Paul Goble
Staunton, June 20 – China has long sought to get Russia to agree to allow its ships to pass through a 15-kilometer stretch of the Tumanna River, which flows along the border of China and North Korea and then forms the border between the Russian Federation and North Korea, to allow its ships to reach the Sea of Japan via that route.
But Russia as resisted, fearful that allowing China that access would allow Beijing to increase its influence in the region. Now, however, after Vladimir Putin’s visit to China, it appears that Moscow is prepared to begin serious negotiations over this route, which Beijing has already said it will seek to widen and to demolish a bridge that might block its ships.
Japan is alarmed (asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/China-eyes-Sea-of-Japan-access-via-Russia-North-Korea-border-river), and independent Russian and Ukrainian outlets are treating such moves as yet another example of Putin’s deference to China at Russia’s expense (moscowtimes.ru/2024/06/17/rossiya-peredast-kitayu-reku-dlya-vihoda-vyaponskoe-more-a134173 and tsn.ua/svit/rf-prodast-kitayu-richku-schob-pekin-otrimav-dostup-do-yaponskogo-morya-reakciya-cpd-rnbo-2602773.html).
The reasons Russians are concerned lies in the history of Putin’s dealings with Chinese claims in the region. Fifteen years ago, he agreed to meet Beijing’s demands and hand over four islands and half of a fifth in the Amur border region. That led China to produce maps last year showing much of this area as again Chinese, maps that Moscow was slow to object to.
On that case, see moscowtimes.io/2023/08/29/kitai-na-novoi-ofitsialnoi-karte-obyavil-svoei-territoriei-chast-rossii-a53376, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/09/moscow-finally-reacts-to-new-chinese.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/05/under-guise-of-joint-development-putin.html).
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