In 2004, indeed, by decision of the Kremlin, territories near Khabarovsk with a total area of more than 300 square kilometers were transferred to China. These territories are islands on the Amur.
You can find a ton of references in a clearly accusing tone: “Putin took and gave China islands.”
Putin, Putin, Putin, Putin, Putin, Putin, sold, squandered, sold Mother Rus', donated it, well, it started, well, now it will begin, well, here we go. 13 years have passed, the rewriting of history is in full swing.
The situation, however, is simpler.
These islands have been in the disputed status of “it is not clear whose” for hundreds of years, some kind of beginning of legal relations can be considered approximately from the Treaty of Nerchinsk, this is the year 1689.
In 1924, the USSR government was trying to somehow settle the situation with the territories, and signed a paper with representatives of the border provinces (Heilongjiang) stating that it was PLANNED to carry out demarcation. After which everyone gives up on it and everything goes on as it goes.
In 1926 they returned to the question because local residents they begin a chaotic squatter - despite the fact that the Chinese are on the left bank of the Amur, and the Russians are on the right. They come to the conclusion that they need to somehow stop the mess. At this point there is silence again.
Further, during the war with Japan in the 1940s, the USSR voluntarily occupied part of Chinese territories - including a number of islands on the Amur. For the simple reason that China combined the war with Japan with a civil one, and the USSR received carte blanche to act to resolve the Japanese issue. The issue, as we know, is being successfully resolved.
After which peacetime begins, and the question, postponed since the 20s, arises that demarcation should be carried out.
Only now it is complicated by the fact that the Soviet army occupied another part of the territory. Of course, it’s a war, but formalizing “we recaptured territory from an ally” is, to put it mildly, not an option.
It’s one thing to recapture islands from Japan, everything is clear here, they’ve recaptured them. But it is impossible to conquer from China during the war on the Chinese side.
The situation comes to some kind of resolution in 1964. A document is drawn up in which it is agreed to take the current situation (“on the Amur”) as a starting point, but it is not possible to agree on a number of issues on the details of the delimitation. One of the points, as in any agreement about the “border along the river”, is “whose each specific island will be.”
At that time, Khrushchev was already in the USSR, relations with China, thanks to the indescribable intelligence and political wisdom of this ruler, were bad, and it was obvious that China was resting its horn in order to “bend demonstratively.” Under Joseph, the situation looked a little different; Comrade Mao sat in the waiting room while the Minister of Agriculture reported, and humbly waited.
The further situation is known - in the interim, the territorial issue escalated to the point that the Chinese conducted beta testing of the Grad installation (then new and secret), using PLA personnel as a resource, which was then counted mainly by belt buckles and seals.
On this day, Gorbachev signs a document stating that the border with China should pass along the fairway of the Amur River. For the first time, the Chinese have an official and legal opportunity to challenge Russia’s ownership of the Bolshoy Ussuriysky and Tarabarov islands.
Once again - before this, the question of “whose” had not been fixed at all for centuries. Gorbachev signs an official binding document on behalf of the USSR, according to which all disputed territories are automatically transferred to China. Without any haggling at all. Nothing was negotiated from the PRC - just “take the Kemsk volost, you bastards.”
Russia, as the legal successor of the USSR, receives this treaty by inheritance.
In December 1992, at the Russian-Chinese summit, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the governments of the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China on the issues of mutual reduction of armed forces and strengthening confidence in the military field in the border area. Article 12 of the adopted joint declaration - “The parties will continue negotiations on not yet agreed sections of the border between the Russian Federation and the PRC on the basis of agreements on the current Russian-Chinese border in accordance with generally accepted norms international law, in the spirit of equal consultation, mutual understanding and mutual accommodation in order to resolve border issues fairly and rationally."
Borya gives up approximately 600 (!!!) small and not particularly small islands on the Amur and Ussuri rivers, and another approximately 11 square kilometers of land, and moreover, lays the foundation for further claims. China sees that Borya is a plush and weak fool, so “since he’s lying there, why not take him?”
