Why is Putin suddenly attacking China?
A new version of China’s standard map has just been released… with some changes that the Russian president is not happy about.
With this latest version of the country’s geographic boundaries, China appears to be claiming a portion of Russian territory, Bolshoi Ussuriysk Island to be precise. Ownership of the island was a dispute between Russia and China until the claims were resolved in 2005 and the island was divided, reports The Daily Digest. In the new map released by Chinese media, the area is completely Chinese.
According to George Mason University professor Mark Katz, the change could spark tensions between the two powers. “The Kremlin is very attentive to Chinese maps, especially official maps, that claim that Russian territory actually belongs to China,” Katz says. He adds that even if the Kremlin leader were annoyed by the move, there’s not much he could do about it. Indeed, Russia is currently in a precarious situation, deprived of many global exchanges.
Although Vladimir Putin has not yet reacted, the spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ms. Zakharova, nevertheless broke the silence by affirming that a common border had been drawn in 2008 along the length of the island and that the two countries had guaranteed "the absence of mutual territorial claims" since at least 2001.
Despite everything, the map would have been validated by the authorities in Beijing.
(MH with Manon Pierre - Source: The Daily Digest - Picture: by Kremlin.ru via Wikicommons under license Creative commons CC-BY-4.0)