What subjects of the Russian Federation borders China. Geographic location and borders of China

Career and finance 01.07.2020

Career and finance

Today, when China is the most important strategic partner and, in many respects, an ally of the Russian Federation, most citizens of our country are watching life in China with curiosity. And the most pressing issues that arouse the genuine interest of Russians are related to the territorial location and border areas of the eastern neighbor.

Blagoveshchensk

At the mouth of the fast-flowing river Zeya, on the left bank of the Amur, which separates Russia and China, lies the majestic Russian city of Blagoveshchensk. This is the only administrative center of the Russian Federation, which is located on the outer border of the state.

Only 500 meters of water separate the Russian city on the border with China from Heihe. From here, it is not difficult to see the embankment of a neighboring country, and the photos taken by local residents clearly confirm this. A new park built in 2012, a huge Ferris wheel and even residential buildings are clearly visible. And with the onset of darkness, when millions of lights are lit on all the buildings of the Celestial Empire, the town on the opposite bank turns into a picture of beautiful fairy tale, which is very close.

A bit of history

Blagoveshchensk owes its appearance to the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia Muravyov. It was he who, back in 1849, was the initiator of the construction of a military fortress in these parts. According to the Nerchinsk Treaty, part of the lands between Russia and China had the status of neutral zones:

Jewish Autonomous Region;
South of the Khabarovsk Territory;
Amur region;
Primorsky Krai.

Initially, this state of affairs suited both states quite well. However, the deteriorating situation between Russian Empire and England, which at that time was conducting military operations on, allowed the military authorities to assume that the enemy intended to establish his military fortifications in these parts. The construction of the Russian fortress was a kind of step ahead of the curve. This made it possible to protect Siberia from the invasion of enemies.

The construction of the Ust-Zeya post began only in 1856. At the beginning of summer, a military detachment was transferred here, whose duties included preparing the territory for construction. A month later, the first settlers arrived. Gradually their number increased. In 1958, it was decided to negotiate with the Chinese ruler in order to document these lands for the Tsarist Empire. The result of the five-day negotiations was the signing of the Aigun Treaty.

At the same time, a church in honor of the Annunciation was laid here. Holy Mother of God. Subsequently, the border city was named after this temple and became the administrative center of the Amur Region.

Gold mining.
Successful development of agriculture;
shipbuilding.
The presence of commercial and industrial houses.
Arrangement of ports.

All this was the rapid development of urban infrastructure and population growth.

In 1900, bloody clashes with the Chinese took place in Blagoveshchensk, which went down in history under the name of the Boxer Rebellion. As a result of these events, the artist Sakharov painted the painting "The Defense of Blagoveshchensk in 1900". Now the canvas is in the city museum and reminds the descendants of the heroic deed of their ancestors.

Now, at the place depicted in the picture, there is a customs office through which hundreds of tourists travel daily between China and Russia. The close proximity of cities and close cooperation between states contributed to the development of a visa-free regime. In order to get to China, citizens of the Russian Federation only need a passport.

AT winter time pontoon bridges are being built across the frozen Amur, on which buses travel, and in the summer everyone who wants to cross by boat. During the off-season, hovercraft move quickly between the two coasts, which locals called "Pumas". Photos of travelers regularly appear on the network, telling about the state of affairs at customs.

River between China and Russia

The length of the water border between China and Russia is 3559.0 km. Of them:

along the rivers - 3489.0 km;
on the lakes - 70.0 km.

The river Russian-Chinese border runs along Lake Khanka and the following rivers:

Amur;
Ussuri;
Sungach;
Argun.

Most of the disputes between Russia and China arose precisely over the water boundary. It was very difficult to determine which of the countries owns the numerous islands located in the rivers. According to global agreements, the interstate border on a navigable river should run along the main fairway (the deepest section). However, on the Amur to carry out this condition very difficult. Indeed, depending on the time of year and climatic conditions, as well as on how much silt and in what direction river waters, the fairway of the river is displaced by tens of meters. And those islands that still belong to one state today may belong to another tomorrow. That is why in this part of the water border there was a need to carry out demarcation according to geographical objects.

What countries borders China?

China is the third largest country with an area of about 9,597,000 km². That is why China is surrounded by many neighbors.

In the North, China neighbors Russia and Mongolia. In the east it borders on North Korea.

The western part of the state is in contact with Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as with 3 former Soviet Republics:

Kyrgyzstan;
Kazakhstan;
Tajikistan.

The southern borders run along countries with similar cultural and historical values, such as:

Laos;
Butane;
Nepal.

And also with:

India;
Vietnam;
Burma.

The inhabitants of the Celestial Empire are very jealous of their territorial boundaries. Gaining military and economic power, China regularly disputes previously signed treaties. This is not surprising, because some of them were enclosed in moments of decline and devastation, and some were not framed properly. As a result, each of the countries interpreted the signed documents at its own discretion.

If you look at old maps, you can see that the part of Siberia that today belongs to the Russian Federation was in the not too distant past in the possession of China. Fortunately, today the Celestial Empire does not claim these territories. All disputes about the islands:

Tarabarov;
Big Ussuri;
Damansky;
Abagatuy.

Were successfully resolved not in favor of the Russian Federation. However, this helped to resolve the conflict of interests between the two countries, which arose in the middle of the last century and lasted for almost 50 years.

Such disputes concern not only the Russian-Chinese border. Beijing also puts forward claims to Tajikistan. In recent years, the latter has ceded to China part of its territories, with a total area of about 1,500 km2.

China claims Taiwan, Senkaku, Spratly, considering them their original land. The inhabitants of the islands lying next to China themselves fundamentally disagree with this position. It has not yet been possible to achieve any significant agreements on this issue, and it is not known how long the confrontation will last.

History of China's borders

Over the thousand-year history of China's existence, the outlines of its borders have undergone numerous changes. He then overgrown with new lands, then lost them.

