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?
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