We in China love peace, and we may not mention that heavy past, but please do not easily touch the scars in our hearts that we do not want to uncover. It's like a lake blown by the wind, and although it is calm, there is a deep pain hidden in the depths. Today, let's talk about the more than 1 million square kilometers of land that have been robbed!
Since entering the threshold of modern history in 1839, many great powers have come one after another to wantonly carry out acts of aggression, land cessation, and blood-sucking on the land of China. Of these greedy predators, none more so did China more harm than Japan and Tsarist Russia. The two countries are like two undercurrents, which once pushed China into the abyss of national extinction. Japan, which takes pleasure in slaughtering lives and kills people like hemp; Tsarist Russia, on the other hand, greedily devoured large swathes of territory and became a behemoth of the land. These two forces have left a heavy blood color on the picture scroll of China's modern history. China's territory occupied by Tsarist Russia is as high as 1.54 million square kilometers, and if you count the independent Outer Mongolia, this number will be doubled. The half of the Black Blind Island, which China negotiated a few years ago, covers an area of 171 square kilometers, accounting for only one-ten-thousandth of China's lost territory.
The seemingly insignificant numbers actually contain profound historical precipitation. As for the evolution of Sino-Russian and Sino-Soviet relations, those who have a little dabbling in it know that it is not easy to come by. As the longest land border between China and Russia, the border between China and Russia has been gradually formed over a period of 300 years, and there is a complex background behind it. Initially, there was no territorial dispute between China and Russia, as the two countries did not yet share a border. During the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Empire didn't even know anything about the Tsar**. Until the middle of the 17th century, after the conquest of the Siberian Khanate, the Cossacks expanded rapidly to the east, making the Qing Dynasty and Tsarist Russia neighbors. When they first came into contact, Emperor Kangxi beat them to the ground and fled. However, with the decline of the Qing Dynasty, the ambitious Tsarist Russia took advantage of the situation to make a comeback, relying on its powerful military power and gradually encroaching on the lands of northeast and northwest China through a series of unequal treaties.
In 1858, the Treaty of Aihui was born, which was like a deadly ghost, and China lost 1 million square kilometers of territory in the chapter of modern history. East of the Ussuri River and north of the Heilongjiang River, that vast land was ruthlessly cut away. Then, the "Beijing Treaty" of 1860 seemed to be a cunning performance of the first people. In the chaos of the Anglo-French invasion of Beijing, it pretended to be a good person and intervened. Secretly, however, it presented itself as a mediator in the war and forced the Qing Dynasty to sign this unequal treaty. As a result, the land north of the Heilongjiang River and east of the Ussuri River, together with the beautiful Vladivostok, has since been permanently branded with the mark of **. In 1864, the Sino-Russian Covenant on the Northwest Boundary once again made waves, devouring 440,000 square kilometers of land in northwest China like a greedy beast.
By 1911, it was the eve of the fall of the Qing Dynasty. Tsarist Russia still did not miss any opportunity and forced Zhou Shumo, the governor of Heilongjiang, to sign the Treaty of Manchuria. Although this treaty was not formally signed due to the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Tsarist Russia still took advantage of the chaos to occupy 1,400 square kilometers of land.
In order to completely occupy these lands, Tsarist Russia committed heinous crimes and created a number of tragic ** incidents, the most notorious of which are Hailan Pao and Jiangdong Sixty-four Tun**. Under the pretext of the Boxer Rebellion, Tsarist Russia adopted cruel methods such as **, burning, and driving into the river, and "cleaned up" the Chinese in these two places in only four days, killing more than 20,000 people, and the surface of the Heilongjiang River was full of corpses. Hailan Pao was renamed "Blagoveshchensk", which means "City of Angel Annunciation" in Russian, while Boli was renamed "Khabarovsk", named after the "explorer" who invaded China during the reign of Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty and plundered the Daur and Solon inhabitants in China. As for Vladivostok, it was renamed "Vladivostok", which means "conquest of the East" in Russian, and is still the largest port city on the Pacific coast of Russia and the headquarters of the Pacific Fleet.
