration and other means, and this time, some potentially valuable mineral resources were indeed discovered.
The Pamirs are home to a considerable amount of natural uranium, which we know is an important nuclear resource, of great military value, and can also be used to generate electricity.
In addition to uranium, the Pamirs are also rich in gold deposits, gold has been a precious metal since ancient times, and its economic value cannot be ignored, with experts estimating that there are about 60 tons of gold veins here.
With the increase of follow-up exploration, the estimated amount of gold mines is now increasing, such an exaggerated large gold deposit is rare in the world, and overnight, the Pamirs have become the envy of all countries.
In addition, copper and zinc ore are also concentrated in large quantities in the Pamirs, which are the most needed strategic resources on the mainland, and I believe that in the near future, we will be able to mine them and achieve true self-sufficiency.
Text: Uncle Luo Ying
Edited by Uncle Luo Ying
Resources:
China.com's report on "China is amazing, low-key recovery of a century-old lost territory, and accidental discovery of a large number of rare resources".
Jinyang.com-Yangcheng Evening News reported on "They are looking for gold mines in the Pamir Plateau and provide valuable experience for overseas prospecting".
Xinhuanet's report on "Looking for more than 2,810 tons of gold in 64 years, how to refine the geological team with the most gold in the country".