Another approximately 15 square kilometers are lost during the demarcation of the border in 1995 - again, Boris Nikolayevich arranges monstrous corruption in the regions, so it is obvious that the Chinese bring specific people who actually carry out the demarcation, and the border is fixed “at the most beneficial to China” reference points .
Against the backdrop of all this, China is quietly creating a sandbank so that the channel between China and two disputed islands near Khabarovsk becomes decorative, after which one can turn to the agreement already signed with Gorbachev and say “well, now let’s, as agreed, set the border along the fairway.” All this is happening, Borya is lying blue, no measures are being taken at all.
Well, now gather around, I will announce the conclusion that is being drawn from all this - “Putin is squandering the land, under Putin they gave the land to China, Putin gave it away.”
Putin has just completed all these processes, completely closing territorial claims and demarcating the border. And completing the process of transferring what Gorbachev signed. Something that could no longer be refused due to the terms of the signed and valid agreement.
So you will see a fairy tale about “Putin giving away lands” - remind the speaker who actually signed and gave what.
And here's some additional material.
Often, when asked about China’s territorial claims, they refer to Mao’s quote with the general meaning “Russia took one and a half million square kilometers from us and we will return them.”
I'll bring a piece scientific work Li Danhui and S.N. Goncharov on this topic:
Mao Zedong:“Didn’t he talk about a peaceful solution to the border issue? (General laughter). We have now launched an offensive and are saying some empty words. We say that the government of Tsarist Russia cut off 1 million 500 thousand square kilometers from us, that during the Yalta Conference they cut off Outer Mongolia (1 million 540 thousand square kilometers) behind China’s back. But there is also Tannu-Uriankhai. Without any agreement, they hastily turned it into an autonomous republic of the Soviet Union. Do we want to demand the return of these areas? We don’t even think of demanding this, we only utter empty words. The goal was to bring them into a tense state and thereby achieve a relatively rational border treaty. This is a secret, pay attention to this.
Mao Zedong:“.We say some empty words, we fire some blank shots. By speaking empty words, we sought to be on the offensive at the border negotiations. The goal was to achieve a rational situation on the border, the conclusion of a border treaty. Perhaps you think that we really want to return 1 million 540 thousand square kilometers of land seized by the kings. We don't want this at all. This is called firing blank shots, bringing them into tension. This is the meaning here. Khrushchev is such a person that if you don’t fire a few blank shots at him, he will feel unwell
Mao Zedong: We want Khrushchev to jump several “zhangs” up from the ground. This is a secret; now this document has not yet been fully prepared. However, in fact, we don’t need 1 million 540 thousand square kilometers, and we don’t need more than 100 thousand square kilometers in Tannu-Uriankhai...”
It seems that these quotes do not require special explanations and allow us to understand very clearly how sadness should be assessed and interpreted famous sayings Mao Zedong on July 10, 1964. The most important thing: Mao did not mean to put forward any territorial claims against the USSR or “present historical accounts.”
Further, Deng Xiaoping rightly proceeded from the fact that the statement made by Mao Zedong on July 10, 1964 about the “not yet presented account” of one and a half million square kilometers is well known in China and the world. Other statements that revealed the true meaning of Mao Zedong’s position were known only to the narrowest circle of top leaders of the PRC.
Under these conditions, Deng, in a manner understandable to the Chinese reader, declared that he had already “presented” the historical account that Mao considered “outstanding,” and therefore forever closed this historical stage, annulled everything said on July 10, 1964.
It was precisely based on this understanding of the problem that Jiang Zemin had every reason to sign the Treaty, which contained the thesis of the absence of mutual territorial claims.
Well, as you can see, the situation is with the classic “ripping out quotes from their context.” Because in such a presentation, everything looks completely different than “Mao said that China is definitely about to take back its ancestral Siberian lands.”
Ruslan Karmanov
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In Khabarovsk today the transfer of Tarabarova Island and part of Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island to China took place. The agreement signed between the governments four years ago legally fixed the line of the Russian-Chinese border in this section.
