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China and Myanmar swapped territory, and China actually gave up 27,000 square kilometers of Jiangxinpo in exchange for a small village of only 200 square kilometers in Myanmar.
At first, most people thought that it was China's blood loss.
Because Jiangxinpo is not only large, it is said that it is also rich in rare golden silk nanmu and jadeite, in history, it is a place where soldiers must fight, and the value can be worth ten Hong Kong.
So, why was such a treasure land handed over by the mainland? With the passage of time, people have discovered that China's intentions were not simple......
Jiangxinpo, which has changed hands three times
Jiangxinpo, since ancient times, is located in the territory of Yunnan on the mainland, it borders Tibet in the north, Myanmar in the south, and India in the west.
Therefore, even now, there are still many people who sigh that if Jiang Xinpo is still in our hands now, then southern Tibet will not be harassed so much!
But is that really the case? How did Jiangxinpo, which originally belonged to our China, fall into the hands of Myanmar step by step?
Things have to start with a big throw by Lord Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty.
On Qianlong's 80th birthday, seeing that the king of Burma personally went to Beijing with a congratulatory gift to congratulate Qianlong on his birthday, Qianlong was happy, so he waved his hand and assigned Jiangxinpo to Burma.
Hearing this, some viewers may find it incomprehensible: although this Qianlong loves to engage in pomp and talk about decency, he doesn't have such a play! Just take the land and give it away? That's too mediocre!
In fact, Qianlong's move at that time was entirely out of helplessness.
Although this Jiangxinpo is a treasure land, in the ancient Chinese dynasties, it was generally felt that these border areas far away from the Central Plains were some "wild lands", and they were too lazy to manage it properly, resulting in the ancient Central Plains Dynasty, the control of Jiangxinpo has been quite limited.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Burma began to take advantage of the decline of the Ming Dynasty to invade the Yunnan border area of the mainland in the north, and Jiangxinpo was naturally included.
However, during the Kangxi Yongzheng period, the Qing Dynasty was busy dealing with the Mongol Galdan in the north and quelling the rebellion in the northwest, so it had no time to take care of the southwestern border region.
It was not until the Qianlong period that the Qing government finally had the energy to pay attention to the southwest and prepare to recover this mountainous area, which in the eyes of most people at that time was a barren land.
At first, Qianlong was still very ambitious, and did not hesitate to make three expeditions to Burma, spending countless troops and silver, before he could barely recover the lost territory and gain control of Jiangxinpo.
Although the land was obtained, the Qing Dynasty did pay a huge price for it, and due to the harsh local environment, most of the soldiers and officials were not adapted, vomited and diarrhea, and it was difficult to transport grain, grass and medicine.
Therefore, according to the conditions at that time, if you want to achieve effective control over this place, it is tantamount to difficult to reach the sky, and you need to continue to spend more money and resources, and in the long run, it is no different from losing money.
Of course, for Qianlong, the more important reason for giving up Jiang Xinpo was that Burma, which had been beaten three times by the Qing Dynasty, finally recognized his strength, chose to submit to the Qing Dynasty, and became a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty.
It is precisely because of this that Qianlong relieved Jiang Xinpo to "reward" Myanmar, thinking that anyway, you also recognize me as the father of the Qing Dynasty, and Jiang Xinpo will rest assured that you will take care of it, and it will save me money and worry.
However, at this time, Qianlong never expected that this piece of land would eventually fall into the hands of foreigners!
In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the British successfully invaded Burma from the Qing Dynasty and incorporated it into their colony.
At the beginning, the Qing Dynasty was still unwilling, but after the two Opium Wars, the Qing Dynasty was taught to be a man, so the cowardly and incompetent Qing Dynasty had to recognize the British ownership of Burma.
Even if the later government of the Republic of China always maintained the principle of compromise and concession for the British to occupy a series of lands on the Chinese border, and did not dare to resist openly, the problem of Jiangxinpo was never resolved.
It was not until the founding of the People's Republic of China that Sino-Burmese relations officially entered a new situation, and the issue of the Sino-Burmese border dispute was naturally put on the agenda for settlement.
If it can be solved, why do China and Myanmar have to solve it through territorial exchange? Why do we have to give away the treasure land of Jiangxinpo?
Territorial disputes
Since Myanmar's independence in 1948, Jiangxinpo has become a disputed area between China and Myanmar.
However, at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, we have been isolated and excluded by the United States and the Western world, and many countries are unwilling to recognize our legitimate status in the international community.
At least this alone makes us very moved by New China.
It was precisely because of Myanmar's friendly attitude toward China on the international political stage at that time that the two governments laid the foundation for resolving the border territorial dispute.
However, due to the steep terrain on the border, the underdeveloped survey technology, and the fact that the dispute was too large, the process of resolving the territorial dispute was not smooth, and in the end, neither China nor Myanmar could convince anyone, so they could only fall into a stalemate.
But in China's view, this Jiangxinpo is our territory since ancient times, although the middle was handed over by the Qing Dynasty and was invaded by the British, but tracing back to the source, China is the real master of Jiangxinpo.
What's more, Chairman Mao said that when New China was founded, it would abolish a series of unequal treaties signed with imperialism before, so Jiang Xinpo, who was assigned to the British colonialists because of the unequal treaties, should also be returned to China.
However, in the eyes of Myanmar, that is, how can there be a reason to go back to the things that were sent, this Jiang Xinpo was personally said to be sent by Qianlong Ye back then, and I took the initiative to make friends with you, how can you say that if you don't admit it, you won't admit it?
However, China said that the reason why Jiang Xinpo was handed over to Myanmar at that time was because Myanmar was a vassal state of China at that time, and now the relationship between China and Myanmar is equal, and the things left over from the period of vassal states should not be counted.
