Editing Gando Convention (section)

== Background ==

[[Jiandao]], or Gando in Korean, is today part of [[Northeastern China]]. Many different states and tribes succeeded one another in ruling the area during ancient times, including Korean states [[Buyeo kingdom|Buyeo]], [[Goguryeo]], and [[Balhae]], followed later by the [[Liao dynasty|Khitans]] and the [[Jurchen people|Jurchen]] [[Jin Dynasty (1115-1234)|Jin Dynasty]].

Traditionally, the area was inhabited by nomadic tribes from the north and west, as well as [[Korean people|Koreans]] and [[Chinese people|Chinese]] fleeing unrest, famine, or other sociopolitical conditions in their home countries. Eventually, it and much of the rest of Manchuria came under the control of the [[Manchu]]s and later the [[Qing Dynasty]]. Gando itself, as it shared a border with [[Korea]], was a particularly high-frequency destination for Koreans fleeing worsening conditions in the late [[Joseon dynasty]] after the early 1800s.

By the middle and the end of the 19th century, Koreans formed a majority of the population living in Gando, and when the Qing opened up Manchuria to Han Chinese migration in the 1870s and Gando in 1881, the large number of Korean already living there raised a boundary dispute issue that had been negotiated in 1712. An ambiguity in the characters used, was subject to some speculation, which was used by the Koreans living in Gando to claim that they were still on Korean soil.<ref>Schmid, pg. 227. "Their position centered on an interpretation of the stele erected by Mukedeng more than two centuries earlier. The farmers contended that they had never crossed any boundary and were in fact within Choson territory. Their argument skillfully played off the ambiguity surrounding the character engraved on the stele to represent the first syllable in the name of the Tumen River. They argued that Qing officials had failed to distinguish between two different rivers, both called something like Tumen but written with a different character signifying the first syllable. One, the character on the stele, indicated earth; the second, a character not on the stele, signified what today is considered the tu for Tumen River, meaning diagram. The river behind which the Qing officials demanded the farmers withdraw was the latter. As argued by the farmers, though the pronunciation was nearly identical, the different characters signified two distinct rivers. The first Tumen River delineated the northernmost extreme of Choson jurisdiction, while a second Tumen River flowed within Choson territory. Qing authorities mistakenly believed the two rivers were one and the same, the petition suggested, only because Chinese settlers had falsely accused the Korean farmers of crossing the border. In fact their homes were between the two rivers, meaning that they lived inside Choson boundaries. The way to substantiate their claims, they urged, was to conduct a survey of the Mt. Paektu stele, for in their opinion the stele alone could determine the boundary."</ref>

While punishments for cross-border movement into northeast China by [[Han Chinese]] and Koreans by their respective governments (the [[Qing]] and [[Joseon]]) were on the books and Koreans apprehended in Gando were repatriated to Korea by Qing authorities,<ref>"Information in Jiandao." http://www.worldvil.com/bbs/board.php?bo_table=China_Korea_History&wr_id=103&page=|title=Information {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080504000824/http://www.worldvil.com/bbs/board.php?bo_table=China_Korea_History |date=2008-05-04 }} on Jiandao</ref> it is evident that these regulations did not deter people fleeing poor conditions, and they were able to make the claim in an attempt to escape relocation and punishment. The ambiguity in the original 1712 treaty gradually became official [[Joseon]] policy, but the issue itself did not come to a head until this time, when the Joseon Dynasty itself was in much turmoil and in no position to re-negotiate the boundary.

By the early 20th century, with increasing [[Empire of Japan|Japanese]] intervention in [[Korean Empire|Korea]], more Koreans fled to Gando, where they were sometimes welcomed by local Qing authorities, as a source of labor and agricultural know-how. Additionally, as a result of this consolidation of Japanese control over Korea (which would culminate with the [[Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910]], with which Japan annexed Korea and began the [[Japanese occupation of Korea]] that ended in 1945), Korea was not able to renegotiate the renewed boundary issues with the Qing, which was having its own problems with Japanese and Western [[imperialism]].