Tarabarov Island and half of the Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island near Khabarovsk, as well as Bolshoi Island on the Argun River in the Chita Region, according to the addition to the Russian-Chinese agreement state border go to China. The document was signed between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leadership of the People's Republic of China on October 14, 2004. The transfer of the islands near Khabarovsk to China took place exactly four years after the signing of an agreement between the leadership of the two countries.
Deputy Director of the First Department of Asia of the Russian Foreign Ministry Vladimir Malyshev said that this act “completes the establishment and legal consolidation of the entire line of the Russian-Chinese border, with a length of 4,300 km.” From now on, Tarabarov Island became the Chinese Yinlundao, and Bolshoy Ussuriysky was divided into two parts. Its western part, which went to the Chinese, will be called Heixiazidao. The eastern part is assigned to Russia. total area These territories are about 350 square kilometers.
With the transfer of the islands on the Amur, China became 50 kilometers closer to Khabarovsk. It is believed that the islands were of strategic importance; they covered Khabarovsk in the event of a military attack. There was a fortified area on Bolshoy Ussuriysky, but now the military has abandoned it and moved to a new outpost. The Chinese side understood with understanding that the border passes near the Orthodox chapel of St. Victor built on the Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island, and “during demarcation, the border line was moved further from the temple.”
Governor Khabarovsk Territory Viktor Ishaev proposed creating a joint Russian-Chinese trade zone on the Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island. "From an economic point of view, we haven't lost anything," he said. According to him, the creation of a trade economic zone will create civilized conditions for trade turnover between the Khabarovsk Territory and Heilongjiang Province. As Ishaev said, the federal budget includes funding for the construction of a bridge from Khabarovsk to Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island.
The territorial dispute over Tarabarova Island and the Big Ussuri Island on the Amur began in 1964, when the leader of the USSR Nikita Khrushchev and the Chinese leader Mao Zedong agreed on the delimitation of territories, but did not agree on the issue of these islands, recalls Newsru.com.
After this, the Chinese launched a so-called irrigation war and began regularly flooding barges with sand in the Kazakevichev channel. If the channel dried up, the islands, having connected with the Chinese coast, would automatically become Chinese, so the Chinese poured sand into the Amur, and the Russians deepened the bottom and strengthened the coast.
In 1991, USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev signed a border treaty with China, and the border was drawn along the Amur channel. All this time, the border between Russia and China remained undemarcated for almost 4 km. By the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to China in October 2004, the “irrigation war” was put to an end: an additional agreement to the Agreement on the Russian-Chinese border on its eastern part was signed between the two countries.
The natural resources of the islands are rich and varied. Land resources are of significant value. Up to 70% of the area can be used as arable land, hayfields or pastures. The islands are home to valuable fur-bearing animal species, ungulates, upland and waterfowl. There are species listed in the Red Books of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the USSR and Russia: Far Eastern and black storks, black and Japanese cranes, mandarin ducks, swan-nose turtles, Far Eastern leatherback turtles and others.
There is a lot of fish in the Amur, its channels and floodplain lakes. Among them, protected species are black carp and Chinese perch. More species of fish constantly live in the vicinity of the islands than in the entire Volga basin. The autumn migration of chum salmon and lamprey takes place near the islands.
The islands are of great recreational importance. Already, there are about 16 thousand garden plots here, which are visited by tens of thousands of city residents, news agencies note.
In a solemn atmosphere, border pillars were opened on the land section of the border, and the parties exchanged notes confirming the completion of the determination of the Russian-Chinese border line along its entire length. The Russian Foreign Ministry, having reduced the presence of the media, limited the publicity of the ceremony, writes the Kommersant newspaper.
According to eyewitnesses of the transfer of the islands, who wished to remain anonymous, about a hundred representatives of the PRC and 30 Russian officials and security officials took part in the event. The Chinese delegation arrived at the scene of the event (the shore of the Big Ussuri Island closest to the PRC) on boats, setting up a temporary tent camp nearby.
