Jiandao, known in Korean as
Gando, refers to a small piece of marsh land between Yanbian region and Long county in northeast China. The original Chinese name of Jiandao is
Jiajiang .
Another way to define Jiandao was provided by the Japanese in early 1900s. An expanding Japanese empire claimed that Jiandao included territory of four counties of Jilin province and ethnic living in this region should be placed under its influence.
Most of the region defined by Japan in early 1900s as Jiandao is part of Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, a part of Jilin Province in the northeast of the People's Republic of China . The area of the prefecture is approximately 42,000 square kilometers in size and home to about 840,000 ethnic .
In China, Yanbian is the name used, and Jiandao is not used, due to its association with Japanese occupation. North Korea and South Korea recognize the region as a part of the People's Republic of China, but there are some right wing nationalist groups in South Korea that endorse the idea that the region should be a part of modern-day Korea.
History
Different states and tribes succeeded each other in ruling the area during ancient times. These included Goguryeo and its successor state Balhae. Goguryeo was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea and controlled northern Korea and southern Manchuria. Balhae was a state that existed in the area during the Tang Dynasty in China and the Unified Silla Period in Korea. China emphasizes Balhae's temporary tributary relationship to the Tang, while Korea claims that Balhae was a cultural extension of Goguryeo.
Balhae was destroyed by the Liao Dynasty in 926, and formally annexed in 936. For the next nine to ten centuries the region was administered by the Liao Dynasty, , Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty and finally, the Qing Dynasty, which was established by natives of Manchuria. Qing Dynasty eventually replaced Ming Dynasty and succeeded in unifying China after forcing submission from the Joseon Dynasty in Korea.
In 1712, the border between Qing and Joseon was formally demarcated. For years, officials did not allow people to move to Manchuria, as it always believed that should a majority government rise again in China, the Manchu royalty can flee to this area and retain a strong base to recover control in China. officials also did not allow its subjects to move to Manchuria. These governmental regulations with the general marshy nature of the area left these lands north of Tuman river relatively undeveloped and was sparsely populated by Manchu tribes for a long time. Qing officials regularly inspected this region and occasional intruders were detained and sent back to the kingdom of Korea. However, by the late 19th century, peasants in north Korea migrated to northeast China to flee famine and poverty. Even more arrived as refugees when Japan invaded Korea in 1894.
After the Russo-Japanese war, Japan began to formally annex Korea. In 1905, the Korean Empire became a protectorate of Japan, effectively losing diplomatic rights and became a part of imperial Japan in 1910. In the early 20th century, Korean immigration to Manchuria steadily increased, either fleeing from Japanese rule, or encouraged by the Japanese government to develop the land. Some Chinese local governments welcomed the Korean immigrants as they were a source of labor and agricultural skill.
In the meantime, Japan began to expand into northeast China. One of the region the Japanese targeted was Jiandao . The original name of Jiandao is Jiajiang , which refers to a small piece of marsh land between Yanbian region and Long county in northeast China. Rather than being a small piece of marsh land, the Japanese claimed that Jiandao included territory of four counties of Jilin province. The Japanese further claimed ethnic Koreans living in this region should be placed under the influence of Imperial Japan.
The Japanese first infiltrated Jiandao in April 1907 to collect information and data. On August 7th, 1907, Japanese troops invaded Jiandao and claimed "Jiandao Issue" was "unsettled".
In the of 1909, Japan affirmed territorial rights of the over Jiandao after the Chinese foreign ministry issued a thirteen-point refutation statement regarding its rightful ownership. The treaty also contained provisions for the protection and rights of ethnic Koreans under Chinese rule. Nevertheless there were large Koreans settlements and the area remained under significant Japanese influence.
Despite the agreement, Koreans in Jiandao continued to be a source of friction between the Chinese and Japanese governments. Japan maintained that all ethnic Koreans were Japanese nationals, subject to Japanese jurisdiction and law, and demanded rights to patrol and police the area. The Qing and subsequent local Chinese governments insisted on its territorial sovereignty over the region.
After the Mukden Incident, the Japanese military invaded Manchuria. Between 1931 to 1945, Manchuria was under the control of Manchukuo, a Japanese puppet state. Jiandao was a province of Manchukuo. This period initiated a new wave of Korean immigration, as the Japanese government actively encouraged Korean settlement in order to colonize and develop the region. In 1938, a counterinsurgency unit called the Gando Special Force was organized by the Japanese Kwantung Army to combat communist guerrillas within the region. Historian Philip Jowett noted that during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, the Gando Special Force had "earned a reputation for brutality and was reported to have laid waste to large areas which came under its rule."
After World War II and the liberation of Korea, many Korean expatriates in the region moved back, but a significant majority still remained in Manchuria; descendants of these people form the Korean ethnic minority in China today.
The area is now the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in .
Boundary claims
Korean claims over Gando stem from what is perceived as an ambiguity in the original Sino-Korean boundary agreement.
After several attempts by the Kangxi Emperor to negotiate the issue, in 1712, the of Korea and of China agreed to delineate the boundaries of the two countries at the Yalu and Tumen Rivers. The Qing delegation was led by Mukedeng, and the Joseon delegation was led by Pak Kwon, and the two held a joint commission to survey and demarcate the boundaries between the two states. Efforts were taken to locate the sources of the Yalu and Tumen rivers at Baekdu Mountain. Owing to Pak's age, they agreed for Mukedeng's team to ascend the summit alone. Mukedeng's team quickly identified the source of the Yalu, but identification for the Tumen proved more complicated. At last a spot was decided, and a stele was erected as a boundary marker. Over the next year, a fence was built to demarcate the areas where the Tumen river ran underground.