The Russian-Chinese border has also changed many times. In total, more than 40 documents were signed during the years of neighborhood, but not all of them were of significant importance. The most significant are:

Nerchinsky
Burinsky
Kyakhtinsky
Aigunsky
Beijing

Once, between Russia and China, there was another state - Manchuria. But in 1644, the warlike tribes of the Manchus went to war against China. Having brilliantly won numerous battles, they invaded Beijing, contributed to the coming to power of the Qing Dynasty and organically integrated into the Celestial Empire. In such a non-trivial way, the former border of China was moved away from the Great Wall far to the north to the Amur and Ussuri rivers - 2 great powers became neighbors.

However, neighborly relations did not work out from the very beginning. Under the onslaught of a large army, Russia was forced to give the Amur Region to China. During the war, the Treaty of Nerchinsk was signed (1689).

In 1858, Russia took back the Amur Region, given to China. All the lands of the left bank from the Argun River to the Sea of Okhotsk came under the jurisdiction of the royal crown. The Ussuri Territory was recognized as common possessions, and the Amur, Sungari and Ussuri rivers were opened for public use. This, of course, was a defeat, but China, weakened by the opium war and blazing in revolts, preferred to resolve the dispute with its northern neighbor peacefully by signing the Aigun Treaty.

The next defeat of China in the war with the united army of England and France in 1860 contributed to the signing of another unfavorable treaty. Taking advantage of the weakness of Beijing, Russia annexed the entire Amur and Ussuri Territory, and also made changes along the river borders of China and Russia. It was the Beijing Treaty that subsequently introduced serious differences in relations between the two countries. Relations have repeatedly heated up to the limit. Conflicts flared up in 1954 and 1964, 1969.

Summing up

The latest treaties regulating territorial disputes on the Chinese border with Russia were signed in:

in 1991, M. Gorbachev, after four years of negotiations, as a result, China got a number of islands, including Damansky;
in 2004, V. Putin, after lengthy negotiations, as a result, Russia lost Tarabarov and part of the Bolshoi Ussuriysky.

To date, China has quenched its appetite, and how events will develop further, history will show.

In the most complex set of foreign policy problems of our country by the second half of the 20th century. for Far East The most important question was border with China. The Chinese side did not limit itself to clarifying the border on the ground, and since the 1950s. again raised the question of the unequal nature of all treaties between tsarist Russia and China. Territorial claims extended to the Amur region, Primorye and a number of other regions.

On August 14, 1945, representatives of the USSR and Kuomintang China signed an agreement on friendship and alliance for a period of 30 years. The goal of the Soviet leadership was to regain influence in Manchuria.

After the formation of the PRC, new treaties were concluded. Relations between the USSR and the PRC became very warm. border with China was almost open, in some areas border outposts were disbanded. In the 50s. more than 10,000 Soviet specialists helped the Chinese people build hundreds of industrial enterprises, and more than 22,000 Chinese envoys studied in the USSR.

After Stalin's death, relations between our countries deteriorated. The border with China was closed. Trade between the USSR and the PRC actually ceased. Since 1963, our countries have not exchanged tourist groups, and even the ships of the Amur River Shipping Company have not made voyages to China.

With regard to the USSR, a campaign began to alienate the "disputed areas". The press raised the question of the inequality of the treaties of the emperors of the Qing dynasty with the Europeans, including the Aigun and Peking treaties.

Increasing cases of border violations and an official statement by the PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the disputed borders led to the Beijing consultations in 1964. The Chinese delegation announced 1,540 thousand km 2 that Russia had seized from China before the revolution. But China makes a "generous concession" and limits itself to claiming "only" 35,000 km2. On the eastern section of the Soviet-Chinese border there were about 35 thousand km 2 of disputed land. These are the islands along the Amur. Ussuri, among which on the Kazakevicheva channel near Khabarovsk: Bolshoi Ussuriysky and Tarabarov, with a total area of 350 km 2.

The parties agreed that along the Amur and Ussuri, the border between Russia and China should run along the middle of the main fairway, clearly marked on pilot charts, fixed on the ground by coastal and floating navigation signs. The delegation of the USSR, yielding numerous islands lying behind the line of a smooth fairway, counted on drawing the border along the Amur channel, otherwise the border would have passed right under Khabarovsk.

More than half of the eastern section of the border, previously disputed, was agreed upon, but the issue of three small sections, incl. in the area of the Amur channel, we decided to consider later.

Tests by China in 1964 of its nuclear weapons and the beginning of the "cultural revolution" made his foreign policy more aggressive. Citizens and military personnel of the People's Republic of China took to the streets hundreds of times. Soviet islands, made fights with the Soviet border guards. In 1969, tragic events broke out in the area of Damansky Island on the river. Ussuri.

Having received a decisive rebuff from the Soviet troops, the Chinese agreed to closed negotiations in 1969-1991. As a result of the consent of the USSR to the passage of the border with China along the fairway of the Amur and Ussuri, 90% of the eastern section of the Chinese border was agreed upon. On May 16, 1991, in Moscow, representatives of the USSR and the PRC signed an agreement on the border, confirmed by an agreement between the Russian Federation and the PRC in 1996.

The demarcation of the border began, i.e. its specific definition on the ground. After the collapse of the USSR, the western section of the border with a length of about 55 km, located in the Altai mountains, the issue of the Amur channel has been resolved.

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Located in the eastern part Eurasian continent, on west coast Pacific Ocean . In terms of territory - almost 9.6 million square kilometers (1/4 of the area of Asia, 1/14 of the land the globe) - China is the third country in the world, second only to Russia and Canada.

With a population of 1.31 billion, China ranks first in the world. The population is distributed very unevenly: in some provinces in the east of the country it exceeds 400 people per 1 sq. km. km, while in the desert and highlands of the western and northwestern regions in places there are less than 1 person per square kilometer.

