Does Putin have to worry about his East? Just as he believes he has a right to parts of Ukraine, the Chinese are making similar claims to Russian territory.
Because Russia's Far East was once Chinese. Some nationalist-minded Chinese are therefore demanding: Give us our country back! And now seems to be the right time, because Russia has been economically weakened by the Ukraine war and the country is focusing militarily on the West.
In any case, the call to finally act is repeatedly heard on Chinese social media. For example, the Chinese reacted angrily to an advertisement in which a Russian tourism organization advertised the culinary delights of the city of Vladivostok on China's social network "Weibo". According to the post, the metropolis in eastern Russia had recently been voted one of the country's gourmet capitals.
But the users did not react in a positive way at all, but angrily. "Give us our country back," wrote one user. Another demanded: "They killed my fellow countrymen and occupied our country. The Russians must be punished!” And a third user simply posted a knife emoji.
Background: In the 19th century, Western countries, especially Great Britain, forced the Chinese Empire, which was then completely economically and technologically underdeveloped, to its knees in several wars. The Qing Dynasty had to cede several territories to the imperialist powers - for example, the region around what is now Hong Kong fell to the British.
And the Russian Empire seized areas in northeast China that were three times the size of Germany. In the region there is also a city that the Chinese once called “Haishenwai”: Sea Cucumber Bay, named after the sea creatures that are considered a delicacy in Asia. Today the city is called Vladivostok and is the center of Russia's Far East.