Near the border pillars (stone Chinese and wooden Russian) covered with fabric, the participants of the ceremony were greeted by four girls in national costumes of both countries. After the ceremonial raising of the state flags, the veils from the border pillars were removed, representatives of the parties exchanged notes confirming the entry into force of the additional protocol describing the border line (signed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi in Beijing in July 2008), and short speeches in which the method of resolving the border dispute was set as an example to the world community as “conflict-free.” After this, members of the Russian delegation left the ceremony site.
Let us remember that the state affiliation of the Amur Islands was uncertain for more than forty years. According to the Beijing Treaty of 1860, the Russian-Chinese border in the Khabarovsk region ran along south coast Amur and Ussuri, and, accordingly, the islands of Tarabarov and Bolshoy Ussuriysky were Russian. In 1991, an intergovernmental agreement was concluded, according to which the Soviet-Chinese border was drawn primarily along the main fairway of the Amur. Thus, part of the islands that previously belonged to the USSR went to China (for example, Damansky Island, border conflict because of which occurred in 1969). The islands of Tarabarov and Bolshoy Ussuriysky, as well as Bolshoy Island on the Argun River, were removed from the scope of the agreement. China continued to consider these islands disputed.
In October 2004, during Vladimir Putin’s visit to China, an additional agreement on the Russian-Chinese border was signed, providing for the transfer of the Bolshoi and Tarabarov islands to China, as well as the division of the Bolshoi Ussuri Island into Russian and Chinese parts. The federal law approving the additional agreement was ratified by both chambers of the Russian parliament and signed by the president in 2005. On July 21, 2008, the heads of the Foreign Ministries of the Russian Federation and China, in development of the provisions of the agreement, signed the “Additional protocol describing the line of the Russian-Chinese state border on its eastern part,” which determined the line of the border in the area of the Bolshoi, Tarabarov and Bolshoy Ussuriysky islands. The Chinese side received the entire territory of Tarabarov Island (in the Chinese version - Yinlongdao, Silver Dragon Island) and half of the Big Ussuri Island (Heixiazidao, Black Bear Island). The total area of the territory transferred under Beijing's control was 174 square meters. km.
The decision to transfer the islands on the Amur to China was negatively received by a number of public organizations and opposition parties in the Khabarovsk Territory. In particular, deputies of the Khabarovsk Duma insisted on the extreme importance of the fortified area located on the Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island, designed to hold back the onslaught in the event of aggression from China. In addition, the take-off trajectory of air force and air defense combat aircraft lies over Tarabarov Island. Residents of Khabarovsk were extremely unhappy in 2004 with the prospect of transferring the islands. Representatives of public and political associations made harsh statements.
In 2005, “tens of thousands of signatures against the transfer of the islands” were collected and sent to Moscow, but this did not change Moscow’s decision in any way.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Khabarovsk Territory, Yuri Berezutsky, believes that the final transfer of the islands to the PRC opens up great prospects for residents of the region. “We have a unique opportunity, which does not exist anywhere else in the country, to intensify not only trade, but also cultural interaction,” said Mr. Berezutsky.
Let us recall that the government of the Khabarovsk Territory, having come to terms with the transfer of the islands to the People's Republic of China, has been developing in recent years a project to create a joint Russian-Chinese trade zone on the Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island, which provides for the construction of a customs-border crossing on the island and a permanent bridge instead of the currently existing pontoon one. In the future, it is planned to create a new cross-border corridor between China and Russia in this territory.
So this is sometimes an island and sometimes a peninsula. The border in 1969 between Russia and China did not pass along the fairway of the Amur River (or along the center of the river, as accepted throughout the world), but along the right bank. This was decided under the Tsar when they signed the border treaty with China in 1861. According to this treaty, the Amur River belonged entirely to Russia. So when the Amur was full of water, Damansky was an island and belonged to Russia, and when the Amur became shallow, it became a peninsula and belonged to China. So Russia handed it over to China so that there would be no misunderstandings. And she demarcated the border along the Amur, now it runs in the middle of the river. And all the islands that are located on the Amur River closer to the right (Chinese) bank came under the control of China.
