copenlu/druid huggingface dataset:
Claim: Pamir Mountains is a territory of People's Republic of China (Pamir Mountains, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2022-02-28): Once part of the legendary Silk Road, Central Asia’s Pamir Mountains might be the world’s last true adventure. Known in Persian as the "Bam-i-Dunya" (Roof of the World), Central Asia’s Pamir Mountains – located mainly in Gorno-Badakhshan, an autonomous region in eastern Tajikistan that borders China, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan – are one of the highest ranges on the planet. Once part of the legendary Silk Road, the area was totally closed to foreigners during Soviet rule and has only recently opened up again to adventurous travellers. [...] Despite their colourful celebrations, livelihoods in the Pamirs are rudimentary. Economic activity here is mostly related to livestock herding and mining, and many Pamiris live a subsistence lifestyle.
Claim: Pamir Mountains is a territory of People's Republic of China (Pamir Mountains, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2017-05-24): Historical Geography of the Pamirs [...] The Pamirs have been a contested space in different periods of time. Access to fertile pastures characterized the local economic competition between nomads and mountain farmers. International attention reached its peak when the Pamirs became a pawn in the "Great Game"; during the second half of the 19th century, Great Britain and Russia disputed control over the mountainous area. Local and regional interests took on a subordinate role. The imperial contest resulted in dividing the Pamirs among four interested parties that are nowadays independent countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and China. Since the division, separate developments have emerged in all parts that are abodes of farmers and pastoralists who share a common heritage but have experienced quite different political and social developments. Thus the Pamirs represent a focal region of similar ecological properties in which political and socioeconomic developments that originated in the 19th century have changed development paths through the Cold War period until the early 21st century. From Tsarist Russia to post-independence Tajikistan, from the Afghan monarchy to the post-Taliban republic, from British India to Pakistan, and from the Middle Kingdom to contemporary China, political interventions such as nationality policies and regional autonomy, sociotechnical experiments such as collectivization and subsequent deregulation, and varying administrative systems provide insight into external domination that has shaped separate developments in the Pamirs. In the early 21st century, the Pamirs experienced a revaluation as a transit corridor for transcontinental traffic arteries.
Claim: Pamir Mountains is a territory of People's Republic of China (Pamir Mountains, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2013-07-06): The Pamir Mountains, often shrouded in mystery and legend, have long captivated the imaginations of explorers and adventurers. These formidable peaks, with their razor-sharp ridges and deep, rocky gorges, have been seen as both unreachable and impenetrable. Their winding roads, disappearing into the clouds, have often been regarded as treacherous. Towering above the landscape, the Pamirs have witnessed the passage of Persian kings, the ancient civilization of Bactria, and the armies of Alexander the Great. The paths once traversed by Tamerlane, Babur, Marco Polo, and numerous pioneering explorers have carved a rich tapestry of history into these rugged mountains. Caravans once carried Chinese silk and precious stones like lapis lazuli and rubies, mined from these very slopes, across the perilous mountain roads. Despite modern advancements in exploration, the Pamirs continue to amaze with their breathtaking landscapes and diverse natural beauty. Every traveler who ventures into this remote region is filled with a sense of adventure, as the Pamirs reveal their secrets one stunning vista at a time. Before the Himalayas gained their global recognition, the Pamirs were often referred to as the «Roof of the World.» This awe-inspiring range is encircled by the other colossal mountains of Asia: the Himalayas, Karakoram, Hindu Kush, Gissaro-Alai, Tian Shan, and Kunlun. Stretching across the borders of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, the Pamirs offer a myriad of experiences, each unique and equally captivating.
