Why Is China So Generous Over Vast Lost Territories To Russia?


All the "Unequal Treaties" signed by China with the European imperial powers were officially dissolved following the Communist takeover in 1949 - with the exception of huge amount of Chinese territory that Russia annexed from China under the Treaty of Aigun (1858) and the Treaty of Beijing (1860). As a result of those two treaties and some other smaller treaties, China lost over
1 million km² (400,000 square miles) of territory in Manchuria (called "Outer Manchuria") and another half million km² (200,000 square miles) in the western regions to Russia. The combined 1.5 million km² comprises an area three times the size of Spain.

As the result of the loss of "Outer Manchuria" to Russia, China lost the port of Vladivostok, the island of Sakhalin, and also access to the sea of Japan.



Interestingly, even though the official Chinese position still regards those previous border treaties signed with Russia as unequal ones, the current Chinese regime no longer wants to reclaim all the lost territories. Instead, they have been negotiating with the Russians on the basis of the modern boundaries, leaving out just about 35,000 km² of territory in dispute, with about 28,000 km² in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan, 6000 km² elswhere along the western border, and about 1,000 km² along the Argun, Amur, and Ussuri rivers on the eastern border.

My question is, why was China willing to give up such a huge amount of land to Russia but its attitude towards Hong Kong and Macau, two tiny city-states, was so different? Of course, economically speaking, Hong Kong (and to a smaller extent, Macau) is very important to China. However, "Outer Manchuria" (including the "ice-free" port of Vladivostok) and the "Western border" region (near the Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture) are not only strategically important, but may also be economically important to China one day too. If the reclaiming of Hong Kong and Macau was an indication of Chinese national pride, why not the reclaiming of those territories whose combined size is three times that of Spain, given the fact that all those territories were lost to a foreign power as a result of Unequal Treaties?