One-sided confrontation: China published an official map annexing territories belonging to Russia – the entire leadership in Moscow is silent, even though the affair was reflected even in the media within the Russian Federation.
The affair began on Tuesday, when China's Cartographic Service published a map marking the large Ussuri island as belonging entirely to Beijing.
The 2023 edition of China's standard map was officially released on Monday and launched on the website of the standard map service hosted by the Ministry of Natural Resources. This map is compiled based on the drawing method of national boundaries of China and various countries... pic.twitter.com/bmtriz2Yqe
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) August 28, 2023
This is a large island, located at the confluence of the Usuri and Amur rivers in the Far East, which for many years was subject to territorial dispute between the two powers. In 2008, Moscow and Beijing reached an agreement regulating the status of the 340-square-kilometer island, and it was decided that the border would cross it between the two. But now China seems to be signaling that it is not satisfied with the arrangement.
The official border between Russia and China crosses the island, Photo: Google Maps
Despite a series of media reports in Moscow, neither the Kremlin nor the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman commented on the scandal. Even the deputy chairman of Russia's National Security Council, former President Dmitry Medvedev, did not see fit to comment – despite threatening a "nuclear apocalypse" more than once against anyone who threatened Russia's territorial integrity. The Moscow Times website notes that even hawkish lawmakers and propagandists remain silent – and this is especially evident both in light of the warm relations during President Xi's visit to Moscow in March, and given the protests that the new map has provoked in other countries.
The Philippines and Malaysia voiced strong protests today over the annexation on paper of disputed territories in the South China Sea. "We reject the inclusion (on Chinese territory) of regions ruled in favor of the Philippines by an international tribunal in 2016," the Foreign Ministry said in Manila. "The map is a last-ditch attempt by China to grant legitimacy and jurisdiction over Philippine Sea regions. There is no basis for this under international law."
Modi (right) and Xi (left) alongside the presidents of South Africa and Brazil at the BRICS summit, a week ago, photo: AFP
Earlier, India said it had sent China a strong protest. "We reject these baseless claims," New Delhi Foreign Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said in a statement. The publication also appears to be a step backwards, made shortly after the rare meeting between the leaders of the two countries, Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi, at the BRICS summit (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) a week ago. The two agreed to accelerate efforts to resolve the conflict on the border.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang. Call for calm, Photo: AP
Yesterday, a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Beijing responded to India's protests, saying the changes to the map were a "routine expression of sovereignty in accordance with the law." "I hope that the relevant parties remain calm and objective, and do not resort to over-interpretation of the issue," Wang and Nevin added.
BRICS Leaders Documents on Organization Expansion | Reuters
Russia, however, reminds us that this is not the first time that China has "annexed" territories belonging to Russia. Thus, last March, the large Ussuri island appeared as belonging entirely to China on the map service of the Baidu search site, although at the time some claimed that it was a private company and not an official map. According to The Asia Times, a month earlier, China's Ministry of Natural Resources published a map of the Far East, where districts and sites belonging to Russia since the 19th century – such as the cities of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk – are marked with their Chinese names, and small next to them with their Russian names. In these maps, the Chinese are actually claiming territories lost in the "unequal treaties" after the Opium Wars (1858, 1860). Even after the February publication, Russia did not protest.
As then and now, China calls for calm and not to lose proportion, but according to the Russian news website Lanta, China itself has been confiscating maps in which territories claimed by China are not actually listed as such. In August last year, customs confiscated 23,5 maps that did not mark large areas of the South China Sea as belonging to China. According to Lanta, China claims that "such maps threaten the sovereignty, renewal of national unity, territorial integrity and national security" of the country – but it seems that other countries should not be moved by a symmetrical move.
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