Claim: Pamir Mountains is a territory of People's Republic of China (Pamir Mountains, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2019-01-01): Pamirs is a 800-kilometer-long range made up of very high rounded mountains between 5,000 and 7,000 meters high that stretch across eastern Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan into western China. Known as "The Roof of the World," "The Foot of the Gods," and "Midpoint between Heaven and Earth," they occupy one of the least explored and most sparsely populated regions of the world. The Pamirs offer some of the most spectacular Alpine scenery in the world but is difficult to get to. [...] According to a report submitted to UNESCO: The Karakorum-Pamir region "is the most intensively uplifted area engendered by plate collision movement in the last 5 million years. The Pamirs are the area where a corner of the Indian continental plate is subducted beneath the Eurasian continental plate, causing a domino effect. The most drastic collision and prominent mountain uprising is seen between the Tarim plate and Kazakstan. The cluster of extra-high mountain peaks, mud volcanoes and the tectonic junction zone provide good evidences for this. It is one of the best areas for research of the lithosphere, plate movements and associated depositional environments. It is also a place that has attracted much neo-tectonics and geodynamics research." [Source: National Commission of the People's Republic of China for UNESCO]
Claim: Pamir Mountains is a territory of People's Republic of China (Pamir Mountains, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2020-08-03): A major scandal has broken out between China, on the one hand, and Tajikistan and Russia, on the other, regarding alleged Chinese claims on the Pamir region. This past month, official outlets of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) repeatedly republished an article by Chinese historian Cho Yao Lu, who says that the entire Pamir region belonged to China at one time and consequently, he implies, Tajikistan should now or in the future return it to Beijing. Of course, such a territorial concession would dramatically change the geopolitical balance in this corner of Eurasia, affecting not only the position of the Central Asian countries but also those of neighboring Afghanistan and Western powers like the United States, whose military forces are deployed there. [...] In an article with the provocative title "Tajikistan Initiated the Transfer to China of Its Land and the Lost Mountains of the Pamir Were Returned to Their True Master," Cho Yao Lu writes that, under pressure from Russia and the United Kingdom, China lost these territories in the 19th century but was able to reclaim a portion in 2010. That year, Dushanbe and Beijing agreed on a new border that required Tajikistan to hand over to China 1,158 square kilometers of territory in the mountainous Pamir region (see EDM, January 24, 2011; see China Brief, July 29, 2011)
Claim: Pamir Mountains is a territory of People's Republic of China (Pamir Mountains, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-09-30): Crossed by the Northern Silk Road,[56] the Tarim and Dzungaria regions were known as the Western Regions. At the beginning of the Han dynasty the region was ruled by the Xiongnu, a powerful nomadic people.[57]: 148 During the 2nd century BC, the Han dynasty prepared for war against Xiongnu when Emperor Wu of Han dispatched Zhang Qian to explore the mysterious kingdoms to the west and form an alliance with the Yuezhi against the Xiongnu. As a result of the war, the Chinese controlled the strategic region from the Ordos and Gansu corridor to Lop Nor. They separated the Xiongnu from the Qiang people on the south and gained direct access to the Western Regions. Han China sent Zhang Qian as an envoy to the states of the region, beginning several decades of struggle between the Xiongnu and Han China in which China eventually prevailed. During the 100s BCE, the Silk Road brought increasing Chinese economic and cultural influence to the region.[57]: 148 In 60 BCE, Han China established the Protectorate of the Western Regions (西域都護府) at Wulei (烏壘, near modern Luntai), to oversee the region as far west as the Pamir Mountains.
Claim: Pamir Mountains is a territory of People's Republic of China (Pamir Mountains, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-01-01): The Kyrgyz Republic is situated on the north-eastern part of Central Asia and in the center of Eurasia. The total area of the Republic is 187.5 thousand km² (the area of the Republic after boundary delimitation with the People’s Republic of China has been determined according to the map ‘Kyrgyz Republic’ - scale 1:500 000, (Bishkek: Goskartografia, 2004). The territory of the Republic is 900 km from West to East and 450 km from North to South. The Kyrgyz Republic is bordered by the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Uzbek Republic. It has delimited boundaries with the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Kazakhstan; the boundary delimitation with the Republic of Tajikistan and the Uzbek Republic has not been completed. The Kyrgyz Republic is located at the juncture of two mountain systems (the Tien Shan and the Pamirs). The highest point of the Republic is Victory Peak (7,439 m), the lowest area is a transboundary crossing of the Naryn river at 480 m above sea level. The average elevation of the territory of the Republic is 2,630 m above sea level.
