Chinasigned the Arctic Treaty, which was the envy of all countries.
Modern China was oppressed by foreign powers, and after the Opium War, we were powerless to fight back and were forced to sign many unequal treaties.
From the Treaty of Nanjing to the Treaty of Tianjin, land reparations seem to have been synonymous with unequal treaties signed by China in modern times. From the late Qing Dynasty to **, in order to avoid civil **pressure, **and** often kept these treaties secret.
However, there was a treaty that was not made public until 1991, and it brought good news – we got a big bargain because of this treaty.
In 1999, the "Snow Dragon" sailed into the Antarctic for the first time and successfully regained China's sovereignty for China. The content of this important treaty is the envy of all countries.
So, what exactly is this surprising treaty? 1. The Arctic Archipelago Becomes Unclaimed This treaty, which dates back 100 years, has brought an unexpected turn for the better.
So, how did it come to be? It all starts with this unclaimed Arctic land.
At the end of the 16th century, the Dutch explorer Barents sailed his boat deep into the North Pole and landed on a mysterious island that is inaccessible and covered with snow and ice. This place was discovered by him for the first time, and he excitedly began to investigate and document it, and gave it a beautiful name - Svalbard, which means "cold coast".
After exploring the Arctic archipelago, a Dutch explorer was about to bring his new discoveries back to the Netherlands, but he died in a snowstorm on the way home. According to international rules, in order to obtain territorial rights, there must be "effective administrative jurisdiction".
If the explorer succeeds in returning to the Netherlands, the archipelago could become Dutch territory. However, his unexpected death left the archipelago borderless, and despite this, the land remained in a state of peace.
It wasn't until the landing of the British explorer Hudson and the Finnish explorer Denswald that it once again attracted the world's attention. They discovered pods of whales and walruses in the archipelago, as well as rich mineral resources.
With the greed of the Western powers, the calm of Svalbard was broken, mining farms and whaling ships poured in, and the contradictions and conflicts between countries increased day by day, and even the use of force to solve the problem.
Such endless battles make the distribution of resources on the island a big problem that needs to be solved urgently. To solve this problem, countries began negotiations after the end of the First World War.
On February 9, 1920, 18 countries finally signed a treaty stipulating that sovereignty over the Arctic was in Norway, but it was a demilitarized zone where all treaty countries could come to conduct research and production without the need for a Norwegian visa.
More importantly, the island's resources are determined to be equally shared by all.
Although this treaty promised equal rights and interests of all countries, it was difficult to implement in practice because the rights and interests were unevenly distributed, which led to future disputes. Five years later, the treaty was forced to be re-signed.
In order to increase their international influence, countries began to look for allies and pull them into the treaty, which expanded the scope of implementation of the treaty, but also increased the variability of the treaty, because more countries needed to agree to amend.
At that time, China was difficult to choose as an ally due to its weak strength.
France used the Svalbard Treaty to make China the victorious power, but China could only send laborers to help build trenches, ammunition, and railways in Europe.
Although China entered the war in a different way, it was the first time that China emerged victorious in World War I.
Although we were a victorious country, we were treated by a defeated country after the war. For this reason, the Svalbard Treaty is France's compensation to us. Of course, they weren't so kind, China was in the east and didn't have the ability to compete for resources, so they included China's share in the agreement.
Although on the surface, this agreement has great interests for China, in fact, Beiyang ** at that time did not want to sign any treaty, because they knew that once the treaty was signed, they might be scolded by the common people.
In addition, according to our strength at that time, the Arctic was more than 3,000 kilometers away from China, and Beiyang** felt that the turmoil at home had made it impossible for them to focus on such a distant place, so they did not think that this right was of much use.
Moreover, they knew that the signing of the treaty might anger Germany, so they did not want to sign it.
Beiyang**'s attitude: resolutely resist, but France has its own wishful thinking. Most of the 18 countries that signed the treaty were from Europe. In the entire Asian region, only Japan was included in the treaty, indicating that the credibility of the treaty in Asia is extremely low.
The French, who owned large leases in China at the time, wanted to use this advantage to gain the support of China, the largest country in Asia. However, what France did not expect was that China actually rejected their proposal, so France threatened Beiyang ** with force at that time to force them to accept this "good intention".
3. An unexpected reversal after a hundred years However, Beiyang ** was finally forced to sign this "unequal treaty". When the word "treaty" is mentioned in the land of China, people are always nervous, thinking that they will face the reality of land reparations again.
Therefore, this painless treaty was concealed by Beiyang **.
As China entered the era of chaos, Beiyang ** was replaced by **, and the original draft of the treaty has disappeared into an unknown corner in the war, no one mentions it anymore, and even gradually forgotten by the world.
It was not until the 90s of the 20th century that countries around the world turned their attention to the development of science and technology and economy, and the rich mineral resources of the Arctic became an attractive target in the eyes of all countries.
China has established two research stations in Antarctica, but it faces great challenges in the Arctic. Although the Arctic does not belong to any country, it has been carved up by neighboring countries in the past few decades.
We were not invited, nor could we directly apply for a base in the Arctic, and could only watch other countries conduct research.
In the years when the old treaties were forgotten, Chinese scholars faced a dilemma. However, in 1991, when the Chinese explorer Gao Dengyi was in Norway on an expedition to the Arctic, he saw a valuable treaty, the Svalbard Treaty.
In this treaty, the name of China is even recorded. Gao Dengyi was so excited that he immediately asked the professor if China could conduct scientific research activities here. The professor replied in the affirmative, because this treaty is equal, and has nothing to do with the establishment of our new China and the abolition of unequal treaties.
This discovery is of great significance to China's scientific research undertakings.
One stone stirred up a thousand waves, and the hope of the scientific expedition was rekindled. We are gearing up to take China's feet of exploration into the Arctic. From 1999 to 2003, the "Snow Dragon" broke into the North Pole twice in a row, bringing back a wealth of expedition data and materials, and injecting fresh practical experience into domestic research.
It is worth mentioning that in 2001, China was invited to establish China's scientific research station in Svalbard - the Yellow River Station, becoming the eighth country in the world to set up a scientific research station in the Arctic, winning the envy of all countries.
It is unforeseen that this unequal treaty signed 100 years ago has become a key document to save China's Arctic scientific research and fire and water. This is not only a lucky discovery, but also a demonstration of the leap and development of China's science and technology.
The opportunity that no one dared to think of before has now been handed over to us to hold in our hands, and the place beyond the reach of our predecessors has now lit up the light of China. We have been able to appear on the world stage with a new attitude, thanks to the strength of our motherland.
The transformation of this unequal treaty makes us sigh once again at the strength of the motherland and makes our Chinese sons and daughters extremely proud.