Most of the country's territory is located between 20º and 50º north latitude and belongs to temperate zone. The most western point (73º40′ E) lies to the west of Wuqia County in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Extreme eastern the point (135º5′ E) is located at the confluence of the Heilongjiang (Amur) and Ussuri rivers. Northern the tip of the country (53º31′ N) is located on the fairway of the Heilongjiang River north of the city of Mohe. South point (4º15′ N) - Cape Zengmuansha in the southern tip of the Nansha archipelago.

Thus, the length of the country from north to south is approximately 5.5 thousand km, from west to east - 5.2 thousand km. China has long borders: the length of the land border reaches 22,143 km, of which more than 7.5 thousand km falls on the border with the CIS countries, and the mainland coastline - more than 14,500 km.

In the northeast, China borders with North Korea, in the north - with Russia and Mongolia, in the northwest - with the former Soviet republics, and now independent CIS member states - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, in the west and southwest - with Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bhutan, in the south - with Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. China also has maritime borders with South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia.

China washed by the waters of three seas - the Yellow, East China and South China, which are the marginal seas of the Pacific Ocean, as well as the Bohai Bay of the Yellow Sea. Characteristically, in the Chinese-language literature, the Bohai Bay is often distinguished as a separate sea.

mainland coastline It is distinguished by a generally flat relief and is dissected by numerous bays, there are many beautiful bays and convenient harbors, most of which are ice-free.

However, in recent years, a trend towards a gradual rise in the water level has been observed in the coastal strip. According to the calculations of the State Oceanographic Administration of China, over the next 3-10 years, the sea level in the coastal areas of the country will constantly rise. Currently, the highest rates of sea transgression are observed in the area of Tianjin, where over the past 50 years the average annual rate of water level rise was 2.5 mm, which slightly exceeds the world average. In general, the trend of “undulating” sea level rise has been maintained in recent years. In 2003 average level sea on the territory of the country turned out to be 60 mm higher than the figure recorded in previous years. Apparently, one of the reasons for this is global warming.

The total area of China's territorial waters is approximately 4.73 million square kilometers (data from different sources differ somewhat), where more than 5.4 thousand islands are located. Of these, Taiwan and Hainan are the largest.

easternmost islands China are Diaoyu and Chiweiyu, located to the northeast of Taiwan. The Diaoyu Islands (Jap. Senkaku) are the subject of a territorial dispute between China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. The total area of this island group, lying on the continental shelf of the East China Sea, does not exceed 6.3 square kilometers. However, significant oil reserves have been discovered here. Given that both China and Japan are among the world's largest oil importers, this dispute has important political and economic implications.

There are also unresolved territorial issues in the South China Sea, primarily related to the Paracel Islands (Ch. xisha qundao西沙群岛) and the Spratly Islands (Ch. Nansha qundao南沙群岛). The Paracel Islands are claimed by China and Vietnam, and a number of states are arguing for the Spratly Islands - China, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia. The area of the Paracel Islands is approximately 3 square kilometers, and about. Itu Aba, the largest of the Spratly Islands, is only 0.42 sq km, although the Spratly region itself has a length of more than 1000 km, where more than 100 islands are located. Again, despite the sufficient distance from the coast of China (Paracel Islands - 250 km, and the Spratly Islands - 1000 km from Hainan Island) and proximity to the coast of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia (70-200 km), the dispute is, in fact, over the right to own oil fields, as well as control over one of the busiest international shipping routes between the Pacific and Indian oceans, and, accordingly, over cargo flows of great economic importance (oil, ores, food, industrial products, etc.).

In addition, the very belonging of the island of Taiwan to China is not obvious, although the Chinese authorities recognize the existence of only one China. It states that "Taiwan Province is an integral part of the PRC, and any state that establishes diplomatic relations with the PRC must sever any official contact with the Taiwanese administration."

Exactly 158 years ago, a Russian-Chinese treaty was signed in the city of Aigun, which forever determined Russian sovereignty over the left bank of the Amur. Article 1 of the treaty decreed: “The left bank of the Amur River, starting from the Argun River to the sea mouth of the river. Cupid, let it be possession Russian state, and the right bank, counting downstream, to the river. Usuri, the possession of the Daiqing state; from the Usuri River further to the sea, the places and lands, until the border between the two states is determined by these places, as now, let them be in the common possession of the Daiqing and Russian states.

From the very beginning, the political and legal fate of this treaty was complex. Soon after its signing, the Aigun Treaty was under the threat of a unilateral Chinese denunciation. His opponents in the camp of Qing officials launched sharp criticism on the grounds that the Heilongjiang jiangjun Yi Shan, who signed the treaty, allegedly violated the emperor's order on "strict observance of the old (Nerchinsk) treaty." A certain confusion was introduced by the incomplete adequacy of the Russian and Chinese alternatives of the text. On this basis, for example, at the beginning of the XX century. Chinese border authorities began to demand free passage for their ships along the lower Amur up to the Sea of Okhotsk. A potential conflict threat was also concealed by the legally vague characteristics of the paragraph concerning the Qing subjects in the area of the so-called "Zazeya wedge".

At the same time, the significance of the Aigun Treaty is determined not only by its delimitation article. At the same time, border trade between the inhabitants of the two banks was allowed, as well as free navigation of the ships of neighboring states along the Amur, without which this trade would be impossible. And although for 158 years relations between our countries have sometimes been frozen and even interrupted, this article of the Aigun Treaty (of course, supported and optimized by a large set of supplementary and clarifying provisions) is still successfully operating. In 2014, the volume of trade between Heilongjiang province and Russia amounted to 21.4 billion, and Russia from China - 95 billion US dollars. Mutual investments are steadily growing, there is a rapid diversification of the forms and methods of trade and economic ties - from oil exports via a pipeline across the Amur to various forms"people's trade".

The Russian-Chinese border has been forming for over 300 years. Why is it so long and painful!?

