The controversial Chinese map, at a bookstore in Beijing, September 1, 2023. ANDY WONG / AP
Would China try to take advantage of setbacks from Russia, under international sanctions and embroiled in its war in Ukraine, to nibble away a few dozen square kilometers? On Monday, August 28, the Ministry of Natural Resources released the 2023 edition of the “National Map of China,” an official document that is now considered a reference on “national sovereignty” issues. However, in the very northeast of the country, China appears to have made the island of Bolshoi Ussuriysk its own.
The approximately 300 square kilometer island lies at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri rivers and has long been the subject of disputes between the two countries. In 1929, Russia occupied the island and banned China from navigating that part of the Amur River, something Beijing has always denied. However, in 2004, the two countries agreed to a compromise: the west of the island returned to China, which could also sail the Amur River, but in return Beijing accepted that the eastern part was returned to Russia.
If the map published on the ministry’s website is not precise enough to clearly show the boundary, the ministry has defined its “extent”: “The confluence of the Heilongjiang Rivers.” [nom chinois de l’Amour] and Ussuri is persecuted in the East,” it says. However, this confluence is theoretically on Russian territory. In addition, the Chinese search engine Baidu Map does not give the outline of the border in the middle of the island, but has explicitly written in Chinese on the eastern part of the island “Fuyuan Delta”, the name of the Chinese district to which it belongs The western one Part of the island is administratively attached. The Ministry of Natural Resources did not respond to Le Monde’s question. It does not appear that Russia has responded.
On the other hand, several other states bordering China have officially protested against the publication of this map: India, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, as well as Taiwan, which, according to this document, is an integral part of the People’s Republic of China.
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India denied that the state of Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin Plateau were included in the document. In April, China gave Chinese names to a dozen locations in Arunachal Pradesh, one of India’s 28 states. “Such initiatives by the Chinese side only make it more difficult to resolve the border issue,” commented a spokesman for the Indian Foreign Ministry. Perhaps it is because of this dispute that Chinese President Xi Jinping has decided not to attend the G20 summit taking place in New Delhi on September 9th and 10th, leaving the representation of China to his Prime Minister Li Qiang.
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