• Home
  • News
    Kick Against Crime: 28 Edo Schools Trade Tackles For  Gregory Imafidon Foundation Cup

    Kick Against Crime: 28 Edo Schools Trade Tackles For Gregory Imafidon Foundation Cup

    admin 14 May 2023
    • LASG Gives Out 500 Traffic Solution Management Cameras To LASTMA, Trains Personnel On Usage

      LASG Gives Out 500 Traffic Solution Management Cameras To LASTMA, Trains Personnel On Usage

      admin 06 May 2023
    • Eagle Cash Online Loan App Fraudulent,  Defrauded Victim Cries Out

      Eagle Cash Online Loan App Fraudulent, Defrauded Victim Cries Out

      admin 25 Apr 2023
    • 2018 NNPC Science Quiz Champ, Tony Kabilan Okeke, 5 Others Develop  Ai Medical App In USA.

      2018 NNPC Science Quiz Champ, Tony Kabilan Okeke, 5 Others Develop Ai Medical App In USA.

      admin 11 Apr 2023
    • Guber Polls: Royal Father Begs Lagosians To Vote Sanwo-Olu, Congratulates President-Elect, Tinubu

      Guber Polls: Royal Father Begs Lagosians To Vote Sanwo-Olu, Congratulates President-Elect, Tinubu

      Albert Uba 17 Mar 2023
    • SCOAN’s Emmanuel TV Celebrates 17th  Anniversary

      SCOAN’s Emmanuel TV Celebrates 17th Anniversary

      Albert Uba 13 Mar 2023
    • Pomp As SCOAN Opens First Branch In Nigeria

      Pomp As SCOAN Opens First Branch In Nigeria

      Albert Uba 13 Mar 2023
    • Election Results: Security Consultant, Ibadin Wants Aggrieved Candidates To Eschew Violence, Seek Redress In Court

      Election Results: Security Consultant, Ibadin Wants Aggrieved Candidates To Eschew Violence, Seek Redress In Court

      admin 02 Mar 2023
    • Turkey: SCOAN Sad Over Disaster As Partners Donate N9m To Victims Of Earthquake

      Turkey: SCOAN Sad Over Disaster As Partners Donate N9m To Victims Of Earthquake

      admin 24 Feb 2023
  • Features
  • Opinion
    Why China Will Reclaim Siberia (OPINION)

    Why China Will Reclaim Siberia (OPINION)

    Albert Uba 12 Feb 2022
    China, Russia Have Central Asia Problem

    China, Russia Have Central Asia Problem

    Albert Uba 19 Jan 2022
    Oluwo carpets Buhari on anti- corruption crusade, says govt playing the ostrich

    Oluwo carpets Buhari on anti- corruption crusade, says govt playing the ostrich

    admin 26 Nov 2021
    Of SCOAN and Misadventure of ungrateful disciples (OPINION)

    Of SCOAN and Misadventure of ungrateful disciples (OPINION)

    Albert Uba 25 Oct 2021
  • Editorial
  • Special Focus
    I Shall Focus on Rural Infrastructure Provision in The University Town Of Nsukka If Elected- Hon. Abba

    I Shall Focus on Rural Infrastructure Provision in The University Town Of Nsukka If Elected- Hon. Abba

    admin 07 Sep 2022
    ‘OBI-tuary’: Iloegbunam flays Omatseye, says he’s stupid journalist of survival

    ‘OBI-tuary’: Iloegbunam flays Omatseye, says he’s stupid journalist of survival

    admin 04 Aug 2022
    Nigerian ICT wizard, Aliyu dares facebok, twitter others with ShapClik one-in-all App

    Nigerian ICT wizard, Aliyu dares facebok, twitter others with ShapClik one-in-all App

    Albert Uba 03 Feb 2022
    Nigeria needs to be safe, secure for thriving socio-economic activities-DR. OBI

    Nigeria needs to be safe, secure for thriving socio-economic activities-DR. OBI

    Albert Uba 08 Oct 2021
  • Elevation
  • Inside Court
  • NDLEA
  • Police
Home» Opinion»Why China Will Reclaim Siberia (OPINION)
Why China Will Reclaim Siberia (OPINION)

