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China has territorial claims to all its neighbors, including the Russian Federation, both by sea and by land. After the Second World War, Beijing has its own vision of the territories it owns, and it disputes them. At the official level, the Russian Federation will not express dissatisfaction with China’s territorial claims. Dmytro Efremov, an expert of the Ukrainian Association of China Studies, told about this today, August 31, on the FREEDOM TV channel.
According to him, some countries have already settled their territorial disputes with China on a bilateral basis. In addition, these territorial disputes were in most cases initiated by China itself. That is, the Chinese claimed that this was their territory. We are talking about Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
“The essence of the dispute came down to the fact that these countries, in exchange for strengthening cooperation with China, sacrificed small areas of their territories in favor of China. And China has the same claims to Japan, India, Burma, and islands in the South China Sea. There are also islands that are disputed or disputed by China with Japan, with South Korea, with Taiwan, etc.,” Efremov said.
According to the expert, this is all related to a certain perception that after the Second World War, China had its own views on what is national Chinese territory.
“Since then, they have been trying to prove and defend their territorial claims from their neighbors. Although they are, in fact, insignificant. Although in the case of Tajikistan or Kyrgyzstan, we are talking about some pieces of mountains, or even with India, on which there are no resources and practically no people live. But it is important for China to demonstrate its ability to achieve its goals and results and advance its interests. Very often this is done in private. But there are precedents,” he says.
China really had a treaty with Russia, and this island was divided practically in half. But, as you can see, in China they keep to themselves the idea that these territories are still Chinese, and China would like to restore its sovereignty over them.
“This is Russia’s position in relation to China. This is the policy of the person who, unfortunately, rules such a country. Of course, we take it all seriously. I think the Russians will remain silent. There will be no official announcements. Perhaps some dissatisfaction will be expressed through informal diplomatic channels, but it will definitely be ignored by the Chinese side, nothing more. We can compare. Putin liked to think about the sovereignty of countries, about the extent to which countries are independent, whether they have external governance or not. Here is an example: there is a disputed territory, there is India, which can afford to openly and publicly express its disagreement with Chinese policy, Chinese departments that deal with this topography, and defend its sovereignty. There is Russia, which will have to remain silent because the short-sighted people who rule this country have put themselves in such a position,” Efremov explained.
At the same time, China will not make any serious territorial claims against Russia.
“The main thing that Beijing expects from Moscow is that Putin and his elites who rule the country do not express themselves openly, do not declare their hostility or contradictions in cooperation with China. That is, so that such deviant behavior was not overt. Then China will do it,” the expert said.
Yefremov clarified that these maps, this interpretation that the Great Ussuri Island is Chinese, did not come from nowhere in 2023. This is something that in China for many years was considered as Chinese, and China demanded from Russia that Russia recognize this territory for China.
“The further complication there is that this island is located at the confluence of two rivers, and because of this the contours of the island change from time to time, and this causes difficulties in correctly interpreting the situation where the actual border passes, because the island is roughly in half was divided between them. And, by the way, the Chinese part of the island is quite developed, the Chinese made a large national park there, a very large number of tourists go there every year. And it has become a kind of place that is used for national mobilization of people who visit this area. On the other hand, the Russian part of the island is depressed and poorly maintained. Almost nothing develops there, there is practically no tourism, it is a kind of semi-closed border zone with all the consequences that follow from this. And this is an example of how some people can work with territories, other people do not know how to work with territories, but, nevertheless, try to capture and get even more territory under their control,” summarized the expert of the Ukrainian Association of Chinese Studies.
Note that new geographical maps have been officially approved in China. On them, part of the territory of Russia is recognized as the territory of the People’s Republic of China. The Great Ussuri Island on the Amur River is marked as Chinese lands. China and Russia, and earlier the USSR, have been arguing about the ownership of this territory since 1964. And in 2008, Moscow and Beijing signed an agreement according to which the island was divided between the two countries. On the new official map, China marks the entire island as the eastern point of Chinese territory. In addition to the Great Ussuri Island, China has designated the Indian state and the border region of Aksaichyn as its territory. The Indian Foreign Ministry has already protested to Beijing. Moscow has not yet reacted to the new maps.
