The new version of the world map returns Chinese names for eight cities and territories annexed by the Russian Empire in the 19th century.
The Ministry of Natural Resources of the People's Republic of China has published new rules on the toponymy of maps. According to a departmental circular, Chinese names for Russian cities and territories will be used on official toponymic maps.
The corresponding document appeared on the website of the Chinese Ministry.
“The state borders of the People's Republic of China are drawn in accordance with the standard map model approved and published by the State Council. The historical borders of China are drawn in accordance with the actual borders based on historical materials,” the circular says.
From now on, on Chinese maps, Vladivostok is again called Khaishenvai (translated as Sea Cucumber Bay), and Sakhalin Island is called Kuedao. The mountain range in the southern part of the Russian Far East Stanovoy Range will be designated as Waixinan-Ling (i.e. Outer Xinan Range). The city of Blagoveshchensk will be called Hailanpao, Khabarovsk – Boli, Ussuriysk – Shuangchenzi.
In general, the changes concern 8 Russian cities and territories.
According to Asia Times, these territories once belonged to China, but under the Manchu imperial Qing dynasty, they were seized by Russia through a series of treaties that were considered unequal in China.
After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the government of the Republic of China refused to recognize that Russia legally owns these territories, and then the communist government under Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping began negotiations with the Russian Federation on territorial issues.
Only in December 1999, the former Secretary General of the Communist Party of China Jiang Zemin signed with the then President of Russia Boris Yeltsin the “Agreement on the Sino-Russian State Border on its Western Part”. This agreement recognized all the territorial treaties signed by China and Russia since the late Qing Dynasty.
Thus, Jiang recognized Moscow's legal right to own the above geographical objects, the total area of which is more than one million square kilometers.
Jiangsu political commentator Ou Hanzong noted that the Chinese people lost 1.7 million square kilometers of territory, namely what is now called Russia's Far East, Mongolia, and parts of present-day Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
Ou said reusing Chinese names for cities in the Far East would remind the Chinese of their desire to reclaim lost territories.
Recall, the Russian opposition journalist Igor Yakovenko believes that after the war with Ukraine, Russia will collapse. The Russian Federation will break up into small states and the current local elites are interested in this.
