Kathrine Frich
A fresh bout of online nationalism in China is reviving an old argument over Russia’s vast Far East.
The territory is resource-heavy and lightly populated, and some voices in Beijing are framing it as a historic wrong waiting to be corrected.
The rhetoric comes even as Moscow and Beijing have publicly leaned into a closer relationship since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
A vast frontier
China has been urged by nationalist commentators to move on as much as a third of Russian territory if Russia suffers political and economic collapse.
The focus is the Russian Far East, a region spanning about 7 million square kilometres.
It is home to major mineral and energy resources, including gold, diamonds and oil, yet has only around eight million residents compared with Russia’s population of roughly 143.5 million, according to the reporting.
The article says Chinese nationalists have long portrayed the Far East as rightfully Chinese, arguing it was taken by Russia in the 19th century.
Old treaties, new maps
Those claims often cite the 1858 Treaty of Aigun, which the report says Russia’s Tsar Alexander II forced China to sign, transferring large parts of Manchuria to Russian control.
Although Moscow and Beijing have sought to reduce friction in recent years, territorial sensitivities have not disappeared, the report adds.
It points to August 2023, when China’s Ministry for Natural Resources published a map that triggered diplomatic tension by depicting Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island as Chinese territory, despite an agreement nearly 20 years earlier to split the island roughly in half.
Nationalists stir debate
The latest push is linked in the report to Russia’s weakening economy and the strain of its war in Ukraine, with Chinese nationalist writers arguing Beijing should be ready for a sudden breakdown in Russian state authority.
In an article published on the Chinese platform NetEase, one author urged preparation for a scenario where China could secure the region’s strategic resources and territory.
“Currently, the Russian economy is in a difficult situation: GDP is even inferior to that of a single Chinese provincial region, and inflation is rapidly increasing,” they wrote.
“The war in Ukraine has been going on since 2022, the main forces of the army have been transferred to the west, and there are less than 50 thousand military personnel left in the Far East – essentially an empty shell.
“At the same time, the region is extremely rich in resources: gold, diamonds, oil, which make up a significant part of Russia’s national reserves. If Russia really collapses, the 7 million km² of the Far East should not be lost in vain.
“The region is sparsely populated, cold, with poor infrastructure, and Russia is not able to effectively manage it. In the event of Russia’s collapse, the risk of fragmentation of the Far East will be high. China should prepare in advance.”
Sources: Daily Express, NetEase
