Treaty of Aigun

Background

Since the reign of Catherine the Great (1762–1796), Russian emperors had desired to make Russia a naval power in the Pacific. They gradually achieved their goals by annexing the Kamchatka Peninsula and establishing the naval outpost of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in 1740, naval outposts in Russian America and near the Amur watershed, encouraging Russians to go there and settle, and slowly developing a strong military presence in the Amur region.

From 1850 to 1864, when China was heavily involved in suppressing the Taiping Rebellion, and Governor-General of the Far East Nikolay Muraviev camped tens of thousands of troops on the borders of Mongolia and Manchuria, preparing to make legal Russian de facto control over the Amur from past settlement. Muraviev seized the opportunity when it was clear that China was losing the Second Opium War, and threatened China with a war on a second front. The Qing dynasty agreed to enter negotiations with Russia.

Signing

The Russian general Muraviev and the Qing official Yishan, both military governors of the area, signed the treaty on May 28, 1858, in the town of Aigun. The Qing government initially refused to ratify the treaty and considered the treaty invalid, but in 1860 the Sino-Russian Convention of Peking affirmed Russian gains under the Treaty of Aigun and also ceded Primorye and the Ussuri region to the Russians.

Effects

The resulting treaty established a border between the Russian and Chinese Empires along the Amur River. (Chinese and Manchu residents of the Sixty-Four Villages East of the River would be allowed to remain, under the jurisdiction of Manchu government.) The Amur, Sungari, and Ussuri rivers were to be open exclusively to both Chinese and Russian ships. The territory bounded on the west by the Ussuri, on the north by the Amur, and on the east and south by the Sea of Japan was to be jointly administered by Russia and China—a "condominium" arrangement similar to that which the British and Americans had agreed upon for the Oregon Territory in the Treaty of 1818. (Russia gained sole control of this land two years later.)

1. The inhabitants along the Amur, Sungari, and Ussuri rivers were to be allowed to trade with each other.
2. The Russians would retain Russian and Manchu copies of the text, and the Chinese would retain Manchu and Mongolian copies of the text.
3. All restrictions on trade were to be lifted along the border.

Perception in China

In China, especially after the rise of Chinese nationalism in the 1920s, the treaty has been denounced as an unequal treaty.

In September 2024, the President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) Lai Ching-te claimed that if China's claims on Taiwan are about territorial integrity then it should also take back land from Russia signed over by the last Chinese dynasty in the 19th century, mentioning the treaty.

References

Bibliography

References

1. (10 November 1997). "Russia and China end 300 year old border dispute". [[BBC News]].
2. Paine, SCM. (May 2023). ["The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895: perceptions, power, and primacy"](https://books.google.com/books?id=SHIAEo_qGRIC&pg=PA69 }}{{Dead link). [[Cambridge University Press]].
3. Elleman, Bruce. (2019). "International Rivalry and Secret Diplomacy in East Asia, 1896-1950". Taylor & Francis.
4. Tzhou, Byron N. (1990). "China and international law: the boundary disputes". [[Greenwood Publishing Group]].
5. Bissinger, Sally. (26 June 1969). "The Sino-Soviet Border Talks". [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
6. "Treaty of Aigun".
7. (September 2, 2024). "If China wants Taiwan it should also take back land from Russia, president says".