Firstly , the modern Russian-Chinese border is one of the longest sections of Russia's borders with other countries. It consists of two sections: the western one (a small section of the border - 55 km - between the Republic of Altai and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the PRC) and the eastern one (a much longer section of 4325 km, on which the Chinese provinces of Jilin, Heilongjiang and the Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia border with such subjects of the Russian Federation as Primorsky Krai, Khabarovsk Krai, Jewish Autonomous Region, Amur Region and Zabaikalsky Krai).

Secondly , modern Chinese official science classifies almost all agreements concluded before 1949 (except for the Nerchinsk Treaty of 1689 and the Kyakhta Treaty of 1727) as unequal treaties - primarily the Aigun Treaty of 1858, the Tianjin Treaty of 1858, the Beijing Treaty 1860 and the Qiqihar Treaty of 1911. In the understanding of Chinese historiography, an unequal treaty is a treaty imposed through diplomatic blackmail, military force, and other means that forced China to sign it. The unequal treaty violates and infringes on the rights and interests of China. In the interpretation of Russian historians, the old treaties could only include individual unequal articles (for example, on extraterritorial status, concessions, etc.).

Thirdly , in a number of important areas (for example, on the Amur River), until 1991, full-fledged demarcation work was never carried out. In the Aigun and Beijing treaties, only a common line of delimitation was fixed. The Chinese representative, Grand Duke Gong, never signed the annex map to the Beijing Treaty, which contains the designation of the border line along the Chinese coast drawn by Russian diplomats (see map).

In 1907, the island of Prishchepkov (Nizhneprotochny) near the Ignatievsky farm was recognized as Chinese, and the island of Belyaev, located nine miles above the village of Verkhneblagoveshchenskaya, was recognized as Russian.

In December 1907, disputes began about the islands of Sychevsky and Poperechny, which were due to a change in the fairway in this area. From 1911 to 1914, the case of ownership of the smaller islands of the same archipelago dragged on, but it was decided in favor of Russia.

In 1911, Chinese sovereignty over the island opposite the village of Novovoskresenovka was determined. At the same time, the case of belonging to the archipelago near the Konstantinovsky farm was decided in favor of Russia.

A lot of controversy was caused by the problem of ownership of the Bolshoi Ussuriysky and Tarabarov Islands with a total area of 350 sq. km at the confluence of the river. Ussuri to Amur. Russia immediately established control over this strategically important area lying on the outskirts of Khabarovka. As a result, a complete legal settlement of the problem of the state ownership of the islands on the Amur was not carried out. Due to subsequent events, the demarcation and determination of the fairway, which were proposed by the border commissioner of the Amur Region N.A. Speshnev in 1915, dragged on until 1991.

Thus, all controversial border issues were resolved by searching for mutually acceptable compromises. We can say that by the 20s. 20th century the Russian-Chinese border has historically been organized as the result of complex processes of territorial rapprochement and territorial delimitation of the two states. The shortcomings that existed in the treaty documents or admitted during the demarcation and redemarcation of the border, nevertheless, did not give grounds to doubt the legal basis of the border between Russia and China.

After the October Revolution of 1917, the Soviet government offered China to establish friendly relations on an equal footing and annul unequal treaties. But under pressure from the Entente countries, the Peking government broke off negotiations and in March 1918 recalled its envoy. The Russian-Chinese border was closed. Only in 1924 did contacts resume between the USSR and China. An agreement was also signed between the government of the USSR and the government of the three autonomous eastern provinces on the Chinese Eastern Railway, shipping, and redemarcation of the border.

Subsequently, for a long time, for various reasons, there were no agreements between Russia and China, and all negotiations were suspended. Due to the conflict in 1929 on the CER, diplomatic relations were interrupted and resumed only in 1932.

In 1935-1936. Japanese-Manchurian troops repeatedly violated the Russian-Chinese border in different areas. In justification of these actions, the Government of Japan stated that the Government of Manchukuo did not recognize the Qiqihar Treaty because it had not been ratified, although in reality its entry into force was confirmed by an exchange of notes.

With the proclamation of the PRC in 1949, new stage in the history of China. The fact that the historical and legal basis of the existing Soviet-Chinese border is indisputable was recorded in the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance between the USSR and the PRC, signed on February 14, 1950. The Chinese government until the 1960s. did not make territorial claims against the USSR, did not put forward any proposals to change the existing border line.

Having agreed in 1964 with the possibility of drawing the border along the main fairway of the border rivers and refusing to negotiate in 1987-1991. from legal basis carrying out the delimitation of the Russian-Chinese border in accordance with the Beijing Treaty of 1860 with a map attached to it, where a red line was drawn along the coastline from the Chinese side, Soviet diplomacy itself deprived itself of the main argument in the negotiations, in fact, “driving itself into a corner” in all subsequent border negotiations, which led to the loss of 337 km² of Russian territory in the Khabarovsk region alone. Thus, the transfer of the Russian islands to China in the 20th and 21st centuries is actually a one-sided concession on the part of the USSR and the Russian Federation.

Soviet-Chinese relations in the period between border negotiations 1969-1978. and 1987-1991 were complex and ambiguous. But in the mid 80s. 20th century confrontation at the international level is over. For the border negotiations, the turning point came after the speech of M.S. Gorbachev in Vladivostok in 1986. As a result, an agreement was reached on the resumption of negotiations around the territorial problem - the most painful issue for both countries.

Finally, on May 16, 1991, an Agreement was signed in Moscow between the USSR and the PRC on the Soviet-Chinese state border in its eastern part. For the first time, the agreement created the possibility, after the completion of demarcation work, of having a fully demarcated and legally established border. On March 16, 1992, the Agreement entered into force. At the negotiations 1987-1991. The parties agreed to continue negotiations to resolve issues on the passage of the border line in two sections - near the islands of Bolshoi Ussuriysky and Tarabarov near Khabarovsk, as well as near Bolshoi Island in the upper reaches of the river. Argun.

