1. Description

2. History
    The Tsarist era (pre-1917)  The Sino-Soviet border (1917–1991)  Post-1991 

3. Border management

4. Border crossings
    Eastern section  Western section 

5. References

6. External links

The Chinese–Russian border or the Sino–Russian border is the international border between China and Russia (CIS member). After the final demarcation carried out in the early 2000s, it measures {{convert|4,209.3|km}},^[1] and is the world's sixth-longest international border.

The China–Russian border consists of two non-contiguous sections: the long eastern section and the much shorter western section.

Description

The eastern border section is over {{convert|4000|km}} in length. According to a joint estimate published in 1999, it measured at {{convert|4195|km|mi|0}}.^[1] It starts at the eastern China–Mongolia–Russia tripoint ({{coord|49|50|42.3|N|116|42|46.8|E|display=inline}}), marked by the border monument called Tarbagan-Dakh (Ta'erbagan Dahu, Tarvagan Dakh).^[2][3]

From the tripoint, the border line runs north-east, until it reaches the Argun River. The border follows the Argun and Amur river to the confluence of the latter with the Ussuri River. It

divides the Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island at the confluence of the two rivers, and then runs south along the Ussuri. The border crosses Lake Khanka, and finally runs to the south-west. The China–Russia border ends when it reaches the Tumen River, which is the northern border of North Korea. The end point of the China–Russia border, and the China–North Korea–Russia tripoint, at ({{Coord|42|25|N|130|36|E}}), is located only a few kilometers before the river flows into the Pacific Ocean, the other end of the North Korea–Russia border.

The much shorter (less than {{convert|100|km}}) western border section is between Russia's Altai Republic and China's Xinjiang. It runs in the mostly snow-covered high elevation area of the Altai Mountains. Its western end point is the China–Kazakhstan–Russia tripoint, whose location is defined by the trilateral agreement as {{coord|49|06|54|N|87|17|12|E}}, elevation, 3327 m.^[4] Its eastern end is the western China–Mongolia–Russia tripoint, at the top of the peak Tavan Bogd Uul (Mt Kuitun),^[5][6] at the coordinates {{coord|49|10|13.5|N|87|48|56.3|E|display=inline}}^[3][6][7]

History

The Tsarist era (pre-1917)

Today's Sino-Russian border line is mostly inherited by Russia (with minor adjustments) from the Soviet Union, while the Sino-Soviet border line was essentially the same as the border between the Russian and Qing Empires, settled by a number of treaties in 17th through 19th century. Below is the list of important border treaties, along with the indication as to which sections today's Sino-Russian border were largely set by them:

• Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689) (the border along the Argun River)
• Treaty of Kyakhta (1727) (this was concerned mostly with the border line that is now the Mongolia–Russia border)
• Treaty of Aigun (1858) (the border along the Amur River)
• Convention of Peking (1860) (the border south of today's Khabarovsk)
• Protocol of Chuguchak (1864) (the western section of the border)^[8]
• Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881)

The Sino-Soviet border (1917–1991)

Post-1917, territorial and political expansion of Russia, as well as China, have been the occasion for mutual territorial claims:

• Sino-Soviet conflict (1929)
• Sino-Soviet border conflict (1969) The Sino-Soviet border conflict was a seven-month undeclared military conflict between the Soviet Union and China at the height of the Sino-Soviet split in 1969. Although military clashes ceased that year, the underlying issues were not resolved until the 1991 Sino-Soviet Border Agreement. The most serious of these border clashes, which brought the two communist-led countries to the brink of war, occurred in March 1969 in the vicinity of Zhenbao (Damansky) Island on the Ussuri (Wusuli) River; as such, Chinese historians most commonly refer to the conflict as the Zhenbao Island Incident.^[9]

Heavily militarised following the Sino-Soviet split of the 1950s and 60s, culminating in the Sino-Soviet border conflict of 1969, the border slowly opened after 1982 allowing the first exchange of goods between the two countries. Between 1988 and 1992 the cross-border commerce between Russia and the Heilongjiang province increased threefold, with the number of legal Chinese workers in Russia increasing from 1286 to 18905.^[1]

Post-1991

The waning years of the Soviet Union saw a reduction of the tensions on the then heavily fortified Sino-Soviet border. In 1990–91, the two countries agreed to significantly reduce their military forces stationed along the border.^[10] To this day one can find numerous abandoned military facilities in Russia's border districts.^[11]

Even though the Sino-Soviet border trade resumed as early as 1983–85, it accelerated in 1990–91; the rate of cross-border trade continue increasing as the USSR's former republics became separate states. To accommodate increasing volume of travel and private trade, a number of border crossings were re-opened.^[10] In early 1992, China announced border trade incentives and the creation of special economic zones along the Sino-Russian border. The largest of these was in Hunchun.^[10]

In 1991, China and USSR signed the 1991 Sino-Soviet Border Agreement, which intended to start the process of resolving the border disputes held in abeyance since the 1960s, and fully demarcating the Sino-Soviet border. However, just a few months later the USSR was dissolved, and four former Soviet republics — Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan — inherited various sections of the former Sino–Soviet border. Now it was up to them to continue the border regularization work.

