China - Russia Be Afraid
Monday, September 18, 2023
Written by Laurence F Sanford, Senior Analyst ASCF
Categories: ASCF News ASCF Articles
Russia should be afraid, very afraid of China. Today, they are best friends and partners. Tomorrow? The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has embarked on a self-declared road to world domination. Following the path paved by former socialist Nazi Germany, the CCP is ginning up the Chinese people over past treaty territorial grievances, racial superiority, and military/economic prowess.
A “no limits” partnership was declared by CCP President Xi and Russian President Putin shortly before the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the long term, however, the CCP will continue on its own path of grievances by reclaiming territories presently in Russia that were lost due to a series of “unequal treaties.”
Russia should be afraid because the most recent example of a CCP territory claim grievance is the August 2023 Chinese map declaring all 135 square miles of Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island in the Amur River to be part of China. Currently, the island is occupied by both parties. Russia rejected the Chinese map claim and stated border issues had been settled more than fifteen years ago. The Amur River marks the border for over one thousand miles.
There is no love lost between Russians in Siberia and the millions of Chinese along the border. After the Sino-Soviet split in 1969, an undeclared military confrontation occurred near Zhenbao Island on the Ussuri River, which separates Northeast China/Manchuria from Russia. The seven-month clash ended when Soviet Premier Kosygin met with Chinese Premier Zhou En Lai, and a ceasefire was ordered with a return to the status quo. Two years later, in 1971, the CCP welcomed Henry Kissinger to Beijing to counterbalance the Soviet Union with the United States.
Siberia is in Asia, with a Russian population of approximately 34 million. Russia’s total population is 144 million. China has a population of 1.4 billion with an economy and military that dwarfs Russia’s.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF)) estimates 2022 gross national product (GDP):
Russia $1.7 Trillion
China $19.3 Trillion
U.S. $26.8 Trillion
Mongols ruled Siberia until the 1600s when Russian fur traders expanded eastward and gradually exerted control over nomadic Turkic and Mongol tribes. The Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689 was the first treaty between Russia and the Manchu Qing dynasty (1644-1912) of China. Russia gave up territory north of the Amur River and kept areas around Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world, holding 20% of the world's fresh water.
In the 1800s, with the decline of the Qing dynasty and the rise of Western and Japanese imperialism, China signed a series of treaties ceding territories, including Hong Kong to the British, Taiwan to Japan, and Siberia (north of the Amur River and east of the Ussuri) to Russia. This allowed Russia to build a Pacific naval base at Vladivostok.
The CCP has a long memory with a long-term strategic plan. The Marxist playbook of grievances against the bourgeois, racism, and historical events is used to unify the people. There is no Marxist “brotherly” love amongst communist, socialist countries; there is only national self-interest, with the goal of defeating Western civilization and the United States. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
The CCP is also operating under the belief that if there were a historical Chinese presence anywhere in the world, then the CCP has the right to rule there today.
Following this logic:
● Siberia belongs to China since the Chinese were present centuries before Russian fur traders appeared.
● The South China Seas belong to China since Chinese fishing and trading vessels plied its waters centuries ago. The presence of Vietnamese, Philippine, Malaysian, and Indonesian fishing fleets in these waters does not matter in CCP calculations.
● Taiwan was once part of China (never under CCP control) and, therefore, should return to CCP China regardless of the will of the Taiwanese people.
Another of the many tools the CCP uses to rejuvenate China is to appeal to the 60 million people of Chinese extraction who live outside China. Front organizations and police stations for CCP security organizations are located in cities worldwide in order to keep track of Chinese expatriates and influence local politics.
Summary
Russia is a third-rate country with a first-rate nuclear capability. Ruled by a KGB thug, there is a good chance the Russian Federation will dissolve, as did the Soviet Union when he departs. Siberia could be among the first to declare its independence from European Russia, and China would be claiming its lost territories in Siberia.
Only the United States is capable of leading Western Civilization against the CCP march to world domination. Western Civilization is worth fighting for. It is the individual against the collective. It is the government of the people, by the people, and for the people. It is not people of the government, by the government, or for the government.
Free market capitalism has generated more freedom from poverty and more freedom from political repression than any other system in world history. It is based on property rights, order and law, and a moral society.
Action
1. Recognize that the CCP has declared “unrestricted warfare” against the West.
2. Decouple economically from China.
3. “We win, they lose” should be our national policy.
4. Never trust a communist.
5. Reciprocity. If China does not allow U.S. media to operate in China, then the U.S. should not allow Chinese media (TikTok) to operate in the U.S.
6. Invest in our military.
Peace Through Strength!
Laurence F. Sanford
Senior Analyst
American Security Council Foundation
www.ascf.us