In the period 1992-1997. 1184 signs were installed on the eastern section. Significantly increased the frequency of installation of boundary markers - from 80-100 km at the end of the XX century. up to 1-3 km (and in some areas up to 300 m).

There were no differences between the parties on the issues of the border line in its western part. The Agreement was signed between the Government of the Russian Federation, the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of Mongolia on the determination of the junction points of the state borders of the three states of January 27, 1994 and the Agreement between Russian Federation and Chinese People's Republic on the Russian-Chinese state border in its western part of September 3, 1994. The agreement of September 3, 1994 was ratified in 1995.

The agreement of September 3, 1994 was the first treaty document with a complete description of the border in the western section. It completed legal registration the borders of Russia and China on the eastern (with two "windows") and western sections.

Work on the demarcation of the Russian-Chinese border continued for 8 years and in 1999 was almost completed. However, it cannot be said that the border problem has been completely resolved, since two disputed undemarcated areas remain: the Abagay-tui island massif on the river. Argun (Bolshoi Island) and the islands of Tarabarov and Bolshoy Ussuriysky on the river. Amur near Khabarovsk. Until the end of the demarcation, these territories, by mutual agreement of the parties, de facto remain under Russian control. When characterizing this problem, the word “inconsistent” rather than “disputed” territories is used to emphasize the absence of fundamental disagreements.

In July 2001, the Russian-Chinese Treaty of Good Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation was signed during a visit to Moscow by Chinese President Jiang Zemin. Article 6 of the treaty enshrines the absence of mutual territorial claims on the part of the parties. Regarding the two small sections of the border with an unsettled status, the parties maintain the status quo, with the intention of continuing negotiations to find a mutually beneficial compromise. It is fundamentally important that for the first time in an international treaty procedure, the absence of territorial claims of the parties to each other is recorded.

On October 14, 2004, during the visit of Russian President V. Putin to the PRC, an Additional Agreement between the Russian Federation and the PRC on the Russian-Chinese state border in its eastern part was signed. As a result, the delimitation of the border line between Russia and China has actually been completed.

According to the Supplementary Agreement, a plot of land was transferred in the area of Bolshoy Island (the upper reaches of the Argun River) and two plots in the area of Tarabarov and Bolshoy Ussuriysky Islands at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri rivers. In May 2005, the Additional Agreement was ratified. Bolshoi Island was divided roughly in half between the Russian Federation and the PRC. As a result of the demarcation of the Russian-Chinese border in 2005, the Tarabarov Islands and the western part of Bolshoi Ussuriysky were transferred to the PRC in 2008, becoming part of the Heilongjiang province.

The transfer of the islands caused a mixed reaction in Russian society. Thus, the then governor of the Khabarovsk Territory, V. Ishaev, defiantly refused to attend protocol events during the visit.

Thus, through mutual concessions, it was possible to resolve the dispute, which in the late 1960s. led to armed clashes and could result in a full-scale war between China and the Soviet Union. But although the territorial disputes between the Russian Federation and the PRC have been largely resolved to date, some problems remain related to the Russian-Chinese border. For example, one of the most authoritative experts in this field, Yu.M. Galenovich believes that the border problem has not been fully resolved until a new delimitation treaty is signed. In addition, the content of Chinese history textbooks continues to be a significant irritant, interpreting individual pages of relations between our country and China in the past in an anti-Russian spirit.

O. A. Timofeev, O. K. Gribov

The history of Russian-Chinese contradictions in terms of the islands of Tarabarov and Bolshoi Ussuriysky has about fifty years; prehistory goes back to the 17th century.

The history of Russian-Chinese contradictions in terms of the islands of Tarabarov and Bolshoi Ussuriysky has about fifty years; prehistory goes back to the 17th century. I think it makes sense to dwell on it in more detail - in the end, you need to know what exactly China does not like in the previous agreements and on what it bases its claims to the islands belonging to Russia.

Initially, Russia and China were separated by vast territories, sparsely populated or completely deserted. The northern border of China was the Great Wall of China, located at a distance of more than a thousand kilometers from the current border. Of course, in those days, the Chinese could not even think that the border would ever move so far to the north. Between the Amur and the Ussuri and the Great Wall lived warlike Manchus, ethnically distant from the indigenous Chinese - the Han.

The first Russians appeared in the Amur region in the 17th century. Then, south of the Amur and Ussuri, there was a separate Manchurian state, the rulers of which did not particularly like the activity of unknown aliens, and in the same century the Manchus made several campaigns against Russian settlers on northern shores and even for some time occupied this territory. However, not for long: there was no point in holding the taiga banks of the rivers, besides, the war with China soon began, which the Manchus won by taking Beijing in 1644 and placing a new dynasty, the Qing, on the throne. Manchuria organically joined the Celestial Empire with the rights, as we would say now, of an autonomous region: the Chinese, for example, were forbidden to settle and engage in agriculture on the territory of Manchuria. Thus, by the middle of the 17th century, the border of China expanded in a rather original way to the Amur and Ussuri rivers; but there the Chinese encountered new Russian settlers. It was from this moment that the “border epic” between Russia and China began, which continues to this day. Over the course of a long history of demarcation, more than forty documents regulating the status of the border have been adopted, but only five of them have had serious consequences.

Nerchinsk Treaty(August 27, 1689) - the first treaty between Russia and China, approximately establishing the borders of states. This treaty included clauses that established the basic principles of trade and determined the order of diplomatic relations. In accordance with this treaty, Russia ceded the Amur Region to China. Not from a good life, of course - a small Russian embassy and a guard detachment of several hundred people were surrounded by an army of many thousands. This treaty, however, is a landmark moment in our history - it was from this moment that Russia began active trade with China, exchanging money and its exports for tea, silk and porcelain.