Why China Will Reclaim Siberia (OPINION)

12 Feb 2022 Opinion Leave a comment 533 Views


OPINION

By Frank JACOBS

“A land without people for a people without land.”  At the turn of the 20th century, that slogan promoted Jewish migration to Palestine. It could be recycled today, justifying a Chinese takeover of Siberia. Of course, Russia’s Asian hinterland isn’t really empty (and neither was Palestine). But Siberia is as resource-rich and people-poor as China is the opposite. The weight of that logic scares the Kremlin.

Moscow recently restored the Imperial Arch in the Far Eastern frontier town of Blagoveshchensk, declaring: “The earth along the Amur was, is and always will be Russian.” But Russia’s title to all of the land is only about 150 years old. And the sprawl of high-rises in Heihe, the Chinese boomtown on the south bank of the Amur, right across from Blagoveshchensk, casts doubt on the “always will be” part of the old czarist slogan.

Like love, a border is real only if both sides believe in it. And on both sides of the Sino-Russian border, that belief is wavering.

Siberia – the Asian part of Russia, east of the Ural Mountains – is immense. It takes up three-quarters of Russia’s land mass, the equivalent of the entire U.S. and India put together. It’s hard to imagine such a vast area changing hands. But like love, a border is real only if both sides believe in it. And on both sides of the Sino-Russian border, that belief is wavering.

Read Also >>China, Russia Have Central Asia Problem

The border, all 2,738 miles of it, is the legacy of the Convention of Peking of 1860 and other unequal pacts between a strong, expanding Russia and a weakened China after the Second Opium War. (Other European powers similarly encroached upon China, but from the south. Hence the former British foothold in Hong Kong, for example.)

The 1.35 billion Chinese people south of the border outnumber Russia’s 144 million almost 10 to 1. The discrepancy is even starker for Siberia on its own, home to barely 38 million people, and especially the border area, where only 6 million Russians face over 90 million Chinese. With intermarriage, trade and investment across that border, Siberians have realized that, for better or for worse, Beijing is a lot closer than Moscow.

The vast expanses of Siberia would provide not just room for China’s huddled masses, now squeezed into the coastal half of their country by the mountains and deserts of western China. The land is already providing China, “the factory of the world,” with much of its raw materials, especially oil, gas and timber. Increasingly, Chinese-owned factories in Siberia churn out finished goods, as if the region already were a part of the Middle Kingdom’s economy.

One day, China might want the globe to match the reality. In fact, Beijing could use Russia’s own strategy: hand out passports to sympathizers in contested areas, then move in militarily to “protect its citizens.” The Kremlin has tried that in Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and most recently the Crimea, all formally part of other post-Soviet states, but controlled by Moscow. And if Beijing chose to take Siberia by force, the only way Moscow could stop would be using nuclear weapons.

There is another path: Under Vladimir Putin, Russia is increasingly looking east for its future – building a Eurasian Union even wider than the one inaugurated recently in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, a staunch Moscow ally. Perhaps two existing blocs – the Eurasian one encompassing Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization – could unite China, Russia and most of the ‘stans. Putin’s critics fear that this economic integration would reduce Russia, especially Siberia, to a raw materials exporter beholden to Greater China. And as the Chinese learned from the humiliation of 1860, facts on the ground can become lines on the map.

Frank Jacobs is the author of “Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities,”


China Frank Jacobs Saberia 2022-02-12
Tags China Frank Jacobs Saberia
Facebook Twitter Stumble linkedin Pinterest More
Previous Article :

HUSHPUPPI: Hope dims for suspended DCP Abba Kyari as PSC turns down Police panel report, demands independent investigation

Next Article :

Navy disclaims rescheduled date for 2022 recruitment aptitude test, says online publication false

Related Articles

China, Russia Have Central Asia Problem

China, Russia Have Central Asia Problem

Albert Uba 19 Jan 2022
Oluwo carpets Buhari on anti- corruption crusade, says govt playing the ostrich

