The Sino-Russian Border And The Treaties China Calls Unequal — And Russia Calls History – OpEd |
Exploring the Aigun and Peking agreements through competing archives, political memory, and cross-border scholarship.
China’s relations with former colonial or imperial powers vary widely, and its willingness to “forgive” or move on from historical grievances depends largely on whether issues were resolved through diplomacy or war. With Britain, France, and Japan, modern relations were recalibrated after territorial issues were settled. With Russia, the situation is more complex because the territorial changes of the mid-19th century—primarily the Treaty of Aigun (1858) and the Convention of Beijing (1860)—were never formally repudiated or reversed, and their legitimacy remains a subject of historical discussion inside China.
At the start of the 1800s, the Qing dynasty governed one of the world’s largest economies, significant in population and cultural influence. However:
Britain’s desire to balance its trade deficit with China led to expanded opium shipments from British-controlled India. The Qing government’s attempt to stop the opium trade in 1839 contributed to:
These conflicts weakened Qing authority and accelerated foreign encroachment into China’s coastal and inland regions.
During the same period:
China was not colonized outright, but it was divided into multiple spheres of influence, with foreign states seizing and controlling ports, trade, and infrastructure.
While China fought wars in the south, Russia was expanding eastward across Siberia. Russia’s goals included:
Signed between Qing official Yishan and Russian representative Nikolay Muravyov-Amursky, the treaty:
After Anglo-French forces advanced into Beijing, Russia mediated negotiations—but also obtained:
The combined area transferred to Russia in 1858–1860 is often cited as more........