Who would have thought that in 1955, China and Myanmar even almost went to the point of fighting each other because of the border territorial dispute, why is this?
In 1955, in the dense forest at the southern end of Jiangxinpo, the mainland border guards were routinely patrolling along the forest path, but at this moment, the sound of bullets suddenly came from the depths of the jungle!
This could not help but make the mainland border guards vigilant, and they hurriedly set up battle formations to prepare for the enemy's invasion.
However, due to the heavy fog at this time, the visibility was only a few meters, and neither the enemy nor the enemy dared to act rashly, but only dared to shoot each other to warn.
waited until afterwards to find out that this was a misunderstanding between the two sides, so he laughed it off, and directly turned a big thing into a small matter.
But who would have expected that Britain and the United States, these Western countries, just couldn't get used to seeing such harmony between China and Burma, so they deliberately seized on this little misunderstanding and hyped it up, not only slandering the mainland in black and white that it was bullying weak countries, but also adding fuel to the fire and saying that this was a signal that the mainland intends to conquer Southeast Asia by force!
Since the United States and the West lost to China in the Korean War, they have tried all kinds of ways to isolate China, and as for this move, it is only to sow discord between China and Myanmar and to slander and damage the mainland's international image.
As a result, all of a sudden, under the instigation and confusion of the United States and the West, Vietnam, Laos, and other small Southeast Asian countries believed it to be true, regarded China as a jackal, tiger and leopard, and feared that they would not be able to avoid it, and they also raised troops on the border with China as a guard.
Fortunately, Myanmar, as the party concerned, does not have the trickery of China and the West, and still chooses to respect objective facts and stand on our side.
However, despite this, this lesson has also made China realize that the China-Myanmar border issue should be resolved as soon as possible, so as to avoid the recurrence of similar misunderstandings, which will make China inexplicably blame.
But who would have thought that at this time, India, which has always been at odds with us, jumped out to make things happen again, and frantically supported Myanmar and condemned China, what is going on?
This is because the former masters of India and Myanmar are both British, so when India looks at Myanmar, it naturally has a sense of déjà vu of brothers with different surnames, so it will naturally stand on the side of Myanmar and make things happen on the Sino-Burmese border issue.
How did India support Myanmar at that time? That is to demand the implementation of the Sino-Burmese border divided by their former master, Britain!
I have to say that India's calculation is really loud, because as long as China sets this precedent, then there is naturally no reason not to recognize the "McMahon Line" on the Sino-Indian border, which was also drawn by Britain at that time and was extremely unfair to China.
However, New China has always fought over territory in the face of sovereignty, so naturally India will not be given the opportunity to make irresponsible remarks and point fingers.
At the same time, New China also sensed India's covetousness and ambition for China's Tibetan territory, so it began to engage in a strategy that has enough influence to this day, that is, "United Burma to resist India"!
China and Myanmar swap territories
In 1960, after repeated discussions, the Sino-Burmese border was finally formalized, and it is puzzling why New China chose to give up the 27,000-square-kilometer Jiangxinpo in exchange for a small village of more than 200 square kilometers in Burma.
As a matter of fact, only from a long-term perspective can we know how clever this initiative of New China is.
Although Jiangxinpo is indeed a rare golden location cornucopia in the harsh conditions of the Sino-Myanmar border, it not only has fertile soil, rich forest resources, but also a large number of precious jadeite and golden silk nanmu, and the economic value is quite high.
However, how can our new China only covet immediate financial gains?
For China, the more important value of Jiang Xinpo is its strategic significance.
At that time, although Myanmar achieved superficial independence, due to the chaos in Myanmar, 135 ethnic groups formed 136 armed groups, including a remnant of the Kuomintang army that fled to Myanmar that year, which directly became a headache for Myanmar, and further aggravated the chaos in Myanmar.
Although Myanmar has been trying to eradicate this cancer, it has been in vain, and when one of the warlords began to co-opt the remnants of the Kuomintang army in an attempt to unify the whole of Burma, Myanmar began a civil war that lasted for more than 50 years, and has not completely stopped.
This is why, today, Myanmar has long been reduced to a purgatory on earth, full of illegal and criminal acts such as human fraud, human trafficking, pornography, gambling, and drugs.
At this time, the Jiangxinpo that was replaced at that time, next to the natural barrier Gaoligong Mountain, served as a buffer zone, thus avoiding disputes and conflicts in Myanmar and affecting the tranquility of the southwestern border region of the mainland.
From a diplomatic point of view, maintaining peace in China-Myanmar relations is of great significance to containing India's instability bomb.
After all, compared to a small and chaotic Myanmar, India, which is big and annoying, is the real target of our headaches.
No matter how chaotic Myanmar is, at most it is just to cheat the Chinese out of money, and it will never dare to make a move against China's border territory, but India is different, although India is not our opponent at all, but from time to time it jumps out to harass our border territory, which also annoys us to death.
Therefore, by making concessions to a Jiangxinpo in exchange for the stability of Sino-Burmese relations, it can indeed play a very good role in suppressing India.
For example, when India is preparing to provoke China's affairs on the orders of the United States, it finds that it has already been besieged and killed by us, and the credit for the friendly relations between China and Myanmar is indispensable.
Moreover, because Jiang Xinpo has been lost for too long, and has been in the hands of Myanmar for hundreds of years, the people of Jiang Xinpo have long had no sense of belonging to China, and they all default to being Burmese, not Chinese.
Generally speaking, in handling the issue of border and territorial disputes, China has indeed achieved the goal of never giving in and not being greedy when it should be strived for, and proceeding from the overall situation in the long run.
Now, as China's strength continues to grow, we also have more confidence not to back down, and although we can't get these lands back, it doesn't mean that we have forgotten.