Oluwo carpets Buhari on anti- corruption crusade, says govt playing the ostrich

admin 26 Nov 2021
Of SCOAN and Misadventure of ungrateful disciples (OPINION)

Of SCOAN and Misadventure of ungrateful disciples (OPINION)

Albert Uba 25 Oct 2021

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Most Viewed Posts

2 Shot Dead, Cache of Arms, Ammunition Recovered As Delta Police, Kidnappers Engage In Breathtaking Gun Battle
Police

2 Shot Dead, Cache of Arms, Ammunition Recovered As Delta Police, Kidnappers Engage In Breathtaking Gun Battle

31 May 2023
Police intensify fight against cultism in Lagos, sweep metropolis of 23 suspected cultists
Police

Police intensify fight against cultism in Lagos, sweep metropolis of 23 suspected cultists

07 Jun 2018
CSP Okuwobi: Honouring the best with the crest!
Elevation

CSP Okuwobi: Honouring the best with the crest!

19 Jul 2018
BREAKING! IGP Asks All Policemen Resident In Lagos Barracks To Vacate Accommodation For Renovation
Police

BREAKING! IGP Asks All Policemen Resident In Lagos Barracks To Vacate Accommodation For Renovation

02 May 2023
Synagogue church guest house in order before collapse —REPORT
News

Synagogue church guest house in order before collapse —REPORT

29 Mar 2019

Website Traffic Counter

Flag Counter

Advertisement

Follow us

Newslater

Recent Posts

  • 2 Shot Dead, Cache of Arms, Ammunition Recovered As Delta Police, Kidnappers Engage In Breathtaking Gun Battle

    2 Shot Dead, Cache of Arms, Ammunition Recovered As Delta Police, Kidnappers Engage In Breathtaking Gun Battle

    31 May 2023
  • BREAKING! DSS Blocks EFCC Lagos Office With APC, Prevents Officials From Accessing Premises

    BREAKING! DSS Blocks EFCC Lagos Office With APC, Prevents Officials From Accessing Premises

    30 May 2023
  • All Hail Police Queen Of Investigation @45

    All Hail Police Queen Of Investigation @45

    28 May 2023
  • Police Arrest 3 Over Murder Of Police ASP, Recover Decomposing Human Hands

    Police Arrest 3 Over Murder Of Police ASP, Recover Decomposing Human Hands

    26 May 2023
  • Police Arrest 76 Yr-old Man, Other Burglars, Recover 5 Stolen Cars, TV-sets, Generators, Bag Of Rice, Others

    Police Arrest 76 Yr-old Man, Other Burglars, Recover 5 Stolen Cars, TV-sets, Generators, Bag Of Rice, Others

    26 May 2023

Random Posts

I Shall Focus on Rural Infrastructure Provision in The University Town Of Nsukka If Elected- Hon. Abba

I Shall Focus on Rural Infrastructure Provision in The University Town Of Nsukka If Elected- Hon. Abba

‘OBI-tuary’: Iloegbunam flays Omatseye, says he’s stupid journalist of survival

‘OBI-tuary’: Iloegbunam flays Omatseye, says he’s stupid journalist of survival

Nigerian ICT wizard, Aliyu dares facebok, twitter others with ShapClik one-in-all App

Nigerian ICT wizard, Aliyu dares facebok, twitter others with ShapClik one-in-all App

Nigeria needs to be safe, secure for thriving socio-economic activities-DR. OBI

Nigeria needs to be safe, secure for thriving socio-economic activities-DR. OBI

DCP AKINBAYO: Breaking uncommon frontiers in developmental policing in Nigeria

DCP AKINBAYO: Breaking uncommon frontiers in developmental policing in Nigeria

Tags

Abdulrasheed Bawa Abuja ASABA Bawa Commissioner of Police CP Muhammed Ali CP Sylvester Alabi EFCC IGP Alkali Usman Baba IGP Baba Lagos Lagos State NDLEA Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari Wilson UWUJAREN
Copyright 2021, All Rights Reserved
Crimeworld Online magazine