Claim: Pamir Mountains is a territory of People's Republic of China (Pamir Mountains, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-01-19): - establishes effective and useful contacts on Scientific, research, training and agitation works with Tajik National Park "Pamir Mountains", reserve Zorkul and other protected areas of Pamirs, with state and non- state institutions in the region and beyond it, nature-oriented organizations, and public organizations involved in the protection of biodiversity, bio culture of environment and traditional culture of the people and other organizations, agencies which deal with issues of nature protection, culture, history, social and economic life of Pamirs, participates in achievement of joint projects with them, lighting historical, economic and cultural role of Pamirs in the Silk Road.
Claim: Pamir Mountains is a territory of People's Republic of China (Pamir Mountains, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2019-02-18): During a recent trip along the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border, The Post saw one of the military compounds and encountered a group of uniformed Chinese troops shopping in a Tajik town, the nearest market to their base. They bore the collar insignia of a unit from Xinjiang, the Chinese territory where authorities have detained an estimated 1 million Uighurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority. [...] In a statement, Tajikistan’s Foreign Ministry said there are "no People’s Republic of China military bases on the territory of the Republic of Tajikistan," nor "any talks whatsoever" to establish one. [...] Beijing’s moves have been similarly opaque in the rugged mountains spanning Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and China: the same chessboard where czarist Russia and the British Empire vied for influence 150 years ago.
Claim: Pamir Mountains is a territory of People's Republic of China (Pamir Mountains, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2018-05-07): After Tang Taizong defeated the Eastern Turks, the northern reaches of the Tang Empire extended all the way to the area around Lake Baikal. But when the Turks later regrouped, Tang control retreated to the Yinshan Mountains (in today’s Mongolia). Up to the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor during the Qing Dynasty, China’s borders did not include Xinjiang and it was not until the middle of the 18th century that the Qianlong Emperor was able to pacify the regions to the north and south of Tian Shan and extend Qing territory as far as Lake Balkhash and the Pamir Plateau. However, beginning around 1860, the northern reaches of Heilongjiang, the area east of the Ussuri River, and the northwest part of what is today Xinjiang—over 1,000,000 square kilometers of territory—was seized by Russia. In the 20th century, China for all practical purposes lost 1,500,000 square kilometers of territory that is Outer Mongolia.
Claim: Pamir Mountains is a territory of People's Republic of China (Pamir Mountains, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2014-09-01): The People’s Republic of China is located in the eastern part of the Asian continent, on the western Pacific rim. It is a vast land, covering 9.6 million square kilometers. China is approximately seventeen times the size of France, 1 million square kilometers smaller than all of Europe, and 600,000 square kilometers smaller than Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, and the islands of the south and central Pacific). Additional offshore territory, including territorial waters, special economic areas, and the continental shelf, totals over 3 million square kilometers, bringing China’s overall territory to almost 13 million square kilometers. Western China’s Himalayan Mountains are often referred to as the roof of the world. Mount Qomolangma (known to the West as Mount Everest), at over 8800 meters in height, is the roof’s highest peak. China stretches from its westernmost point on the Pamir Plateau to the confluence of the Heilongjiang and Wusuli Rivers, 5200 kilometers to the east.
Claim: Pamir Mountains is a territory of People's Republic of China (Pamir Mountains, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2015-04-29): East meeting West, North meeting South: since time immemorial, the Wakhan Valley, in the Pamir Mountains, has existed at the intersection of trails trodden by nomads, peddlers, pilgrims and, at times, the soldiers and emissaries of great powers. When I’d thought about traveling to see this rugged branch of the ancient Silk Road, it had seemed like an adventure to the far-flung periphery of the world. Now, as I looked around the market, taking the long view of history, it felt more like the center. [...] It was here in the Pamirs where Russia’s territorial expansion confronted Britain’s defense of India during the 19th-century geopolitical rivalry known as the Great Game. Both sides dispatched players — maverick officers and ambitious explorers, often in disguise — to chart Central Asia’s wild terrain and win influence. A final flashpoint occurred over the mountain in front of me, where in August 1891 a British agent crossed paths with his Russian counterpart, who claimed it as the czar’s and threatened arrest. Four years later the powers agreed to make that narrow valley between their empires — the Wakhan Corridor — a buffer belonging to neither, and it is still part of Afghanistan, a panhandlelike eastward salient of little importance.
