Xi Wants Putin To Return Land "Snatched" From China

Chinese President Xi Jinping is not known to yield an inch as far as sovereignty issues are concerned, and he is as revanchist as Russian President Vladimir Putin in urging that 600,000 sq km of land “snatched” from the Manchus in 1860 be returned.

Photo Insert: The Power of Siberia pipeline. Russia's gas continues to be its most powerful bargaining chip.

Writing for The Telegraph, Michael Henderson said reporters have wrapped around their heads the strange parting of Xi as he left Russia: He is prepared to work with Putin on changes not seen in more than a century.

This could refer to negotiations about the fate of Mongolia, and areas in Siberia that the Manchus yielded to Russia in 1860 and legitimized by the Treaties of Aigun and Peking. China is trying to expand its territories into India, Bhutan, the South China Sea, Mongolia, and Siberia such that the Middle Kingdom will be whole in 2049, the centennial of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

These areas cover the sources of gas that Putin hopes to pump to China under the “Power of Siberia 2” (POS2) that stretches from Siberia, Mongolia, and China.

No deal for POS2 was signed by Xi, which means that perhaps what Putin got were weapons deals and a pledge to work out a peace deal with Ukraine, which is light years away. The border dispute led China to fight wars with Russia along the Amur and Ussuri Rivers in the 1960s.

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