Before the demarcation of the border in the Damansky area in the fall of 1969, there were many violations by China. Until March 1969, firearms were not used; they fought hand-to-hand, or were pushed back by armored personnel carriers. The Chinese shed first blood. If the disputed islands had not been given to Ussuri, constant conflicts could have provoked a third world war.
Firstly, it is very important to understand that Damansky is not Crimea. The strategic importance of the island is close to zero, and in fact, all these heaps created by the author: the heroic island, hot battles, defended, defended... - personally, cause me bewilderment. Are we talking about the same Damansky, or about some other background?
The conflict over Damansky had a purely symbolic meaning for both the USSR and China, which was then trying to isolate itself from Kremlin tutelage and assert itself after the cooling of relations with Moscow... The island itself is one of dozens, if not hundreds, of similar ones scattered in the bed of the Amur River . The essence of the conflict was not that the Chinese wanted to take away something that the Soviet Union tried not to give them... During the demarcation, some lands were transferred to China, while others, on the contrary, went to Russia. Damansky was planned to become part of China, according to these same delimitation agreements reached before the conflict occurred. The essence of the problem was that one of the Chinese leaders decided to make a patriotic PR and for this purpose considered it possible to hasten the Soviet border guards leaving the island. China behaved defiantly aggressively and provoked retaliatory aggression. When the Chinese, using small arms and light mortars, attacked the cordon of Soviet border guards where there were even some casualties, after a short pause to make a decision, they were simply swept away from Damansky itself and from the surrounding area. All this did not prevent the Soviet Union from transferring Damansky into Chinese possession during the completion of the demarcation processes.
The Chinese added more land and turned Damansky Island into a peninsula in order to avoid any future doubts about the ownership of this piece of land by China. I think it will be better for everyone. I just feel sorry for our soldiers who died there.
This is the actual subject of the question.
Before 1915, this island did not exist; the island was a protrusion on the Chinese side. When the river washed out a new channel, the island ended up on the Russian side, according to the agreement that drew the border along the river bank. Now the island is gradually eroding and going under water. They say that the Chinese are putting something there so as not to lose the island. According to the new agreement on the Russian-Chinese border, the island went to the Chinese side. The new treaty resolved issues in many disputed territories. Some of the islands and shoals went to Russia, some to China, in total, the territories of the two states did not change.
During a visit to China, President Vladimir Putin signed a document according to which part of the Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island, as well as the entire Tarabarov Island, will be transferred to China. In total, China will receive 337 square kilometers of territory. From now on, the issue of the border has been finally resolved, and this border, more than 4 thousand kilometers long, will become calm. Did China really need these islands and what will Russia gain from this?
The recent meeting of the Russian President with the President of the People's Republic of China was called a summit of "breakthrough decisions" by the Russian Foreign Ministry. However, initially there was no talk of transferring the islands to China. It was reported that following the meeting, an additional agreement was signed between the Russian Federation and the PRC on the Russian-Chinese border on its eastern part, a protocol on the navigation of Russian and Chinese ships in the waters adjacent to the islands of Tarabarov and Bolshoy Ussuriysky, as well as a protocol to the agreement on the joint use of islands.
The islands of Bolshoy Ussuriysky and Tarabarov are located near Khabarovsk and are located in the Amur floodplain opposite the mouth of the Ussuri River. Together with the small islands surrounding them, they form a fairly compact floodplain massif, consisting of more than 50 islands, bounded from the north by the main channel of the Amur, and from the south by the Amur Channel, in the western part (before the confluence with the Ussuri) called Kazakevicheva. The islands are home to valuable fur-bearing animal species, ungulates, upland and waterfowl. There are species listed in the Red Books of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the USSR and Russia: Far Eastern and black storks, black and Japanese cranes, mandarin ducks, swan-nose turtles, Far Eastern leatherback turtles and others. There is a lot of fish in the Amur, its channels and floodplain lakes. Among them, protected species are black carp and Chinese perch. More species of fish constantly live in the vicinity of the islands than in the entire Volga basin. The autumn migration of chum salmon and lamprey takes place near the islands.