Claim: Pamir Mountains is a territory of People's Republic of China (Pamir Mountains, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2019-05-17): Pakistan borders Afghanistan at the Durand Line, which runs from the Hindu Kush and the Pamir Mountains. A narrow strip of Afghanistan territory called the Wakhan Corridor extends between Pakistan and Tajikistan. From the eastern tip of the Wakhan Corridor starts the Sino-Pak border between the People's Republic of China and Pakistan spanning about 510 km. Iran has a province named Sistan via Baluchistan that borders Pakistan. Baluchis are an ethnic majority in this area. In 1957 Pakistan signed a frontier agreement with Iran according to which the border was officially declared and the two countries haven't had this border as a subject of serious dispute at all.
Claim: Pamir Mountains is a territory of People's Republic of China (Pamir Mountains, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2022-05-05): Tajikistan has also accumulated a hefty $3.2 billion in foreign debt, amounting to 40 percent of the country’s GDP. China is the biggest creditor with a loan of more than $1.2 billion. Though Tajikistan received concessions from China to temporarily suspend debt repayment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is not clear when Tajikistan must resume payment. Most Chinese debts are for huge infrastructure projects funded under China’s Belt and Road Initiative that neither yield any return in the short-term nor typically benefit the poor and marginalized segments of society. Chinese loans have mainly benefited Tajik ruling elites and further eroded the country’s sovereignty through mining concessions and permission granted to the People’s Republic Army of China to establish military outposts in the mountainous Pamir region of Tajikistan. [...] Meanwhile, the situation in Afghanistan continues to pose threats to Tajikistan’s and other neighboring Central Asian states’ security. Spillover effects of the Taliban victory — including infiltration by violent Islamic extremist groups, drugs and organized crime, and the possibility of a full-blown Afghan civil war — are major concerns. Tajikistan is particularly anxious about the security of its southern border with Afghanistan, an 850-mile line that is stretched over the Pamir mountains and some inhospitable terrains. Tajikistan is the only Central Asian country that has objected to the Taliban takeover, calling for a more inclusive government in Afghanistan while providing shelter to several former Afghan government leaders, including those from the former Northern Alliance.
Claim: Pamir Mountains is a territory of People's Republic of China (Pamir Mountains, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2009-01-20): Geography Area: 143,100 sq. km. Capital: Dushanbe. Terrain: Pamir and Alay mountains dominate landscape; western Ferghana valley in north, Kofarnihon and Vakhsh Valleys in southwest. Climate: Mid-latitude continental, hot summers, mild winters; semiarid to polar in Pamir mountains. [...] GEOGRAPHY At 36'40' northern latitude and 41'14' eastern longitude, Tajikistan is located between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to the north and west, China to the east, and Afghanistan to the south. Tajikistan is home to some of the highest mountains in the world, including the Pamir and Alay ranges. Ninety-three percent of Tajikistan is mountainous with altitudes ranging from 1,000 feet to 27,000 feet, with nearly 50% of Tajikistan's territory above 10,000 feet. Earthquakes are of varying degrees and are frequent. The massive mountain ranges are cut by hundreds of canyons and gorges; at the bottom of these run streams which flow into larger river valleys where the majority of the country's population lives and works. The principal rivers of Central Asia, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, both flow through Tajikistan, fed by melting snow from mountains of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Flooding and landslides sometimes occur during the annual spring thaw.
