evidence: 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) [...] The Pamirs have long been a murky region, over which outside powers have struggled for control. In the 19th century, they were at the center of the "Great Game" between Britain and Russia. China was a major loser in this geopolitical contest as both London and St. Petersburg largely ignored Chinese claims on that territory and others. Since 1991, the region, almost all of which still lies within Tajikistan, has been a continuing security problem for Dushanbe due to local ethnic challenges as well as incursions by Islamists from Afghanistan (see EDM, April 30, 2020).