Gando
From Free net encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Gando (disambiguation).
| Korean name | |
|---|---|
| Hangul | 간도 |
| Hanja | 間島 |
| Revised Romanization | Gando |
| McCune-Reischauer | Kando |
| Chinese name | |
| Traditional Chinese | 間島 |
| Simplified Chinese | 间岛 |
| Pinyin | Jiāndǎo |
| Wade-Giles | Chien-tao |
| Japanese name | |
| Kanji | 間島 |
| Hepburn Romaji | Kantō |
Gando, Jiandao, and Kantō are the Korean, Chinese, and Japanese pronunciations of a name (間島) that refers to parts of Manchuria populated by Koreans. Jiandao Province (間島省) was also one of the provinces of Manchukuo, a World War II-era Japanese puppet state in Manchuria. Its capital was Yanji.
Today, most of the region is part of Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, a part of Jilin Province of the People's Republic of China. In China, Yanbian (延邊; Yenbyen 옌볜, or Yŏnbyŏn 연변 in Korean) is the usual name used, and Jiandao is rarely used, due to its association with Japanese occupation. North Korea and South Korea recognize the region as a part of China, but there are some groups in Korea that claim the region as a historical part of Korea.
Contents |
History
Multiple states succeeded each other in ruling the area in ancient times. These included Goguryeo and Balhae. The first, called Goguryeo (called Gaojuli by Chinese), is acknowledged as one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, However, much of its early history was concentrated in what is now Manchuria, so that China now regards that part of Goguryeo's history as its own cultural heritage. The second, called Balhae (Bohai in Pinyin) 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 Khitan Liao Dynasty in 926, and formally annexed in 936. For the next several centuries the region changed hands between the Khitans, Jurchens, Mongols, and finally, the Manchus, whose Qing Dynasty succeeded in conquering China and forcing submission from the Joseon Dynasty in Korea.
In 1712, the border between Qing and Joseon was formally demarcated. For years, Qing officials did not allow people to move to Manchuria, as it always believed that should a Han majority government rise again in China, the Manchu royalty can flee to this area and retain a strong base to recover control in China. Joseon officials also did not allow its subjects to move to Manchuria. These governmental regulations with the general marshy nature of the area left Gando undeveloped and sparsely inhabited for a long time. However, by late 19th century, significant amount of Koreans were moving into Manchuria, and even more arrived as refugees when Korea became a colony of Japan in 1910. During this period of time, the intepretation of the 1712 boundary agreement became subject to dispute, as was Gando's ownership (see below).
In 1905, the Korean Empire became a protectorate of Japan, effectively losing diplomatic rights. 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.
On April 18, 1906, a team of Japanese military invaded Gando and declared ownership over the region. In the Gando Convention of 1909, Japan affirmed territorial rights of the Qing over Gando 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, the Koreans in Gando 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 client state. Jiandao was a province of Manchukuo. This period initiated a new wave of Korean immigration, as the Japanese government actively encouraged (or forced) Korean settlement in order to colonize and develop the region. 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 Jilin province.
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 Joseon of Korea and Qing of China agreed to dilineate 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 Mt. Baitou (Paektu). 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 Bohai, 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 1870's 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. Despite the decreed punishment, severe droughts in northern Korea 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 Yalu (鴨綠) / Amnok (압록) River boundary is of little dispute, but the interpretation of the Tumen River boundary 土門 (토문) causes problems. The name of the river itself originates from the Jurchen word tumen, meaning "ten thousand". The official boundary agreement in 1712 identified the Tumen river using the characters 土門 (pinyin:tǔmen) for the phonetic transcription. However, the modern Tumen River is written as 圖們 (pinyin:túmen) in modern Chinese and as 豆滿 (두만) "Duman" in modern Korean. Some Koreans hence identified it with another Tumen River that is a tributary of the Songhua River. Under this interpretation, Gando (where the Koreans settled) 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. It is uncertain which modern river the Korean claim corresponds to, as there is no modern tributary of the Songhua River with that name.
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 Yalu and Tumen, effectively foregoing territorial claims to Gando. South Korea also recognizes this as the boundary between Korea and China.
Today, none of the governments involved (North Korea, South Korea, People's Republic of China, or Japan) 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 PRC 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 China's efforts to incorporate the history of Goguryeo and Barhae 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 Korean claims commonly make use of maps such as the following (Map 2: late 18th century English origin; Map 3: early 19th century German origin; Map 4: mid 19th century Russian origin). It is difficult to tell, however, whether the borders depicted are the same as the modern Sino-Korean border, as these maps are not particularly accurate.
Other maps, made by Korea, tend to show Sino-Korean borders to be the same as those today:
| Image:Dongguk daejido late 1700.jpg | Image:Josun jundo jido late 1700.jpg | Image:Haehaejoa jundo 1850.jpg | Image:Daedongyeojido 1860.jpg | Image:Daedongyeojido 1861.jpg |