Claim: Pamir Mountains is a territory of People's Republic of China (Pamir Mountains, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-10-08): The territory of China lies between latitudes 18° and 54° N, and longitudes 73° and 135° E. The geographical center of China is marked by the Center of the Country Monument at 35°50′40.9″N 103°27′7.5″E / 35.844694°N 103.452083°E. China's landscapes vary significantly across its vast territory. In the east, along the shores of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, there are extensive and densely populated alluvial plains, while on the edges of the Inner Mongolian plateau in the north, broad grasslands predominate. Southern China is dominated by hills and low mountain ranges, while the central-east hosts the deltas of China's two major rivers, the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. Other major rivers include the Xi, Mekong, Brahmaputra and Amur. To the west sit major mountain ranges, most notably the Himalayas. High plateaus feature among the more arid landscapes of the north, such as the Taklamakan and the Gobi Desert. The world's highest point, Mount Everest (8,848 m), lies on the Sino-Nepalese border.[129] The country's lowest point, and the world's third-lowest, is the dried lake bed of Ayding Lake (−154 m) in the Turpan Depression.[130]
Claim: Pamir Mountains is a territory of People's Republic of China (Pamir Mountains, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2024-08-22): Climate mid-latitude continental, hot summers, mild winters; semiarid to polar in Pamir Mountains Terrain mountainous region dominated by the Alay Mountains in the north and the Pamirs in the southeast; western Fergana Valley in north, Kofirnihon and Vakhsh Valleys in southwest [...] selected World Heritage Site locales: Proto-urban Site of Sarazm (c); Tajik National Park (Mountains of the Pamirs) (n); Silk Roads: Zarafshan-Karakum Corridor (c); Tugay forests of the Tigrovaya Balka Nature Reserve (n)
Claim: Pamir Mountains is a territory of People's Republic of China (Pamir Mountains, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2018-09-13): In 2011, Tajikistan ratified a 1999 treaty to cede 1,000 km2 (390 sq mi) of land in the Pamir Mountains to the People's Republic of China (PRC), from the Chinese state perspective ending a 130-year-old border dispute and China's claims to over 28,000 km2 (11,000 sq mi) of Tajik territory.[27] At other instances Chinese scholars claimed control over the entire Pamir Mountains.[28] However, the government of the Republic of China (ROC) based in Taipei does not recognize this treaty and continues to claim the territory, as reflected in its official maps.[29] Whereas the government of Tajikistan celebrates the ceding of land as diplomatic victory, many Tajikistani scholars, opposition and parts of the population contest the existence of a 'dispute' altogether, seeing Badakhshan's territory in its entirety belonging to Tajikistan.[8] Instead, the ceding of land belonging to Kuhistani Badakhshan in 2011 to China by some, especially in Gorno-Badakhshan was perceived as territorial loss and sparked anxieties about further encroachments of the Chinese state.[30][8] [...] The Republic of Tajikistan in the east borders with the People's Republic of China. ... It goes through the highlands along the Pamir mountain range in the Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous Region.
Claim: Pamir Mountains is a territory of People's Republic of China (Pamir Mountains, 2024-10-09)
Evidence (2007-01-01): Geography Area: 143,100 sq. km. Capital: Dushanbe. Terrain: Pamir and Alay mountains dominate landscape; western Ferghana valley in north, Kofarnihon and Vakhsh Valleys in southwest. Climate: Mid-latitude continental, hot summers, mild winters; semiarid to polar in Pamir mountains. [...] GEOGRAPHY At 36'40' northern latitude and 41'14' eastern longitude, Tajikistan is nestled between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to the north and west, China to the east, and Afghanistan to the south. Tajikistan is home to some of the highest mountains in the world, including the Pamir and Alay ranges. Ninety-three percent of Tajikistan is mountainous with altitudes ranging from 1,000 feet to 27,000 feet, with nearly 50% of Tajikistan's territory above 10,000 feet. Earthquakes are of varying degrees and are frequent. The massive mountain ranges are cut by hundreds of canyons and gorges; at the bottom of these run streams which flow into larger river valleys where the majority of the country's population lives and works. The principal rivers of Central Asia, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, both flow through Tajikistan, fed by melting snow from mountains of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Flooding and landslides sometimes occur during the annual spring thaw.