59 years ago, former Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong voiced his support for Japan, but the topic hasn’t been raised since.
A good sign is that China has changed its position on the Kuril Islands for the first time in 60 years. Attention to this was drawn by the Japanese edition of Kyodo. According to the source, China no longer supports Japan in this matter, although it does not support Russia either.
59 years ago, former Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong voiced his support for Japan on the issue of Kuril ownership, but since then China has not raised the issue.
It has now emerged that Chinese leader Xi Jinping no longer supports Japan’s claims to the Kuril Islands. He said during a visit to Russia that Beijing remains neutral in this dispute and does not take sides. This indicates an even greater rapprochement between China and Russia, the newspaper notes.
Photo: Kremlin website. “A change in China’s position could make it difficult to resolve a decades-old dispute, as Moscow is unlikely to back down on this issue now with Beijing’s backing,” Kyodo notes.
During the talks in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed the importance of promoting the special free zone set up on the islands last year and invited Chinese companies to participate in the trade, the source said. Xi Jinping did not explain whether companies from the Celestial Empire would “enter” the Kuril Islands, but said the National Development and Reform Commission would deal with the matter.
The preferential regime, exempting companies from paying taxes for 20 years, started operating in the Kuril Islands in the spring of last year. In March, the Russian government approved a special regime of customs regulations for Kurilian companies. They will also be entitled to advantages for the customs clearance of goods and the application of the customs regime FTZ (customs free zone), the law will be in force until the end of 2046.
Photo: Elmor, public domain, wikimedia.org Japan considers the Kuril Islands, specifically the Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan Islands and a group of small uninhabited islands, as its territory, although this is not the case in all treaties international.
The Japanese are convinced that the status of the islands is governed by the first Russian-Japanese treaty. The Shimoda Treaty of Commerce and Boundaries was signed in 1855. According to it, the boundary was established between the islands of Iturup and Urup: the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai group of islands went to Japan, and the rest were recognized as Russian possessions. True, the status of Sakhalin was not defined, which caused disputes between Russian and Japanese merchants and sailors.
Twenty years later, the Treaty of Petersburg was concluded and signed. According to him, Japan got rights to all the Kuril Islands and Russia got the Japanese part of Sakhalin.
Photo: pixabay.com The next treaty was the Treaty of Portsmouth, concluded following the Russo-Japanese War. According to her, Russia has conceded the southern part of Sakhalin to Japan.
Further adjustments were made after World War II. The Potsdam Declaration of 1945 states that Japan’s sovereignty is limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and smaller islands as the allies indicate – not to mention the islands of the Kuril chain.
The Soviet-Japanese war that broke out later also changed the situation. After that, the USSR, having fulfilled the terms of the agreements of the Yalta Conference of 1945, officially returned to its composition the territories annexed by Japan to the Russian Empire at the end of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904- 1905 following the results of the Peace of Portsmouth (South Sakhalin and, temporarily, the Kwantung area with Port Arthur and Dalniy), as well as the main group of the Kuril Islands previously ceded to Japan in 1875 and the southern part of the Kuril Islands assigned in Japan by the Treaty of Shimoda of 1855.
Photo: pixabay.com Japan’s latest territorial loss has yet to be acknowledged. At the same time, according to the San Francisco peace treaty (between Japan and the allies, signed in 1951), Japan renounces all claims to Sakhalin and the Kuriles.
Diplomatic relations between Japan and Russia were restored in 1956. At that time, an agreement was reached on the transfer of Shikotan and the island from the Habomai group to Japan, but the document was never signed and the Soviet Union abandoned its promises due to the conclusion of a security treaty between Japan and the United States. United States, since according to this document, the Americans could build their military bases in any part of Japan.
In recent years, there have been attempts at negotiation, but after the start of a special military operation and the announcement of sanctions by Japan, Moscow announced that in response to hostile measures, Tokyo refuses to prosecute the negotiations on a peace treaty, halt visa-free travel of Japanese citizens to the southern Kuril Islands and withdraw from dialogue on the establishment of joint economic activities in the Southern Kuril Islands.
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Good sign: China changes stance on Kuril Islands
