At 2:20 p.m. on March 2, 1963, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, the signing ceremony of the China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement was underway, signed by the foreign ministers of China and Pakistan.
Witnessed by Chinese and foreign guests and journalists, the two foreign ministers exchanged signed documents and then held each other's hands tightly.
The hall suddenly sounded the camera shutter and a warm applause, and Chairman Liu Shaoqi and Premier Zhou Enlai also stepped forward to congratulate the signing of the boundary agreement.
According to the content of the Current China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement, the Karakoram Corridor area will belong to China. The Karakoram Corridor covers an area of about 5,300 square kilometers, roughly equivalent to five land areas of Hong Kong, and it has become one of the largest homelands recovered since the founding of the People's Republic of China.
On the evening of the signing ceremony, Pakistani Foreign Minister Bhutto hosted a banquet at the Pakistani Embassy in China, and Chen Yi and others were invited to attend.
During the banquet, Bhutto raised his wine glass and said happily: I wish the friendship between China and Pakistan for a long time! China and Pakistan are naturally very happy about the smooth settlement of the border issue and the great strides forward of friendship, but India is extremely dissatisfied with this.
India's impatience is not only because the land that existed only in its imagination has been lost, but also because it has suffered a big strategic loss.
Originally in the competition with Pakistan, India's forces have approached the Siachen Glacier in the south of the Karakoram Corridor, as long as they cross here into the Karakoram Corridor, they can form a trend of enveloping Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, and at the same time, they can be inserted like wedges between China and Pakistan, which greatly hinders their exchanges and cooperation.
However, with the signing of the China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement, india's benefits have not only not become a reality, but have become the benefits of China and Pakistan.
Through this border agreement, the relationship between China and Pakistan has been further developed, both in reality and in terms of strategy, which has greatly curbed India's ambitions in the region.
For Pakistan, returning the Karakoram corridor eases its defensive pressures, allows it to focus its limited energy on other fronts facing India, and gives the corridor to a trusted China, which amounts to an extra powerful barrier.
For China, the return of the Karakoram Corridor has given Xinjiang and Tibet a very convenient passage through which support can be provided once the situation in the border changes.
In particular, India has been coveting the Aksai Chin region of our country, and the Karakoram Corridor can effectively play an arching role in this regard.
Speaking of this, some friends may wonder why such an important place was not in China's hands before, and it had to wait until it was signed with others to get it back?
In fact, the historical Karakoram Corridor also belongs to China, but because it is relatively remote, our rule here is not very strong, and there is no formal border demarcation with neighboring countries, only a traditional customary line.
In the mid-to-late 19th century, the British colonists took advantage of the Qing government's lack of time to take advantage of the situation and arbitrarily classified it into the Kashmir region under the rule of British India at that time.
By 1947, British India was divided into two countries, Pakistan and India, and Kashmir became the most fiercely contested place between the two countries.
At this time, the Karakoram Corridor is located in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, so Pakistan's choice for the future of the region is crucial.
Now when we talk about the relationship between China and Pakistan, the first word that comes to mind is "Pakistan Railway", but at that time, the relationship between the two countries was not as iron as it is today.
New China and Pakistan formally established diplomatic relations in 1951, which is actually quite early, but pakistan at that time was part of the US camp, and India, which Pakistan regarded as an enemy, had close contacts with China, so even if China and Pakistan established diplomatic relations early, their relations were quite cold.
But the far-sighted approach of the older generation of Chinese leaders on Kashmir has impressed Pakistan from the heart.
China has always maintained a just attitude, not because Pakistan belongs to the US camp and is hostile to India, nor because it has good relations with India, but has constantly called on all parties to calm down and settle the dispute by peaceful means.
Even if India has repeatedly asked China to explicitly express its support for itself, China is willing to risk offending India and has not changed its position, which has greatly admired Pakistan and laid the groundwork for the subsequent voluntary return of the Karakoram Corridor.
