0

The Western press likes to remind from time to time that:

Beijing has refused to condemn the invasion of Ukraine, despite purporting to uphold countries’ territorial integrity under international norms. It has also claimed impartiality in the conflict, but has continued to strengthen its economic, strategic and diplomatic ties with Russia – becoming a key economic lifeline for the sanctions-hit economy.

How unique is this situation in PRC's history though? Are there other internationally controversial annexations that the PRC leaders (explicitly or silently) refused to condemn?

(I could ask about invasions, which what the quote is explicitly about, but those might be more/too numerous. And they're sometimes less permanent, including e.g. China's own invasion of Vietnam in '79.)

the gods from engineering
  • 158,594
  • 27
  • 390
  • 806
  • 3
    I am pretty sure that China didn't condemn the annexation of Tibet by China. – Evargalo Mar 01 '24 at 14:02
  • 1
    Two come to mind in recent years, but both are arguably ambiguous, since subject to contradictory claims by both bordering countries, and the status quo being a pause of previous hostilities without agreement to settle the issue. (1) the forceful change in control of Nagorno-Karabakh , aka Astrakh, in 2020. (2) the forceful change in control in the Indian takeover of Kashmir and formal stripping it of its special autonomous status in 2019 . PRC issued vague statements urging restraint but no condemnation. – Pete W Mar 01 '24 at 15:51
  • I’m voting to close this question because this kind of a "list" question does not belong on stack exchange. https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/139618/are-list-questions-off-topic – whoisit Mar 01 '24 at 23:52
  • @whoisit: sorry, that's just bollocks. "those questions are infinite, as a new answer could always be added; they also tend to be subjective" There's not been an infinite amount of annexations since the PRC was founded. (In fact, I'd say the opposite--a small number making the Q answerable with a fairly small amount of work.) Nor is it subjective whether China said anything about those [few] events. – the gods from engineering Mar 01 '24 at 23:58
  • @whoisit: a more sensible take: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/180335/are-there-good-list-questions-as-opposed-to-bad-list-questions – the gods from engineering Mar 02 '24 at 00:03
  • Are you suggesting that China is the only country not to condemn it? If not why are you singling them out? – Joe W Mar 03 '24 at 18:08
  • @JoeW: why is CNN 'singling them out'? Because Zimbabwe is a less important country? – the gods from engineering Mar 03 '24 at 19:08
  • @JoeW: there's another Q about the [present] positions of other countries on the war/invasion. Feel free to DV that too. – the gods from engineering Mar 03 '24 at 19:19
  • That question is different as it is not singling out a single country like yours is. – Joe W Mar 03 '24 at 19:35
  • @JoeW: since you like repetition: why is CNN 'singling them out'? – the gods from engineering Mar 03 '24 at 20:13
  • The standards for asking a question on politics se is not the same as a news network airing a story b – Joe W Mar 03 '24 at 22:42

2 Answers2

5

I dislike this kind of "laundry list" question, as well as its foundation in a questionable claim. Nevertheless, it is easily answered.

Zhou Enlai's speech at the Afro-Asian Conference in Bandung in 1955 offers three clues to annexations that the PRC would refuse to condemn, or even endorse,

One should say that now the common desire of the awakened countries and peoples of Asia and Africa is to oppose racial discrimination and to demand for fundamental human rights, to oppose colonialism and to demand national independence, to firmly defend their own territorial integrity and sovereignty. The struggle of the Egyptian people for the restoration of their sovereignty over the Suez Canal Zone, the struggle of Iranian people for the restoration of sovereignty over their petroleum resources, and the demand for the restoration of territorial rights of India over Goa and of Indonesia over West Irian, have all won symphathy from many countries in Asia and Africa. China’s will to liberate her own territory Taiwan has likewise won the support of all righteous people in the Asian-African region. This proves that the peoples of our Asian and African countries understand each other and have sympathy and concern for one another.

Of course, in 1955, none of these annexations had actually taken place but,

  • Egypt annexed the Suez Canal Zone in 1956, with China's support. This was violently resisted by the British, French and Israeli governments.
  • Indonesia eventually annexed West Irian in 1962, overcoming opposition from the Netherlands and Australia, in particular. I can't find any evidence that China opposed this, and it seems likely that they supported it.
  • India annexed Goa in 1961, despite much opposition from several Western states (and Pakistan). The Chinese government essentially supported this, although it appears some state media were critical of Nehru's motives.

A more recent example is the situation in Western Sahara, which China doesn't appear to have expressed much of an official view on. I assume its possible to find even more cases.

Charlie Evans
  • 2,664
  • 7
  • 26
  • 1
    Yeah China seems to be torn between Algeria and Morocco on that last issue https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/china-maghreb-threading-needle-algeria-and-morocco Russia appears to be similarly unsusre https://www.med-or.org/en/news/la-prudenza-strategica-di-russia-e-cina-nel-sahara-occidentale – the gods from engineering Mar 01 '24 at 22:29
  • 1
    The Chinese version of kremlinology however suggests that they may be slightly favoring Morocco because China 'did not make any reference to “self-determination” in its statements reviewed here'--which was all their communications on this at the UNSC. – the gods from engineering Mar 01 '24 at 22:41
-2

Second Chechnya War

After two months of aerial bombing, Russia invaded Chechnya in October 1999. International reactions varied, e.g.

The United States and the European Union denounced the move.

Two months later, however, Russia and China's Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Jiang Zemin met and Russia could boast China's support.

"Jiang Zemin completely understands and fully supports Russia's actions in combatting terrorism and extremism in Chechnya," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said afterwards. Chinese Foreign Ministry said that China "understands and supports the efforts made by Russia in safeguarding national unity and territorial integrity."

On the other hand there are of course many invasions that China did condemn, e.g. Indonesia's annexation of East Timor in 1975 or Erythrea's attack on Ethiopia in 1998.

Evargalo
  • 6,949
  • 34
  • 43
  • 2
    was there an annexation in that case? – Pete W Mar 01 '24 at 15:41
  • 2
    (-1) This has almost nothing in common with the issue raised in the question, Chechnya had almost no international recognition. – Relaxed Mar 01 '24 at 16:00
  • The Republic of Chechnya was recognized as a distinct entity from the Russian Federation, although the question of complete independance was to be resolved (pacifically!) later. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia%E2%80%93Chechnya_Peace_Treaty So yes, we can call that annexation... And that caused quite an international uproar... – Evargalo Mar 01 '24 at 21:41