Moscow and Beijing have met each other halfway, moving away from the fruitless line of “either everything my way or nothing,” which can only preserve potential irritants, which always turn out to be “suspended” border problems. For the first time in the century and a half chronicle of Russian-Chinese delimitation along rivers, the border crosses the islands, passing through them. As a result, these areas are distributed approximately equally between Russia and China.
These islands became disputed due to the long-term efforts of the Chinese side to change the course of the Amur River, which defines the state border line. For a long time, Russia and China published geographic Maps, on which they appropriated all disputed territory. Only the 1991 Agreement announced the distribution of the islands for the first time, and discussion of the fate of the two sections was left “for later.”
Near Khabarovsk, along the Kazakevichev channel, there was the only undemarcated section on the Amur. Now, after the transfer of the islands, the border will pass in fact, along the city itself, along its coastal line.
According to the new agreement, the border between China and Russia on Bolshoy Ussuriysk will pass near the Orthodox chapel of the martyr-warrior Victor and will divide the island in half. As a result of the division, residents of Khabarovsk who own land plots on the island.
As for the governor of the Khabarovsk Territory, Ishaev, he had his own plans for the Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island. It was there that Khabarovsk was supposed to “step over”. For development, the city only needed a capital bridge. According to Far Eastern economists, the transfer of the Bolshoi Ussuriysky and Tarabarov islands to the PRC overnight caused damage of $3 billion, taking into account the loss of already invested funds, the transfer of the Khabarovsk airport, as well as the development of the border in new areas.
However, according to Moscow economists, after the transfer of the islands, opportunities opened up for Russia to conclude billion-dollar deals with China, so that possible profits will more than cover all losses.
Amur waves in border relations
The floodplain islands of the Amur River have been used by the indigenous peoples of the Amur region since ancient times. No traces of Manchu or Chinese presence on the islands were found, despite careful research carried out by scientists from the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1996-1997.
In the 17th century, starting with the campaigns of Vasily Poyarkov and Erofey Khabarov, the islands of the Amur floodplain attracted the attention of Russia with their fertile lands, vast pastures, diversity and richness of flora and fauna. However, the unfavorable water regime of the river and frequent flooding of the floodplain significantly hampered the development of these lands.
The first Russian-Chinese border agreement can be considered the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689, when the Russians, under pressure from the Chinese army, were forced to recognize the sovereignty of China on the right bank of the Amur River (before that, it was also being developed by the Russians) and in Primorye.
But in the middle of the 19th century, Russia bloodlessly annexed 165.9 thousand square kilometers of Primorye, which until then had been under joint management. As a result, China, weak at that time, lost access to the Sea of Japan.
This acquisition was secured by the Treaty of Tientsin on June 1, 1858 and confirmed on November 2, 1860 by the Treaty of Beijing. “After the establishment of boundary markers,” it said, “the boundary line should not be changed forever.” However, it was soon noticed that the lines were not going as planned. They agreed to make changes, which was done in 1886.
After which the Japanese took, along with Korea, Manchuria, Port Arthur, Dalny, the Kuril Islands, and half of Sakhalin. All that remained was to wait until history would allow the Chinese to raise the border issue head on.
When discussing this issue in 1926, the parties again noted that the border line between the USSR and China had been repeatedly moved arbitrarily by both the local population and local authorities on both sides. It was decided to restore the original line as defined by various agreements and protocols regarding the Russian-Chinese border.
During the occupation of China by Japan, the Soviet Union took control of a large number of islands on the Chinese side of the fairway on the Amur and Ussuri.
In 1964, the parties developed a draft of a new agreement. Then an open “window” appeared in the form of the Tarabarova and Bolshoy Ussuriysky islands. But the document was not signed. Later, the Chinese considered that they had sufficient grounds to seize Damansky Island, which they always considered theirs.
On May 16, 1991, an agreement was signed on the Soviet-Chinese border in its eastern part, which clarified the border on the basis of existing treaties. All subsequent Russian-Chinese agreements on the border were adopted in the development of this document.