These places, once the homeland of the Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, have now become foreign territories, and have even been given insulting names - in the mouth of Tsarist Russia, it is "good news" and "conquest", but they have become scars that are difficult to heal in the hearts of the sons and daughters of China. However, the wheels of history rolled forward, and Tsarist Russia also declined like the Qing Dynasty, and after exhausting the people's financial resources in World War I, it collapsed with a bang in 1917 and was replaced by Soviet Russia. This earth-shaking change seems to have brought the dawn of China's territorial return. Because at this critical historical juncture, Lenin issued the "Declaration of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic** to the Chinese People and the North and South of China**", that is, the "First Galahan Declaration on China", which proudly put forward the idea of abolishing the unequal treaty between China and Russia.
At that time, and even today, there are still many people who are convinced of Lenin's claim that the land of China should be returned. However, in fact, this promise has not been fulfilled and has been accused of "defaulting". It is undeniable that Lenin was a brilliant leader, and the Manifesto was progressive, but they were still a strategy in nature. However, this is a serious misunderstanding, as many people do not understand the contents of the Declaration and only have a vague impression. In fact, the description of "unequal treaties" in the Declaration is as follows: the Soviets meticulously returned to the Chinese all the wealth that the Tsar** had taken from the Chinese people, or had been divided jointly with the Japanese and the Entente. They immediately proposed to China** to negotiate the abrogation of the 1896 treaty, the 1901 Beijing Agreement, and all agreements with Japan between 1907 and 1916. In other words, the treaties we want to abolish are limited to those from 1896 onwards, mainly the Sino-Russian Secret Treaty and the Xincho Treaty, which deal with the interests of the Northeast, and also include a series of secret agreements between Russia and Japan. This was not the case with previous treaties. Even if fully implemented, the recommendations of the Declaration would result in the return of up to 1,400 square kilometres of land and the waiver of the Gengzi indemnity. Since the previous cession treaty had not included it, the land would of course not be returned. Moreover, this is only a "recommendation", and its implementation remains to be seen. On the other hand, the background behind the "First Garrahan Declaration on China" cannot be ignored, but little is known. At that time, Soviet Russia was also experiencing the humiliation of land reparations, and at the same time faced the siege of foreign powers.
In March 1918, in order to escape from the quagmire of World War I and gain a precious respite, Soviet Russia signed the Treaty of Brest with Germany. This treaty is one of the most humiliating pages in Russia's history. It not only needs to compensate Germany with 6 billion marks, but also cedes Ukraine, Lithuania, Courland and other regions, and relinquishes its jurisdiction over Poland and Finland. This has resulted in the loss of 1 million square kilometers of land, 50 million people, and 90% of its coal production, reminiscent of China's Treaty of Shimonoseki. As a result of this act of peace by Soviet Russia, the Entente countries were dissatisfied and interfered. These countries have sent troops into the civil war in an attempt to get a piece of the pie. At the same time, China's Beiyang ** also sent 2000 troops and cruisers to Vladivostok to protect its own expatriates and assist in their evacuation. 
In the context of that time, the "Declaration" promulgated by Soviet Russia was like a well-planned public relations show, both to consolidate the regime and to win the favor of the Chinese people. This strategy has been vividly brought into play in the international arena, not only skillfully reversing the unfavorable situation, but also invisibly winning valuable diplomatic space for Soviet Russia. You see, this act of generosity is simply a declaration to the world: "We are not imperialists!" However, the truth is not so generous. In fact, Soviet Russia did not pay any substantial price. Even when it came to the return of the land ceded before 1896, most of those areas were still under the control of the Entente. If China wants to regain the lost territory, it will have to go to war with almost all the great powers, which is undoubtedly a difficult task. The hardships and challenges involved in this are thought-provoking.
In 1920, Soviet Russia issued a manifesto again, this time the "Declaration of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to China", which was also honored as the "Second Galakhan Declaration on China". In this solemn document, the first article reads: "The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic** solemnly declares that all treaties signed between Tsarist Russia and China in the past are null and void, and we renounce all the Chinese territories that we have invaded and occupied, as well as all the ** concessions in China." We will return free of charge and forever everything that has been seized by the Chinese Tsarist Russian and capitalist classes. The reference to "all treaties" here does not refer to every treaty literally, but specifically to treaties dating before 1896. Although this declaration shows the position of Soviet Russia, it is not legally binding in practice.
