Why would the Chinese do that? They have never before in all their history coveted Siberia.
To expand: someone claimed that since Russia used to own Crimea, it’s ok for it to “re-claim” it. Someone else said that Russia used to own Ukraine, so should it be ok for it to “re-claim” Ukraine? Someone piped in and said that it was wrong to say that Russia owned Ukraine. Hence the argument.
Ok we get that you have something against Russia, but come on now. People didn’t say they were “from Russia” because they were owned by Russia. That’s silly.
Quite often it is relevant to which country they want to belong to. That is what nationalism is all about.
How is “what country they want to belong to” relevant to the actual fact of what country the region belongs to?
Ukraine was owned by Russia during Soviet times. By any definition of the word “owned”. It’s “silly” to say otherwise.
By any definition? Ok, where is the contract that says it?
Ah. Got it.
I’m not sure what you mean. Are you questioning whether Ukraine was part of the USSR?
Let’s see:
[ol]
[li]Vast mineral resources, mostly untapped[/li][li]Global warming making most of the area more accessible.[/li][li]Thinly populated[/li][li]Serious issues with freshwater in China[/li][li]1.5 billion Chinese in an area only slightly larger than the US.[/li][/ol]
In the past, Siberia’s cold prevented colonization and its mineral wealth was largely unknown. With those two matters changing, next to Australia (which lacks freshwater supplies) it’s only logical place on that side of the world for Chinese expansionism.
They aren’t particularly expansionist though, are they?
No, whether Russia owned Ukraine by every definition of ‘owned’.
I would ask the people of Tibet, Taiwan and Xianjiang if they share that assessment.
Not “officially”. But:
He added that “More than eight million foreign citizens [the Chinese - terr] came to Russia in the first six months of 2012 alone.”
and
The Siberian city of Blagoveshchensk is located over 8,000 kilometres from Moscow, but barely 800 metres from China. The two countries are only separated by the Amur river. In winter, when it freezes over, the Amur can be crossed on foot.
Until 1989, “Blago”, as the locals call it, was a closed city, off-limits to foreigners. These days it symbolises the growing Chinese influence in Russia’s Far East. Large parts of the economy have been taken over by the Chinese. Farmlands - abandoned former collective farms - are mostly run by Chinese migrants. Mixed marriages are common, and Chinese is the most popular foreign language, taught from school up to university.
I would argue that they went a step futher and pwned them. Ukraine was a breadbasket for Russia, until the soviet collectivization drove farming into the ground.
China has it’s own, and basically unchanging, idea of what constitutes it’s traditional territory. I am pretty sure Siberia is not included. There’s other areas that ARE contentious between Russia and China though.
And Taiwan is a pretty bad example, imho, because Taiwan actually separated from China realistically. Hardly “expansionist” for them to not recognize that.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/19/us-russia-estonia-idUSBREA2I1J620140319
Russia signaled concern on Wednesday at Estonia’s treatment of its large ethnic Russian minority, comparing language policy in the Baltic state with what it said was a call in Ukraine to prevent the use of Russian.
Umm, you still wondering why we care, OP?
Consider where they started.
Why do we care about Estonia, either?
The USSR pretty much pwned every republic, including Russia.
It is silly (or stupid, if you prefer) to pretend that Russia was equal among equals in the Republics.