After Mikhail Gorbachev signed an agreement that the border with China should pass along the fairway of the Amur River, the Chinese had the opportunity to challenge Russia’s ownership of the Bolshoy Ussuriysky and Tarabarov islands in the Khabarovsk region.
A precedent for revising post-Soviet borders arose almost immediately after the collapse of the Union in the form of Russian-Chinese agreements from July-September 1992, according to which Russia transferred to China approximately 600 islands on the Amur and Ussuri rivers, as well as 10 square kilometers of land territory. Russia lost another one and a half thousand hectares of land in Primorye during the demarcation of the border in November 1995.
The final documents of Boris Yeltsin’s visit to Beijing in December 1992 stated the following. The 12th article of the adopted joint declaration read: “The parties will continue negotiations on the not yet agreed sections of the border between the Russian Federation and the PRC on the basis of agreements on the current Russian-Chinese border in accordance with generally accepted norms of international law, in the spirit of equal consultations, mutual understanding and mutual compliance in order to resolve border issues fairly and rationally."
But less than two months later, the Chinese position unexpectedly changed - special representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Wu Jianmin, at a briefing in February 1993, referring to Deng Xiaoping’s closed speech on an alliance with Russia, made it clear that territorial problems between the two countries no longer existed.
Behind last years On their shore, the Chinese built about three hundred kilometers of dams in order to artificially direct the Amur in the direction they wanted, to shallow the Kazakevichev channel, along the fairway of which the border is determined in this area.
Governor of the Khabarovsk Territory Viktor Ishaev
All this time, the so-called “irrigation war”, which began in Soviet times, continued. Hydraulic work was carried out on the Amur every year - the bottom was deepened, the bank was strengthened, and dams were built. In Russia in post-Soviet times, irrigation battles were a little forgotten, and the Chinese continued their “subversive activities.” In recent years, on certain sections of the Amur coast, the Chinese have built about three hundred kilometers of dams in order to artificially direct the Amur in the direction they need, in particular, bypassing the shallowing Kazakevichev channel. To speed up shallowing, the Chinese sank barges with sand in the channel from year to year.
Only in 2000, local authorities, having come to their senses, noticed that the Amur was gradually changing its course and “moving away” from Khabarovsk. The Khabarovsk authorities decided to strike back - and hydraulic engineering work began on the Amur River, opposite Khabarovsk.
Local authorities, by the way, have always advocated that the disputed islands be assigned to Russia. And hydraulic engineering works (not contradicting international agreements) were carried out precisely within the framework of this policy.
After a series of actions by both sides, the border was finally fixed along the Amur and Ussuri. But it was not properly demarcated. The main thing was that rivers quite often change the outlines of their banks, islands and fairways, which is why many purely geometric errors have accumulated.
The Russian Far East has enormous resources that are difficult for Russia to develop due to the sparse population of the territory. For the dynamic development of the Far East, the region can accept up to 500 thousand foreign workers. They could well help build roads, lay communications, and develop abandoned agricultural lands.
Academician Pyotr Baklanov
The problem was which of the branches should be considered the main channel of the Amur. Before Putin decided to transfer the islands to China, the border ran in the middle of the Kazakevichev channel, but China believed that its place was in a different channel.
But the channel along which the border actually runs now is quickly being washed away, and not without the help of the Chinese, and soon, instead of the disputed Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island, a much less disputed peninsula will arise, fused with Chinese territory. At the same time, the Russian coast is eroded by a couple of meters every year, that is, it moves away.
And the islands are of strategic importance for Khabarovsk, which stretches along the Amur for 40 kilometers. On Bolshoy Ussuriysky there is a fortified area, which in the event of an attack by the Chinese should hold the enemy near Khabarovsk for 45 minutes. And over Tarabarov Island lies the take-off trajectory of combat aircraft of the 11th Air Force and Air Defense Army, which is stationed in Khabarovsk.
Civil aircraft flying from Khabarovsk airport, are also gaining altitude over this island. Now that the island has passed to China, all flights will require the consent of the Chinese side, and also for the use airspace the neighboring state will have to pay.