In 1924, the Soviet Union and China Beiyang** signed the Sino-Russian Agreement on the Outline of the Settlement of Outstanding Cases, which is an international treaty with far-reaching influence. Article 3 of this document stipulates that the two countries** shall revise treaties, ententions, agreements, etc., in accordance with the principles of equality, mutuality, fairness, and the spirit of the declarations of the Soviet Union of 1919 and 1920. Article 4 further states that in accordance with the policy of the Soviet Union and the declarations of 1919 and 1920, all treaties and agreements that are detrimental to China's sovereignty and interests will be null and void. This provision concretized the commitments made in the declaration and clarified the Soviet Union's position and attitude toward China.
However, the Soviet Union did not return the land to those land cession treaties that were still in force, and even continued to have rights and interests in the Eastern Railway. To this, Stalin's explanation was that the French text at that time was "mistranslated." Although this interpretation is somewhat controversial, this international treaty did lay the foundation for Sino-Soviet relations and influenced the course of Chinese history to a certain extent.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, in the fifties when Sino-Soviet relations were close, the territorial issue between the two countries was temporarily shelved. However, since the sixties, with the deterioration of Sino-Soviet relations, the border issue has resurfaced and become a major problem in the relations between the two countries. In 1960, China twice proposed border negotiations, but the Soviet Union was hesitant. At first, they did not see the need for negotiations, but later said they had "no objection" to the negotiations, but categorically opposed the call for "border negotiations", which they defined as "consultations to determine the direction of the boundary line of individual lots". This shows that in the eyes of the Soviet Union, there is no dispute over the border between the two countries, but some details need to be further clarified and implemented.
However, the course of the Sino-Soviet border negotiations was beyond everyone's expectations. From the time the first negotiations were held in Beijing in February 1964, both sides knew that this was not an issue that could be resolved overnight. Although the two sides did not expect a quick agreement, no one expected that the talks would take 40 years.
The Chinese side hereby firmly expresses its position: The current Sino-Soviet border treaties are all derived from the unequal treaties signed between Tsarist Russia and the Qing Dynasty, and this historical fact cannot be avoided. However, given the historical and practical role played by these treaties, we remain willing to build on them and seek a reasonable solution to the border issue.
Regrettably, however, the Soviet side has a very different point of view on this. They considered the Treaty of Nebuchu of 1689 to be an "unequal treaty", while the Treaties of Aihun and Peking were actions to "regain lost land" or occupy "terra nullius". In order to defend its own position, the CPSU issued instructions in 1964, 1969, 1972 and 1978, setting off a large-scale campaign to revise history in the country, and fiercely attacked China's behavior of seeking historical justice.
With regard to the purpose of the negotiations, the Chinese side has always stressed the need to demarcate the border through consultations. However, the Soviet side insisted that "the border has long been demarcated" and that there was only a question of the approval of individual lots, which in fact demanded that China recognize the Line of Actual Control so that the Soviet Union could occupy more land.
In the first negotiations, the parties engaged in heated arguments, emotional emotions and did not give in to each other. Half a year later, the only result was an exchange of maps, which clarified the principle of delimitation of disputed areas and rivers – with the center line of the river as the boundary.
Although the negotiations did not make substantial progress, it was common sense that the second negotiation should take place the following year. Surprisingly, however, this was not restored until October 1969, when it was put on hold for five years. At that time, Sino-Soviet relations were already extremely tense, and the Soviet Union had amassed a million-strong army on the border and deployed a third of its missile forces. Therefore, the focus of China's negotiations this time is to ensure that the status quo on the border is maintained first, and to take some temporary measures to avoid armed conflict.