It took more than a decade for Russia and China to fully resolve the border issues and to demarcate the border. On May 29, 1994, during Prime Minister Chernomyrdin's visit to Beijing, an "Agreement on the Sino-Russian Border Management System intended to facilitate border trade and hinder criminal activity" was signed. On September 3, a demarcation agreement was signed for the short ({{convert|55|km}}) western section of the binational border; the demarcation of this section was completed in 1998.^[12]

In November 1997, at a meeting in Beijing, Russian President Boris Yeltsin and General Secretary and President Jiang Zemin signed an agreement for the demarcation of the much longer (over {{convert|4000|km}}) eastern section of the border, in accordance with the provisions of the 1991 Sino-Soviet agreement.

The last unresolved territorial issue between the two countries was settled by the 2004 Complementary Agreement between the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation on the Eastern Section of the China–Russia Boundary^[13] Pursuant to that agreement, Russia transferred to China a part of Abagaitu Islet, the entire Yinlong (Tarabarov) Island, about a half of Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island, and some adjacent river islets. This resolved a border dispute between Russia and China, standing since Japanese invasion of Manchuria of 1931. These Amur River islands were until then administered by Russia and claimed by China. The event was meant to foster feelings of reconciliation and cooperation between the two countries by their leaders. The transfer has been ratified by both the Chinese National People's Congress and the Russian State Duma in 2005. The official transfer ceremony was held on-site October 14, 2008.

Border management

As with many other international borders, a bilateral treaty exists concerning the physical modalities of managing the China–Russia border. The currently valid agreement was signed in Beijing in 2006.^[14]

The treaty requires the two states to clear trees in a {{convert|15|m}}-wide strip along the border (i.e. within {{convert|7.5|m}} from the border line on each side of it) (Article 6).^[14]

Civil navigation is allowed on the border rivers and lakes, provided the vessels of each country stay on the appropriate side of the dividing line (Article 9); similar rules apply to fishing in these waters (Article 10).

Each country's authorities will carry out appropriate measures to prevent grazing livestock from crossing into the other country, and will endeavor to apprehend and return any livestock that wanders onto their territory from across the border (Article 17). Hunting using firearms is prohibited within {{convert|1000|m}} from the border line; hunters are prohibited from crossing the border in pursuit of a wounded animal (Article 19).^[14]

Detained illegal border crossers are supposed to be normally returned to their country of origin within 7 days from their apprehension (Article 34).^[14]

Border crossings

Eastern section

According to the Russia's border agency, as of October 1, 2013, there are 26 border crossings on the China–Russia border; all of them are located on the eastern section of the border. Twenty-five of them are provided for by the bilateral agreement of January 27, 1994, and one more is designated by an additional special order of the Russian government. The 25 crossing points established by the treaty include four railway crossings (at one of them, at Tongjiang/Nizhneleninskoye, the railway bridge is still under construction), eleven as highway crossings, one as river crossing, and nine as "mixed" (mostly ferry crossings).^[15][16]

Presently, three railway lines cross the border. The two railway border crossings at Zabaikalsk/Manzhouli and Suifenhe/Grodekovo are over a century old, brought into existence by the original design of Russia's Transsiberian Railway that took a shortcut across Manchuria (the Chinese Eastern Railway). The third railway crossing, near Hunchun/Makhalino, operated between 2000 and 2004, was then closed for a few years,^[17][18] and only recently reopened. Construction has started on a cross-border Amur River railway bridge near Tongjiang/Nizhneleninskoye, which will become the fourth railway border crossing.

Western section

As of 2018, there were no border crossings of any kind on the two countries' short and remote western border section.^[19]

According to Russian topographic maps, the lowest mountain passes on the western section of the border are the Betsu-Kanas Pass (перевал Бетсу-Канас), elevation {{convert|2671.3|m}}.^[7][30] and Kanas (перевал Канас), elevation {{convert|2650|m}}.^[20] No roads suitable for wheeled vehicles exist over these two passes, although a difficult dirt road approaches from the Russian side to within {{convert|10|km}} from the Kanas Pass. Until the Soviet authorities closed the border in 1936, Kazakh nomads would occasionally use these passes.^[21]

Proposals exist for the construction of a cross-border highway and the Altai gas pipeline from China to Russia, which would cross the western section of the Sino-Russian border.^[22]

References

External links

• The lost frontier: Treaty maps that changed Qing's northwestern boundaries
• The list of Russia's border crossing on the border with China (on the official site of Russia's Border Agency) {{ru icon}}
• https://www.cna.org/CNA_files/PDF/D0022974.A2.pdf

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