Pak Kwon was instructed by the Joseon government to retain all territory south of the Yalu and Tumen rivers, a goal he accomplished. However, some Korean officials lamented the loss of claims on areas north of the river and criticized Pak Kwon for not accompanying Mukedeng to the summit. The territorial claims stem from the territories held by Goguryeo and Balhae, ancient states in Manchuria from which Koreans claimed heritage. Nonetheless, the border remained uncontentious for the next 150 years. Cross-border movements were forbidden, and was punishable by death after trespassers were detained and repatriated back to their respective countries.
In the 1870s the Qing government reversed its policy of prohibiting entry to Manchuria, and began allowing Han Chinese settlers into the territory in response to growing Russian encroachment. The area around Gando was opened up to settlement in 1881, but Chinese settlers quickly discovered some Korean farming communities already settled in the area. It was apparent that despite the decreed punishment, severe droughts in northern Korea had motivated Korean farmers to seek new lands. The Jilin general-governor Ming-An's official response was to lodge a protest to the Joseon government and offer to allow the Korean population to stay if they agreed to become Manchu subjects and adopt Qing customs and dress. Joseon's response was to encourage the farmers not to register as Qing subjects but to return to Korea within the year.
The farmers, unwilling to abandon their homes, argued that because of the ambiguity in the naming of the Tumen river, they were actually already in Korean territory. The River boundary is of little dispute, but the interpretation of the Tumen River boundary 土門 causes problems. The name of the river itself originates from the word ''tumen'', meaning "ten thousand". The official boundary agreement in 1712 identified the Tumen river using the characters 土門 for the phonetic transcription. However, the modern Tumen River is written as 圖們 in modern Chinese and as 豆滿 "Duman" in both modern Korean and Japanese. Some Koreans hence claim that the "Tumen" referred to in the treaty is actually a tributary of the Songhua River. Under this interpretation, Gando would be part of Korean territory.
This confusion arises as the two names sound identical, and neither name is actually of Chinese origin. The two rivers can be seen in the following map from the period. Korean claims are based on maps that show separate "Duman" and "Tumen" rivers. However, it is uncertain which modern river the Korean claim corresponds to, as there is no modern tributary of the Songhua River with that name:
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This interpretation of the boundary gradually developed into Joseon official policy. O Yunjung, a Korean official appointed to review the claims made by the farmers and investigate the sources of the river, adopted the latter interpretation and declared that the region did not belong to China. Joseon and Qing officials met in 1885 and 1887 to resolve the dispute, but with little result. Korean officials suggested on starting from the stele and tracing the river downwards, while Qing officials proposed starting at the mouth of the Tumen River and moving upstream. From 1905 onwards, Korea came under the influence and control of Japan and was unable to effectively pursue these claims.
After liberation of Korea in 1945, many Koreans believed that Gando should be given to Korean rule, but the military control by United States of America in the south and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the north hindered any unified Korean claim to the territory. The chaos of the Korean War and the geopolitical situation of the Cold War effectively diminished any opportunity for Koreans to highlight the Gando issue. In 1962, North Korea signed a boundary treaty with People's Republic of China setting the Korean boundary at and , effectively foregoing territorial claims to Gando. South Korea also recognizes this as the boundary between Korea and China.
Today, none of the governments involved make the claim that Gando is Korean territory. In addition, there is very little enthusiasm for irredentism among the Korean minority in China. Although there are occasional arguments over historical interpretation, this issue arouses very little emotion or official interest on the part of any of the parties, and relations between China and both Koreas remain warm.
In 2004 the South Korean government issued a statement to the effect that it believed that the Gando Convention was null and void. The resultant controversy and strong negative reaction from the led to a retraction of the statement, along with an explanation that its issuance was an "administrative error."
A small number of South Korean activists believe that under a unified Korea, the treaties signed by North Korea can be deemed null, allowing the unified Korea to actively seek regress for Gando. However, the current political situation make this a faint possibility at best. Also, some scholars claims that efforts to incorporate the history of Goguryeo and Balhae into Chinese history is an effectively pre-emptive move to squash any territorial disputes that might rise regarding Gando before a unified Korea can claim such or the Korean ethnic minority in the Manchuria region claim to become part of Korea.
Images
The following maps, made by Korea from the 1700s to the 1800s, show Sino-Korean borders to be aligned along the Yalu and Tumen rivers, essentially the same as those today:
Korean claims to Gando are based on other maps. The following were made by western missionaries. However, the first is explicitly stated as a map of "Quan-Tong Province" and Kau-li , and the second is stated as a map of the Chinese Tartary . Compared to the Korean-made maps above, the coastlines and rivers are also significantly less accurate, but the Sino-Korean border is not placed at the Yalu/Amnok River, which is quite clear in the following maps:
Note that two almost identical versions of a first map exists, showing significant differences in the border. One shows the boundaries similar to modern-day province and country borders, while the other shows the Sino-Korean border significantly further north.
The following map, also used to support claims, is a map of Roman Catholic Apostolic vicariates during the early 20th century. At this time, Korea is divided under three Apostolic vicariates; Seoul (originally Corea erected in 1831 by Pope Gregory XVI, Daegu erected in 1911 by Pope Pius X, and Wonsan erected in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV, which, as can be seen in the map, extends throughout both eastern Manchuria, including Gando, as well as northern Korea. This is taken as proof that eastern Manchuria is "Korean", rather than the converse hypothesis that northern Korea is "Manchurian".
External links
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