However, the Soviet side relied on its strong position and turned a deaf ear to our request. They are only willing to discuss so-called "interim measures", but the two sides are also unable to agree on this point. In the words of the head of the Soviet delegation, Ilyichev, the whole negotiation process was like a "deaf conversation", with no substantive progress. This round of talks has lasted intermittently for 10 years, but has never been able to achieve any substantive results. However, its only positive is that it maintains communication between the two sides and eases tensions. During the negotiations, there were jokes about translation issues - the Chinese side once used the idiom of "cocooning oneself" in one of its speeches, which the Soviet side said was "slander" because it compared them to "worms"; Another time, the Chinese side angrily reprimanded the Soviet side, "Don't get an inch, get Longwangshu", which led to **, saying that the Soviet Union "has no territorial claims to Gansu and Sichuan", ......In fact, it was all caused by the Soviet side's Chinese translation. In fact, dealing with an unreasonable neighbor is quite tricky when it comes to territorial and demarcation issues. Whether it was Tsarist Russia, Soviet Russia, or the Soviet Union, as long as they felt that they were in a strong position, it would be difficult to negotiate any substantial concessions.
In the 80s, the national fortunes of China and the Soviet Union began to change dramatically. In the spring breeze of reform and opening up, China's comprehensive national strength has gradually increased, and its relations with European and American countries have also been reconciled, and the entire international situation is extremely favorable to China. At this time, the Soviet Union began to decline because of its long-term rigid system.
Against this backdrop, China and the Soviet Union resumed border negotiations in 1987. This time, there was a noticeable change in the attitude of the USSR, they finally recognized the problems that existed in the disputed areas of the border and began to take the border negotiations seriously. It's like a stubborn old man who, with the passage of time, finally lets go of his stubbornness and begins to face reality.
On 16 May 1991, China and the Soviet Union signed an agreement on the eastern section of the border, which was called the Agreement between the People's Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Eastern Section of the State Border. The agreement not only clarified 98 per cent of the eastern sector's borders, but also left the Black Blind Island and Abagatu Island Nagisa as a follow-up. This paper agreement is like a solid bridge, crossing the gap of history and connecting China and the Soviet Union for a peaceful future. At this time, the Soviet Union had entered the countdown, and time was running out. A few months later, the Soviet Union, which had threatened China for more than three decades, collapsed, and China was on the rise and was able to seize the historical opportunity compared to the great historical changes of more than 70 years ago. The Russian Federation, which inherited the Soviet Union, then negotiated with China, which was at a historical low point, and although there were still contradictions in the negotiations, they were already smooth compared to the Soviet era.
On October 14, 2004, China and Russia signed the "Supplementary Agreement on the Eastern Section of the China-China Border", according to which the last part of the disputed border land between China and Russia, including the Black Blind Island at the junction of the Heilongjiang and Ussuri rivers, and the Abagaitu Zhouzhu near Manchuria in Inner Mongolia, will be about half of each. This marks the complete settlement of all historical border issues between the two countries. That is, the Sino-Russian border has been fully demarcated, and there are no longer disputes. The remaining border issues have been completely resolved, and there are no border contradictions between the two countries.
To this day, many Chinese still look at the 1.5 million square kilometers of land and Outer Mongolia on the map, and are deeply saddened by the border negotiations based on unequal treaties. However, although those treaties were unequal, they were also the acts of the two sovereign states at that time, and they were formally signed with legal force. We can scold the Qing Dynasty for its incompetence, but we have to inherit this trouble.
History is like a long river, rolling forward and irreversible. The past is a foregone conclusion, and we cannot change it, but we can determine the future. More than 100 years have passed, and both China and Russia have undergone earth-shaking changes, and the international situation has also undergone tremendous changes. Today, we have resolved the border issue with Russia, which is a great thing in the long run.
Once upon a time, our northern border was tense and dangerous. Today, it is largely undefended, and the people of both countries benefit from peace. As a result, China's geopolitical landscape has become more stable, and we can devote more energy to more important areas. So is it possible to return to these lands in Vladivostok? This question is still being asked by a lot of people.
Let me tell you, in the foreseeable future, the chances of this happening are slim to none. Unless the world undergoes a seismic change like World War II, or the initiative to secede from Ukraine and become a country like Crimea. But in either case, it's very unlikely to happen. Therefore, we can safely say that such a situation will not happen in the near future.
However, China has never forgotten that land. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the name Vladivostok has been clearly marked on the maps it publishes, demonstrating China's sovereignty and historical memory over this land. This city, which plays a pivotal role in China's history, is a symbol of our national independence and territorial integrity.
Russia is now an important strategic ally, but let's not let our guard down. The ambitions of the northern hairy bear are greater than those of any other country!