Sino-Soviet border conflict
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| Sino-Soviet border conflict | |||||||
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| Part of the Cold War | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 People's Republic of China |
 Soviet Union |
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| Commanders | |||||||
| Mao Zedong |
Leonid Brezhnev |
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| Strength | |||||||
| 814,000 | 658,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Controversial; Soviet Union claims 800 killed, 620 injured, 1 missing. [1] | 58 killed, 94 wounded [2] | ||||||
The Sino-Soviet border conflict of 1969 refers to a series of armed border clashes between the Soviet Union and People's Republic of China at the height of the Sino-Soviet split. The most serious of these border clashes occurred in March 1969 in the vicinity of Zhenbao Island (珍宝岛), also known as Damanskii Island (Остров Даманский) in Russian. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the island was given to China.
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[edit] Border tensions
Deteriorating of Sino-Soviet relations in the late 1950s and early 1960s resulted in tensions along the 4,380 km (2,738 mi) border between China and the Soviet Union. A particularly serious incident occurred in May 1962, when 60,000 ethnic Uighurs in China's Xinjiang crossed the frontier into the Soviet Union, fleeing desperate economic conditions and, possibly, China's ethnic policies. Beijing immediately accused the Soviets of subverting the Uighur population, a charge later supported by some Chinese historiography, though never properly substantiated.
Amid heightening tensions, the Soviet Union and China began border talks. The Chinese position was that the old border treaties, concluded by the Qing Empire and the Tsarist Russia, were "unequal" and amounted to unfair annexation of the Chinese territory. Moscow could not accept this interpretation. Nevertheless, by 1964 the two sides were able to reach a preliminary agreement on the Eastern section of the border, including Zhenbao Island, which, it was agreed, would be handed over to the Chinese side.
However, in July 1964 Mao Zedong, in a meeting with a Japanese socialist delegation, stated that the Tsarist Russia stripped China of vast territories in Siberia and the Far East, as far as Kamchatka. Mao announced that China still had not presented a bill for this list. Outraged by Mao's comments, which were leaked to the public, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev refused to approve the border agreements, which had already been reached.
[edit] Border conflict of 1969
In the meantime, the amount of troops on both sides of the Sino-Soviet border increased dramatically after 1964. In the face of increasing Soviet pressure, and a real fear of Soviet invasion after the 1968 events in Czechoslovakia, the Chinese military developed the strategy of so called "active defense", which entailed the staging of a pre-emptive strike on a small scale at a point along the border, where the Chinese had a decisive advantage so as to deter the Soviets from invasion.
This unusual strategy led directly to the events on March 2, 1969, when a group of Chinese troops ambushed Soviet border guards on the Zhenbao Island. The Soviets suffered 31 dead and 14 wounded. They retaliated on March 15 by bombarding Chinese troop concentrations on the Chinese bank of the Ussuri and by storming Damansky/Zhenbao Island. The Soviet forces claimed that the Chinese suffered 800 casualties while the Soviets only had 60 killed or wounded. The Chinese claim to have suffered only a few casualties, far less than Soviet losses.
Further border clashes occurred in August 1969, this time along the western section of the Sino-Soviet border, in Xinjiang. The Chinese suffered more casualties. Heightening tensions raised the prospect of an outright war between China and the Soviet Union, a war, in which nuclear weapons could be used. Hints to this effect were dropped by Moscow through various channels, though it has never been proven that the Soviet policy makers seriously contemplated a pre-emptive nuclear strike on China.
As war fever gripped China, Moscow and Beijing took steps to lower the danger of a large-scale conflict. On September 11, 1969 Soviet Prime Minister Aleksei Kosygin, on his way back from the funeral of the Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, stopped over in Beijing for talks with his Chinese counterpart Zhou Enlai. Symbolic of the frosty relations between the two communist countries, the talks were held in Beijing airport. The two premiers agreed to return ambassadors (previously recalled), and begin border negotiations.
[edit] Consequences of 1969
It is now widely accepted among historians that the events at Zhenbao Island, and the subsequent border clashes in Xinjiang, caused Mao to re-appraise China's foreign policy and seek a rapprochement with the United States. By contrast, China's relations with the USSR remained sour, despite the border talks, which began in 1969 and lasted inconclusively for a decade.
Domestically, the threat of war, caused by the border clashes, inaugurated a new stage in the Cultural Revolution — that of China's thorough militarization. The 9th CCP Congress, held in the aftermath of the Zhenbao Island incident, confirmed Defense Minister Lin Biao as Mao's heir-apparent.
Following the events of 1969 the Soviet Union further increased its forces along the Sino-Soviet border and in Mongolia.
Overall, the Sino-Soviet confrontation, which reached its peak in 1969, paved the way to a profound transformation of the international political system, shattered post-WWII bipolarity and marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War.
[edit] Border negotiations in the 1990s
Serious border demarcation negotiations did not occur until shortly before the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. In particular, both sides agree that Damansky/Zhenbao Island belongs to China. (Both sides claimed the island was under their control at the time of the agreement.) On October 17, 1995 an agreement over the last 54 km stretch of the border was reached, but the question of control over three islands in the Amur and Argun rivers was left to be settled. In a border agreement between Russia and China, signed on 14 October 2004, that dispute was finally resolved. In the agreement, China was granted control over Tarabarov Island (Yinlong Island) and approximately 50% of Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island (Heixiazi Island) near Khabarovsk. China's Standing Committee of the National People's Congress ratified this agreement on April 27, 2005 with the Russian Duma following suit on May 20, 2005. The transfer was finalized on June 2, 2005, when the agreement was signed by Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov.
[edit] Notes
1, 2. Exploring Chinese History, 1969 Border Conflict
[edit] See also
- History of the Soviet Union (1953-1985)
- History of the People's Republic of China
- Foreign relations of the People's Republic of China
- Sino-Soviet split
- Sino-Soviet conflict (1929)
