Establishment of the Tumen River Sino - Korean National Boundary and Korean Immigrants and Refugees

From 1712, during the Qing dynasty, China began to investigate the course of the Tumen River running between China and Korea to clearly establish the international boundary. However, at first, there was no specific cooperation between the two countries ; rather the Chinese government merely requested assistance from the Korean government. Later, the two countries began joint investigations, with negotiations in 1885 and 1887, but they could not settle their dispute about the source of the Tumen River. During Japanese colonial rule, the Japanese government took the place of the Korean government and continued negotiations with the Chinese in 1907. This resulted in the governments of Japan and China signing the Chien-tao Treaty, which included an agreement that Chien-tao (now Yanbian) was a part of China. Since the 1860's, many Korean people have immigrated into northeastern China. Initially, they were encouraged by the Qing dynasty government and pushed to become Chinese citizens. However, when Korea was formally annexed by Japan in 1910, while the Japanese Government continued to support this emigration, the Republic of China began to oppose it. A small minority of Korean immigrants and their descendants in Yanbian became Chinese nationals and because of their close relations with North Korea, many North Koreans have recently escaped to Yanbian as refugees.departmental bulletin pape