But politics has never been a family affair, and although Pakistan has a good feeling for China, it will not easily give up the land under its control, and the return of the Karakoram Corridor will need to wait for the opportunity.
Ayyub Khan with Song Qingling and Zhou Enlai
In the 1960s, Pakistan's international political problems arose, and its relations with its eastern neighbor, India, and its western neighbor Afghanistan, simultaneously entered a period of tension.
At this time, the United States, which has always supported Pakistan, gradually showed signs of favoritism toward India, and the Soviet Union, another big country that has always been at odds, did not give Pakistan a good look.
It can be said that Pakistan's international environment has reached a very dangerous point, and he has to find new trustworthy friends, and China, which has been a neighbor for many years, has become his only choice.
At this time, China and India had lost peace, and there had been many confrontations and frictions in the border areas, so Pakistan felt that the opportunity to develop relations with China had arrived.
In February 1960, when Pakistani President Ayyub Khan learned that China and Burma had reached an agreement on the border issue, he took the initiative to express to the new Chinese ambassador Ding Guoyu that Pakistan was willing to discuss the boundary issue with China as long as China was willing.
In March of the following year, the Pakistani government sent a formal note to our government, hoping to hold border negotiations.
Karakoram Highway
However, due to the international situation and ideological considerations, my country did not immediately reply. However, Pakistan was not discouraged, and when the United Nations General Assembly tried to discuss issues related to China's internal affairs in 1961, he expressed his support in his own way, which won China's trust.
At the same time, India has continued to create provocative incidents along the Sino-Indian border and shows no signs of repentance. In this case, China chose to agree to border negotiations with Pakistan in February 1962.
In October of that year, negotiations on the border between China and Pakistan officially began. It was also at this time that a large-scale war broke out on the Sino-Indian border and quickly promoted the development of Sino-Pakistani relations.
In the Sino-Indian war, India was beaten by China and lost its armor and disgrace. Pakistan has watched the war closely, but at the same time has remained silent.
In the past, Pakistan has been wary of China, and has also thought of "jointly defending" China with India and negotiating the Kashmir issue peacefully with India, and as a result, who knows that India's wariness of Pakistan far exceeds that of China.
Even when it was beaten by China and could not find the north, India did not draw troops from the India-Pakistani front for reinforcements, and 80% of the troops were still facing Pakistan, which made Pakistan completely lose the last illusion of India.
Moreover, in order to help India fight Against China, the United States, Britain and other countries have continuously provided assistance to India, and India has also accepted all orders, which has aggravated the imbalance in the balance of power between India and Pakistan, which has made Pakistan very dissatisfied.
On the other hand, China's initiative to show its intention to make peace after winning the war against India is in sharp contrast with the actions of India and Western countries.
Pakistan realized that only a country like China could be friends, and was determined to speed up border negotiations with China and remove obstacles to the development of bilateral relations.
Finally, in March 1963, China and Pakistan signed a border agreement, and Pakistan returned about 5,300 square kilometers of land to China.
After China and Pakistan demarcated their borders through friendly consultations, the relations between the two countries have been developing steadily and without any fluctuations. The Pakistani government has changed many times, but it has never changed the general direction of developing friendly relations with China, and China has also made several adjustments in foreign policy, but it has always attached great importance to relations with Pakistan.
Such a result is inseparable from the frankness and mutual trust between the two countries in dealing with the border issue.
Content Source:
Han Xiaoqing, "Unconscious "Promoter": The Indian Factor in the China-Pakistan Boundary Negotiation Process", South Asian Studies, No. 3, 2010
Han Xiaoqing and Qi Pengfei, "Analysis of the Driving Forces of Pakistan's Active Promotion of China-Pakistan Boundary Negotiations in the Early 1960s", South Asian Studies, No. 4, 2010
Liu Tiantian, "Solving the Land Border Problem between China and Pakistan and the Challenges Facing Border and Sea Cooperation", Indian Ocean Economy Research, No. 6, 2014