If earlier China marked the disputed islands as territories occupied by Russia, now Beijing has adopted a neutral policy in this regard.
Chinese President Xi Jinping did not support Japan’s claim over the Russian-controlled islands off Hokkaido during a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, last month. This was reported by the Japanese edition of Kyodo on April 3, citing a Chinese source.
Xi reportedly told Putin during his talks in Moscow that China was “not taking sides” in the territorial dispute;
Bilateral talks on the islands known as Japan’s Northern Territory and Russia’s South Kuril Islands were suspended after Tokyo imposed punitive sanctions on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine.
China’s change of position could complicate the resolution of the decades-old dispute, as Moscow is unlikely to back off from the issue at this time with Beijing’s support.
For example, during the March 20-21 talks, Putin stressed the importance of promoting the establishment of special duty-free zones on the disputed islands last year and urged Chinese companies to invest. After high-level talks between Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yun Suk-yeol on March 16, relations between Tokyo and Seoul improved, Putin said that Russia cannot expect investments from South Korean firms.
In response, Xi Jinping conveyed China’s neutral stance on the territorial dispute to Putin, but refused to clarify whether Beijing would allow its businesses to participate in the project, saying he would leave the matter to Zheng Shanjie, head of National Development and Reform. Commission.
History of the Kuril Islands
In July 1964, Mao told a Japanese Socialist Party delegation to China that Beijing expressed its support for Tokyo’s territorial claims, saying that he believed the Russian-held islands “should be returned to you.” Japan became the Soviet Union’s invasion of Japan on August 15, 1945. Russia claims these actions are legal.
The Chinese government has maintained this position, although it has not been publicly discussed in recent years. On China’s maps, the disputed islands are still marked as “occupied by Russia.”
Recall that on March 9, 2022, Japan officially declared the Kuril Islands to be “Japan’s ancestral lands.” Japanese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hideki Uyama said that the northern lands of the Kuril Islands, the Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan and Habomai Islands, are occupied by Russia in violation of international law.
We also recall that in May 2020, Japan named part of the Kuril Islands as its own and returned statements that the islands of Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan and Khabomai belong to the territory under the country’s sovereignty.
Source: Focus
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