President Putin invaded Ukraine claiming it was part of Russian history. The same kind of argument, the use of which undermines the current international order, underlies that of the “historic rights” China claims in the East China and South China Seas. To better understand the context, we spoke with the Chinese historian Ge Zhaoguang, who highlights the dangers of the illusion that has persisted since the imperial era.
MAINICHI SHIMBUN: Mr. Putin relies on Russian history since imperial times to justify the invasion of Ukraine. This is surprising reasoning.
GE ZHAOGUANG: As a historian, what I can say about current events is limited, but the argument of the Russian president, who claims to take back what has been lost, is inadmissible, even for us Chinese. If we follow the logic of Mr Putin, Vladivostok and Sakhalin [aujourd’hui dans l’Extrême-Orient russe]which according to the Chinese position belonged to the Qing dynasty, should be returned to China [celle-ci se les est vu arracher respectivement en 1858 et 1860]. We need to understand that the territorial consciousness of the imperial past and the territory of a modern sovereign state are two totally different things.
Mr. Putin would maintain the image of the Russian Empire?
He probably harbors a “great Russia dream” that would stretch across Eurasia. For him, the countries that became independent after the collapse of the Soviet Union [en 1991] are dependent on Russia, and tens of millions of Russian compatriots live beyond its borders. I saw in a television report Mr. Putin declare: “Russia has no borders.” This illustrates his disregard for the sovereignty of modern states and explains, I think, his decision to invade Ukraine. Its design resembles that of an imperial ruler. In my view, the memory of the Russian Empire is the source of the problem.
Could we draw a parallel between Russia and China?
Masashi Haneda, professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, explains that after World War I and the fall of the traditional empires only Russia and China retained vast territory and complex population groups roughly corresponding to their ancients. empires. In addition to their ethnic diversity and the extent of their territory, the two countries share another similarity: an ethnic group – Russian in one case, Han in the other – occupies an ultra-dominant place [la Chine se reconnaît 56 nationalités, les Hans comptant au recensement de 2020 pour 91 % de la population].
So China would also keep a territorial consciousness inherited from the imperial era?
Traditionally, the central territory, where the emperor is enthroned, is surrounded by vassal states, beyond which extends a world beyond the imperial authority. As the Chinese expression suggests youjiang wujie, “there are limits but no borders”, we did not conceive of clear borders, but only approximate limits. Imagine the light that illuminates a room, the i