Burin Treaty(August 20, 1727) - defined the border from the Shabin-Dabat pass (Western Sayans) to the river. Argun. The articles of this treaty, without changes, were included in the following treaty -

Kyakhta Treaty(October 21, 1727). He fixed the agreement on trade and borders. He clarified the border, established the procedure for contacts between the authorities of the border regions. In this treaty, points were defined for trade at the frontier. Also, according to this agreement, once every three years, a Russian caravan could come to Beijing. The Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Beijing received the status of an unofficial permanent representation.

Aigun Treaty(May 16, 1858) - under this agreement, Russia received back the Amur Region. Territories on the left bank of the Amur, from the river. Argun and to the Sea of Okhotsk. The Ussuri region, according to this agreement, was a joint possession of Russia and China. Amur, Sungari and Ussuri were open for free navigation of Russian and Chinese ships. The agreement was concluded after a negotiation between the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia N.N. Muravyov and Hua Shan, representative of the Emperor of China. The situation was somewhat reminiscent of the one that developed at the signing of the Nerchinsk Treaty: of course, no one threatened Hua Shan, but at that moment the Taiping uprising was raging inside China, moreover, China was waging the most difficult Second Opium War; four days after the signing of the treaty, the British and French captured the fortress of Dagu and the port of Tianjin. In such conditions - suffering continuous defeat - China risked another military conflict - in the north. The Chinese chose to pay off.

Beijing Treaty(November 2, 1860) finally determined the Russian-Chinese border, thus supplementing the Aigun Treaty. The eastern border between the two countries was established along the rivers Amur, Ussuri, Sungache. The agreement stated that the Amur and Ussuri regions are the possession of Russia. From the Russian side, the mission was headed by Count N.P. Ignatiev, from Chinese - "Prince Gong named Yi Xing." At first, the Chinese behaved rather defiantly - the British and French were driven back, it seemed that China had recovered from the blow; but soon Dagu and Tianjin were again taken, Dalian and Yantai were captured, and near Peking the Anglo-French army defeated the sixty thousand Manchurian cavalry. In October, Beijing was taken, and the Chinese hurried with the treaty. The agreement was accompanied by a protocol with a map signed by Russians and Chinese - P. Kozakevich, K. Bugodossky, Chen Qi and Jing Chun. On this map, the border (the so-called "red line") is drawn along the Chinese coast of the Amur and Ussuri and along the Kazakevich channel, that is, the rivers completely belonged to the Russian Empire.

A "time bomb" in relations between Russia and China was planted in the process of signing the Beijing Treaty. In world practice, there are extremely rare cases when the river surface entirely belongs to one of the parties, while the other side is content with the coastal line. The border mainly runs along the fairway of navigable rivers and in the middle of non-navigable ones. At the same time, it should be noted that the fairway of the river and its middle are often not coinciding concepts. However, this principle was not officially documented anywhere, so it was rather a kind of rule tacitly recognized by the majority of states in the world. The Far Eastern rivers are generally unique in this regard - the fairway of the river can shift depending on both natural and human-caused reasons. In particular, islands sometimes disappear on the Amur and Ussuri - a sand spit is washed in, and the island turns into a peninsula. The Chinese used this opportunity with might and main - they often tried to fill up the channel between the islands and the coast, so that the Russian island would automatically turn into a Chinese peninsula, they built artificial dams so that the river changed its course and, accordingly, the fairway shifted. At the moment, these works have taken on a truly titanic scope, which is why Russia annually loses a fairly solid piece of territory, and China, accordingly, gains it, artificially shifting the channel.

AT recent times a number of Russian diplomats and journalists with surprising fervor defend the idea that the status of the islands on the Amur and Ussuri has never been regulated, these islands do not belong to anyone and, therefore, the return of the islands to the Chinese is not a cession of Russian territory. In fairness, it should be noted that the authorship of this theory does not belong to them, but to the propagandists of the CCP. And why our pen workers constantly just repeat the Chinese version - the Lord knows. Maybe they like her. Or maybe they paid.

But back to the history of the issue. What happened to Russian-Chinese relations after October 1917?

Immediately after the October Revolution, the Soviet government annulled all the secret and unequal treaties concluded by its predecessors. On July 25, 1919, the leadership of the RSFSR explained to the Chinese people and their leaders what kind of treaties were meant by unequal treaties. These included all treaties on spheres of influence, on the rights of extraterritoriality, on concessions and indemnities. The border treaties, however, remained in force: both sides considered them to be quite equal in rights.

In the late 1920s in China, after the defeat of the bourgeois-democratic revolution and the occupation of the northeast of China by the Japanese, the situation was difficult. The question of the Soviet-Chinese border smoothly flowed into the question of the Soviet-Japanese border. The Japanese, it should be noted, were more ambitious than the current Chinese in this matter and regularly made efforts to correct the border line in accordance with their own ideas about where the border should have passed. The Japanese were regularly beaten - at Khasan and Khalkhin Gol - after which they calmed down until the next provocation. However, at the local level, the Japanese recognized the border and did not exchange it for trifles. In particular, in 1932 Su Bingwen's Chinese army crossed the border and surrendered to the Soviet border guards. The Japanese did not pursue the Chinese - they turned around at the border and went back.

After the victory of the Communists in China, relations between the USSR and China were cloudless for some time. In 1952, the USSR handed over to China sets of topographic maps of the area, for which the Chinese were extremely grateful to us. And only in the mid-1950s did the first clouds appear on the previously cloudless firmament of Soviet-Chinese friendship. This was due to several reasons. Stalin died, the only person Mao Tse-tung truly feared. Khrushchev, on the other hand, caused Mao nothing but contempt. We will not dwell on internal Chinese reasons - this is too big and confusing topic. In general, Mao decided to try the "big brother" for strength.

