• Home
  • News
    Saraki, CNS Gambo commends Navy in fight against Sea crimes, harp on import of Hydrography at World Hydrographic day

    Saraki, CNS Gambo commends Navy in fight against Sea crimes, harp on import of Hydrography at World Hydrographic day

    admin 23 Jun 2022
    • Site of collapsed 21 storey building now belongs to Lagos State-SALAKO

      Site of collapsed 21 storey building now belongs to Lagos State-SALAKO

      Albert Uba 19 Jun 2022
    • 33  Cheat Death Aboard Overland  Ilorin-Lagos Plane as Engine develops fault mid-air

      33 Cheat Death Aboard Overland Ilorin-Lagos Plane as Engine develops fault mid-air

      Albert Uba 16 Jun 2022
    • World Hydrography Day: Nigerian Navy records remarkable successes in survey, charting of Rivers Niger, Benue

      World Hydrography Day: Nigerian Navy records remarkable successes in survey, charting of Rivers Niger, Benue

      Albert Uba 15 Jun 2022
    • Impeached Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo President Lagos, Chief Aguene faces ostracization

      Impeached Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo President Lagos, Chief Aguene faces ostracization

      Albert Uba 14 Jun 2022
    • We need you to help airlift, distribute our materials INEC begs NAF

      We need you to help airlift, distribute our materials INEC begs NAF

      Albert Uba 14 Jun 2022
    • Navy denies crude oil thieves N6.3b in 2 months of Ops dakatar da barawo

      Navy denies crude oil thieves N6.3b in 2 months of Ops dakatar da barawo

      Albert Uba 14 Jun 2022
    • Emotions, tears, encomiums at SCOAN’s 1st anniversary for TB Joshua

      Emotions, tears, encomiums at SCOAN’s 1st anniversary for TB Joshua

      Albert Uba 05 Jun 2022
    • Come and build wine factory in Nigeria, Jamek-Wine CEO, Iweh tells Spain

      Come and build wine factory in Nigeria, Jamek-Wine CEO, Iweh tells Spain

      Albert Uba 02 Jun 2022
  • 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
    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
    DCP AKINBAYO: Breaking uncommon frontiers in developmental policing in Nigeria

    DCP AKINBAYO: Breaking uncommon frontiers in developmental policing in Nigeria

    Albert Uba 18 Aug 2021
    Again, rights group reiterates calls for unconditional release of condemned Rev. King

    Again, rights group reiterates calls for unconditional release of condemned Rev. King

    Albert Uba 29 May 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 101 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

Crime Reporters Association welcomes new CP Durosinmi to A’Ibom, pledges collaboration
Police

Crime Reporters Association welcomes new CP Durosinmi to A’Ibom, pledges collaboration

26 Jun 2022
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
Synagogue church guest house in order before collapse —REPORT
News

Synagogue church guest house in order before collapse —REPORT

29 Mar 2019
CP Kayode ‘Sir K’ takes over C’River State Command…his intimidating profile
Police

CP Kayode ‘Sir K’ takes over C’River State Command…his intimidating profile

13 Jan 2021
New GOC 81 Div, Gen. Fejokwu visits Badagry monarch, Seme border Customs Comptroller, seeks peaceful co-existence
News

New GOC 81 Div, Gen. Fejokwu visits Badagry monarch, Seme border Customs Comptroller, seeks peaceful co-existence

28 Mar 2021

Website Traffic Counter

Flag Counter

Advertisement

Follow us

Newslater

Recent Posts

  • Crime Reporters Association welcomes new CP Durosinmi to A’Ibom, pledges collaboration

    Crime Reporters Association welcomes new CP Durosinmi to A’Ibom, pledges collaboration

    26 Jun 2022
  • New CP Dorosinmi rejigs security architecture in A’Ibom state, commerces weekend patrols of communities

    New CP Dorosinmi rejigs security architecture in A’Ibom state, commerces weekend patrols of communities

    26 Jun 2022
  • Policing Delta State this 1yr-plus, challenging- CP Ali

    Policing Delta State this 1yr-plus, challenging- CP Ali

    25 Jun 2022
  • PoliceAffairs Minister,Dingyadi reassures on technology-led policing

    PoliceAffairs Minister,Dingyadi reassures on technology-led policing

    24 Jun 2022
  • N25.7B Fraud: You’re as guilty as pronounced, appeal court tells Atuche, ex- bank PHB MD, other

    N25.7B Fraud: You’re as guilty as pronounced, appeal court tells Atuche, ex- bank PHB MD, other

    24 Jun 2022

Random Posts

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

Again, rights group reiterates calls for unconditional release of condemned Rev. King

Again, rights group reiterates calls for unconditional release of condemned Rev. King

Kidnappers of Imo Priest arrested, says Police

Kidnappers of Imo Priest arrested, says Police

Tags

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