What Putin did
The first thought that comes to mind: Russia is losing ground and giving way to China. The idea of imminent territorial seizures by the descendants of the builders of the Great Chinese wall not new. According to a number of American demographers, by 2015 the territory of China will not be able to feed its population. At the same time, there is colossal demographic pressure on Russia’s borders with China: on the one hand, there is a huge population density of 120 people per 1 square kilometer, and on the other, there is undeveloped space. The population density in our eastern regions is approximately 1 person per 1 square kilometer. Near the border with China, about 2.6 million people live on the Russian side of Primorye, and over 85 million on the Chinese side, so the Chinese predisposition to “land expansion” is quite logical and long-term.
No president can base his policy on confrontation with China until he has made every effort to maintain cooperation with it.
Henry Kissinger
If we think in an imperial way, then there is only one conclusion: territorial seizures of Russian territories by China are coming. However, no one has yet canceled the borders, and a direct military invasion is unlikely to be included in the strategic plans of our neighbor. In principle, China’s filling of all free spaces is inevitable, but first of all this will be the expansion of the economy and geopolitical influence.
At the moment, it is too early to talk about the mass settlement of the Russian Far East by the Chinese. For now, we are talking about transferring finance and raw materials from this region to China, securing local sales markets for Chinese goods, and the most profitable and cost-effective industries for enterprises with Chinese capital.
During the entire 1990s, approximately 700 Chinese settled throughout the Far East. Meanwhile, according to our research, 7 percent of Primorye residents believe that 20 to 30 percent of Chinese live in the region. 21 percent of Primorye residents believe that there are more than 10 percent of Chinese citizens in the region, and 28 percent think that there are from 5 to 10 percent people from China. People don't know the true state of affairs.
Director of the Institute of History and Ethnography FEB RAS Viktor Larin
However, this is happening throughout Russia, which is why in the very near future there will be an acute shortage of labor resources in the country. In 2015, the retiring generation will be replaced by a generation that is almost a quarter smaller in number. Some developed countries have passed this milestone, and all of them did not do without mass immigration. Russia will also have to take this path, especially if production picks up. And in the Far East, immigration will be Chinese.
China is concentrating economic and military power, which will inevitably in this century be aimed at developing resource provinces, existing and future energy flows and, accordingly, the countries that own them. On this path, he must inevitably encounter another powerful power that strives for the same goals, but controls these areas today.
The current exchange with the Chinese of several hundred hectares in Primorye is generally beneficial to Russia. We are unlikely to be able to be strong friends with America, since it itself does not strive for any friendship with anyone, but only gravitates towards a more or less obvious form of domination. We will never be friends with China either - due to normal Chinese nationalism, encouraged by the growing power of the country.
But the solution to the border issue removes, at least, possible reason conflict between our countries. For, paradoxically, in the event of an armed conflict, China has nothing to do in the resource-rich and people-poor expanses of Siberia. The Chinese, of course, want to develop Siberia - but as shareholders, co-owners and investors. But isn’t this the same thing that Russia is seeking from the West?
The agreements reached on the border should be assessed not by opportunistic standards, but by political criteria. And political factors turned out to be more significant than anything else.
The two countries have gone through and overcome various periods in their relations over the past 40 years, including a long and burdensome phase of intense confrontation. The experience gained clearly confirms the need to have clearly defined, legally fixed and, to the maximum extent possible, conflict-free boundaries.
There are three levels of state participation in world politics. The first is the superpower level, when the country itself determines its goals and independently achieves their implementation. The second level is the middle country: it no longer defines goals, but only its own priorities within the goals of others that are considered acceptable. And, finally, the third level - when the country can do little on its own, and therefore chooses such a strong partner, within the framework of whose policy it arranges its existence; the calculation is based on the fact that the patron power will provide certain protection to the client power.
Our level is far from the first. And, apparently, in this case, Putin made a useful move for a second-level state - he tried to be in an alliance with the desired power. If this meant sacrificing some of the river backwaters, then the price seems reasonable.