Since 1954, articles began to appear in Chinese newspapers stating that border relations with the USSR were not fully settled. In 1954, the state publishing house published the book " Short story modern China”, where the map indicated “Chinese territories captured by the imperialists in the period from 1840 to 1919.” China, according to this map, included South and Southeast Asia as a whole, the Andaman Islands, the Sulu Archipelago, the MPR, part of the Kirghiz and Kazakh SSRs, the entire Korean Peninsula, the Amur Region and the Ussuri Territory. This practice continues to this day: now, when, it would seem, all issues have been resolved and all problems have been removed, Chinese children see “lost territories” on school maps. Some publishing houses indulge in the fact that they directly paint over the Ussuri Territory and the Amur Region in the color of China. In 1960, the first provocations began on the border with the USSR, and in 1964 Mao delivers his famous speech, where the following words are heard: “About a hundred years ago, the area east of Lake Baikal became the territory of Russia, and since then Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Kamchatka and other points are the territory Soviet Union. We have not submitted an invoice to this registry yet.” The invoices were presented at lightning speed: according to them, China should have owned one and a half million square kilometers of Soviet territory, including all of the above settlements. Soon the appetites of the Chinese played out, and they started talking about three million.

In 1964, border negotiations were held between the leadership of China and the USSR. An agreement was reached according to which the border was to pass along the main fairway. The talks ran into the problem of the islands near Khabarovsk - Tarabarov and Bolshoi Ussuriysky - the very ones that Putin so unobtrusively presented to China. It is very difficult to determine where the border should go - along the river bed or along the Kazakevich channel - at this point, and the islands, from the point of view of both the Chinese and Soviet representatives, had and still have great strategic importance. That is, Putin did not give China the gardens of Khabarovsk residents - he presented an important strategic point for which the Soviet delegation in 1964, having ceded most of the islands to China with ease, almost held on with its teeth. Be that as it may, the new treaty, even on the agreed sections of the border, was never signed: the Chinese demanded that a clause be added to it stating that all previous treaties were illegal and unequal, and the current treaty, although the PRC recognizes it, is also unfair. Of course, there could not be such an article in the treaty, and therefore the new treaty never saw the light of day.

This was followed by five years of continuous provocations and, as a result, a bloody conflict on Damansky. Here is how the methodology for conducting such provocations was described by V.D. Bubenin, later the first commander of the Alpha group, and then the head of the frontier post, who took an active part in the events on Damansky:

“The situation is this: a fisherman comes, sticks a portrait of Mao on a stick in the snow, starts to peck a hole. We explain: the border cannot be violated. We see off. The next day, 20 fishermen come. There are three grids, and each has quotes. Swinging to catch better. We see off. Five hundred people are brought to the border. Women, children, arrange a rally, beat the drums. Loaded on cars and to the Soviet coast. Our guys are in line. Cars are driven at them, they expect to scare them. It didn't work, they left. They come with banners: quotes are attached on clubs, iron pipes are on top of sticks. Ours is a wall again. Those quotes in your pocket, clubs in a move. Nothing, forced out ... "

This happened regularly at the border. Small groups of Chinese were often dealt with peacefully, with large groups there were fights. They used poles, butts of machine guns, sometimes - hoses. There were no casualties. So, in December 1967, the Chinese, in the amount of more than a thousand people, tried defiantly to cross the border at the Sopka Kulebyakina frontier post of the Imansky frontier detachment, using cars, tractors, carts. The Chinese brandished hooks, clubs, studded with nails, crowbars, hooks. Head of the school for sergeants G.A. Skladanyuk was forced to give the order to drive out the crowd with the help of two armored personnel carriers, since the chain of cadets could not hold back the Chinese, and individual fighters or small groups of them were surrounded by a crowd trying to capture them. As a result, the Chinese were pushed back, five people, according to the Chinese, died, falling under the wheels of armored personnel carriers. There were no casualties on the Soviet side, although many cadets were injured until armored personnel carriers arrived to help them. Tellingly, the Chinese were followed by dozens of correspondents, including foreign ones, who filmed everything that happened. When the Chinese retreated to their shore, loudspeakers began to work from there.

Such provocations happened at the border almost daily. And then there was Damansky. But this is a topic that deserves separate consideration, and therefore we will simply briefly describe the consequences of the conflict. After the death of 58 Soviet and 800 to 3000 Chinese soldiers and border guards, the Soviet leadership acted tough and decisively. On July 20, 1969, a few months after the fighting on Damansky, the Chinese tried to capture Kirkinsky Island by crossing there on boats and rafts. On the Chinese concentrated on the island, massive fire from mortars and heavy machine guns was opened from the Soviet coast. The Chinese tried to take cover in the freshly dug trenches, but the mortars quickly drove them out. Then the Chinese rushed to their shore, to which they had to swim - all boats and rafts were destroyed by mines. Chinese losses, according to visual estimates of the Soviet border guards, are several dozen dead. It is very likely that there were more of them - it is not known how many drowned during the crossing back.

On August 13, 1969, near Lake Zhalanashkol in the Kazakh SSR, border guards clashed with a special detachment of the PLA. They did not stand on ceremony with them: the Chinese detachment was surrounded and completely destroyed, only one person survived (two more died in the hospital). The Chinese tried to help out their detachment by throwing reserves into the attack, but, having stumbled upon heavy fire, the Chinese withdrew to their territory with heavy losses. The losses of the Soviet side in this incident are two people.

This battle sobered the Chinese. Zhou Enlai agreed to meet with Kosygin, and during this meeting on September 11, an agreement was reached to stop hostile actions on the border and stop troops on the lines occupied by them at that moment. It so happened that the Damansky and Kirkinsky Islands turned out to be occupied by the Chinese at that time, since on September 10, the Soviet border guards received an order to cease fire. That is, de facto, both of these islands, which did not have any strategic importance, but, nevertheless, became symbols of confrontation on the border, remained with the Chinese, although the Soviet side until 1991 regularly demanded that the Chinese leave the islands. It is difficult to say why the islands were then actually given to the Chinese: perhaps the Soviet leadership wanted to settle the conflict as soon as possible, realizing that since both of these islands are on the Chinese side of the fairway, sooner or later they will have to be given away. It is possible, however, that in this way the Soviet government tried to play the role of the victim, since before that only the Chinese demanded the return of territories, and now the diplomacy of the USSR received a good trump card in the hole, allowing any Chinese initiative to put forward their own counter.

