Claims of the Celestial Empire to the territories of Russia, which China considers its own

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The border with China is one of the longest for Russia, and the history of relations between the countries is more than 300 years old, so territorial disputes between states are quite natural. In 2008, the parties officially settled the last border issues, but nevertheless, the Celestial Empire still has minor claims to the demarcation line.

The history of modern China dates back to 1949, when the Communist Party headed by Mao Zedong came to power in the country. It seemed that all the accumulated territorial contradictions between the countries would be resolved only by virtue of ideological proximity, and also thanks to the significant contribution of the USSR to the victory of the left in the Middle Kingdom.

In 1950, the states signed a friendship treaty, but already in 1969, the long-standing conflict over Damansky Island led to an armed clash between the USSR and the PRC.

As a result of the incident, 58 Soviet soldiers were killed, and China's losses were even greater. The border incident showed that ideology is not able to save fraternal peoples from territorial disputes rooted in the distant past.

First distinctions

Back in 1689, the Russian kingdom and the Chinese Qing empire (1644-1912) first agreed on the delimitation of territories, as a result of which Muscovy ceded almost all the lands on the Amur to the Celestial Empire.

Many domestic researchers regard the Nerchinsk agreement as disadvantageous. Subsequently, Russia tried to reconsider the terms of the treaty at the diplomatic level, but until the 19th century, when China was weakened by wars with Western countries, this could not be done.

In 1858-1860, Russia and the Qing Empire concluded a number of agreements, which the Chinese would later consider unequal, since the Celestial Empire was forced to sign them due to the difficult geopolitical situation.

In accordance with the treaties, the border ran along natural barriers, "following the direction of the mountains and the flow of large rivers," and a serious demarcation line was not drawn: the parties did not particularly need it until the middle of the 20th century.

The beginning of the new century further weakened China, which ultimately led to the revolution and the fall of the Qing empire in 1912. The Celestial Empire faced difficult times: the country was actually divided into parts between various opposing forces, acting solely in their own interests.

The border between the USSR and the PRC

After the end of World War II, the Russian-Chinese border remained practically unmarked on the ground. In 1949, with the support of the Soviet Union, the Communist Party came to power in China, which did not put forward any claims about the border for more than ten years.

In 1964, the parties began the process of agreeing on the border line, but it did not apply to all of its sections: the PRC insisted on the transfer of the Bolshoi Ussuriysky and Tarabar Islands. As a result, the negotiations reached an impasse, and the Chinese provocation on Damansky Island, which caused bloodshed on both sides, led to a long break in Soviet-Chinese relations.

The confrontation ended only in the mid-1980s, when perestroika began in the USSR, although attempts to normalize relations were made several years before it began.

In May 1991, the parties entered into an agreement on the border on its eastern part, while in some areas, for the first time, it was supposed to carry out full-fledged demarcation work. As a result of the agreements, the USSR, in particular, handed over the ill-fated Damansky to the PRC.

Search for ways of settlement

The agreement was ratified after the collapse of the USSR - in February 1992, after which the parties began to prepare for the determination of the border. Disagreements still persisted, but the states sought to resolve them: in 1994, the points of intersection of the territories of the PRC, the Russian Federation and Mongolia were designated, and an agreement was concluded on the Russian-Chinese border on its western part.

The parties continued demarcation work for a long time, almost completely completing them by 1999. However, even by that time, there were still quite significant undifferentiated areas. In October 2004, during the visit of President Vladimir Putin to China, an additional agreement was signed on the Russian-Chinese state border on its eastern part.

The last protocols on the demarcation of this part of the border were signed in 2008. Russia handed over to China half of the Bolshoi Ussuriysk, Tarabarov and a plot on Bolshoi Island, a total of about 350 square kilometers of land.

The long-standing dispute was finally settled, and relations with the PRC began to become more and more good-neighborly every year: the level of economic cooperation and political cooperation increased significantly.

Is the solution to the question final?

Although the centuries-long territorial disputes between Russia and the PRC have been resolved, a number of experts believe that the point in solving the problem has not yet been put. In particular, information appeared in the media about China's claims to 17 hectares of land in Gorny Altai at an altitude of about three thousand meters, since it was allegedly not delimited properly.

In addition, many Chinese believe that their country can lay claim to all the former lands of the Qing empire. In any case, official Beijing no longer has claims to significant areas, and if questions about territories do arise, they relate to small-sized plots of land that do not matter on a national scale.