On May 16, 1991, the "Agreement between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the People's Republic of China on the Soviet-Chinese state border in its Eastern part" was signed in Moscow. The text finally approved that the border was drawn along the fairway of navigable rivers and the middle of non-navigable ones, plus a demarcation commission was created. The agreement was ratified by the Russian Supreme Council in February 1992, and on March 16 the Agreement entered into force. Damansky and Kirkinsky went to China officially.

The border dispute was not, however, settled. In addition to a number of secondary issues, two main ones remained in force: the problem of the Tarabarov and Bolshoi Ussuriysky Islands and the Bolshoi Island on the Argun River. The Argun bifurcates around the Bolshoy, and therefore it is difficult to draw a border along the fairway. In principle, Bolshoy just did not have and does not have much value, therefore it was used as a kind of bargaining chip in disputes about the fate of the other two islands. What is so special about these islands - Tarabarov and Bolshoi Ussuriysky - if in 1964 the USSR refused to give them to China, despite the aggravation of the border situation?

On the map, this area looks like a kind of triangle (the Chinese call it the Fuyuan Triangle). The sides of the triangle are the Amur River, the top is Khabarovsk, the base is the Kazakevich channel. Until recently, the border was about 30 kilometers away from Khabarovsk (Boli in Chinese). Now she came close to him, while, however, passing all the same not along the channel.

The islands, in addition to actually covering Khabarovsk from a sudden attack and controlling the channel of the Amur and Ussuri, are distinguished by an amazing natural diversity: linden, Mongolian oak, Amur velvet, Amur grapes, water chestnut, Komarov lotus grow on them. The white-tailed eagle, osprey, soft-skinned turtle, Far Eastern stork, mandarin duck live on the islands - all of them are listed in the Red Book. About 60 species of fish are found in the waters of the islands, which is rare even in the Far East.

So, Putin gave the islands to the Chinese. At the same time, not only did Russian diplomacy suffer a crushing defeat - China generously ceded the Russian island of Bolshoi to Russia, eventually getting what it wanted; but also the border still does not run along the riverbed, that is, the Chinese at any moment have the opportunity to unleash a new border conflict, motivating this with more general documents, according to which the border should run along the riverbed. Moreover, the Chinese have repeatedly tried to fill up the Kazakevich channel in order to change the water regime in the "triangle". Against this background, statements similar to the statements of mysterious "experts" that the islands will go to China sooner or later due to the shallowing of the Kazakevich channel, and that there are no vegetable gardens and rest houses on the islands given to China (of course, no; they remained on Russian territory, and a border zone will now pass in their place), seem to be a desire to pass poverty off as a virtue. In addition, we had nowhere to hurry: the next aggravation of the situation on the border was expected no earlier than China would solve the Taiwan problem.

When you look at all these ingenious Chinese machinations, the question involuntarily arises: why so much work for the sake of some patches of land? After all, no one has settled on Damansky and Kirkinsky since then, so was it worth breaking so many copies?

To answer this question, you need to know Chinese psychology. The Chinese are not Europeans, they think by completely different criteria. All these small tweaks on the border are a test of the northern neighbor's readiness to use force. Chinese society since 1954 he has been living in constant expectation of a war with his northern neighbor, and all border disputes keep him under this tension. The period of total friendship with China that has begun in our country is by no means accompanied by similar phenomena on the other side. Anyone who comes to the museum in Beijing can admire the tank No. 545 captured by the Chinese during the battles on Damansky. A museum has been created on the island itself that tells about the “valor” and “heroism” of the PLA fighters during the battles for Damansky. Foreigners are not allowed there, so one can only guess what they tell Chinese schoolchildren, who see "lost Chinese territories" in their textbooks every day.

Once Napoleon predicted great troubles for the world if "China wakes up." He woke up. And if earlier our Far Eastern border was locked, now the Russian authorities are opening this lock with some maniacal persistence, selling to China not only weapons, but also military technologies. For the first time we drank this bitter cup at Damansky, when it turned out that out of many types of weapons seized from the Chinese, several machine guns and carbines were made in the USSR. The Soviet authorities learned the lesson. The Russians seem to have completely forgotten it. The fact is that it is not enough just to get any, even the latest weapon: without the lack of special technologies, without knowing how engineering came to create this model, it is impossible to create your own weapon. The fragile balance on the border was maintained, on the one hand, by large masses of weakly armed Chinese, and on the other powerful weapon Soviet divisions. The balance has collapsed - the supply of technology to China means that from now on, Chinese science is at the forefront in the study and creation of the latest weapons.

The Chinese are still waiting. They have such an opportunity, and there is such a tradition too - the Chinese leadership thinks in terms of not years and decades, but half a century and a century. If there is an opportunity to get a result at lightning speed, but at the same time take a risk, or wait, but it is guaranteed to achieve your goal, the Chinese will choose the second path. Don't rush anywhere. Wait until Russia weakens. Until the expanses of Siberia are populated by the Chinese. And only then to present new demands, from which Russia will no longer be able to refuse.

It must be understood that the Chinese still consider themselves the pillars of the universe, and Europeans who know Chinese are looked upon as talking monkeys. China is now going through an era similar to the "Meiji Revolution" in Japan - to take the best and most modern from Europeans, then adapting it to their own standards. The Chinese can declare as much as they like about their peacefulness; as soon as they do not need this peacefulness, they will discard it without regret.

China understands only strength, it perceives any concession as weakness. And under these conditions, the return of the islands to China is an unforgivable mistake that could lead to serious consequences.

Vladimir Alekseev