The recent history of our country is a history full of heartache and blood and tears. Since the Qianlong Emperor, the comprehensive national strength of the Qing Dynasty has opened up a gap with the Western powers. When the Qing Dynasty was still dreaming of "heaven and heaven", all kinds of new weapons of Westerners were already put into use. Soon, the gates of the Qing Dynasty were blasted open by European artillery. With that came all sorts of unequal treaties.
For the decadent and lonely Qing Dynasty, this was the humiliation it had to face. The Treaties of Nanking, Maguan, and Xinugu were not pacified by the great powers in arbitrarily dividing up China. In modern times, there are many unequal treaties, and there are more than twenty signed by the hands of the Qing government, which can be described as shocking.
So, has china ever signed an equality treaty with a foreign country in modern times?
In fact, there is, this treaty is the Sino-Russian Nebuchu Treaty.
Tsarist Russia was originally a European country and did not border China. Beginning in the late 16th century under Tsar Ivan IV, Tsarist Russia began its expansion and colonization of Siberia and the Far East. In 1648 (the fifth year of Shunzhi), the Russians arrived on the Kamchatka Peninsula and the bering Strait, now known as the Bering Strait, and completed their expedition to the Pacific Ocean. In 1651 (the eighth year of Shunzhi), they entered Lake Baikal again and built the city of Irkutsk.
From the middle of the 17th century, during the invasion of the Heilongjiang River Basin by the Russian invaders represented by Khabarov, the resistance of the ethnic minorities on the Chinese border gradually developed into a frontal conflict between the Chinese and Russian governments. During this period, Russia also sent several envoys to China, but due to etiquette disputes and conflicts of national interest, it failed to fully complete the mission. Moreover, while expanding abroad, the absolute monarchy and centralization of power in Tsarist Russia were also strengthening.
In the winter of the twenty-fifth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1686), after the armistice between China and Russia, after the armistice in Yaksa, the Two Sides prepared to demarcate the Sino-Russian border by negotiation. At that time, although Russia was strong, it had to pay huge military expenses because of its perennial competition with western powers for Ukraine. At the same time, uprisings broke out in Russia, and the Tsar had to mobilize his army to put down the rebellion. Under these circumstances, Russia was really unable to carry out large corps operations in the Heilongjiang region of the Qing Dynasty. In November of that year, the Tsar sent an envoy to meet the Kangxi Emperor and expressed his willingness to negotiate the solution.
Although the Kangxi Emperor had the intention of fighting for more rights and interests for the Qing Dynasty, he was also unwilling to work too hard and hurt the people and money. Seeing that the Tsar had taken the initiative to negotiate peace, he decided to agree on a border line agreed upon by both countries. Therefore, the Kangxi Emperor ordered all the Qing troops to withdraw from Yaksa and waited for the Tsar to send envoys to negotiate peace. Although the Tsar took the initiative to propose peace, he still had a blind eye to the Heilongjiang region of our country. In January of the twenty-fifth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1686), the Tsar sent his minister Golovin on an envoy to the Qing Dynasty and gave him two instructions:
"Strive to use Heilongjiang as a border. If the Qing Dynasty did not agree, it retreated to the second place, proposing to use the Niuman River (present-day Breya River in Russia), the Jingqili River (present-day Jieya River in Russia) and the Heilongjiang River in the west as the boundary. If the Qing Dynasty still did not allow it, a border was drawn in Yaksa. Yaksa is the final bottom line, if not, never retreat, immediately ready to go to war. ”
In order to claim more land, Golovin did not hesitate to bribe the envoys of the Qing Dynasty with heavy money. However, the Kangxi Emperor attached great importance to national sovereignty and did not allow the Russian conspiracy to succeed. He repeatedly stressed that Nebuchu, Yaksa and Heilongjiang were all qing territories and must not be ceded to Russia, even if it was the slightest. If we can't talk about it, we will go to war, and the Eight Banners soldiers are already waiting on the border.
In the twenty-seventh year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1688), the Kangxi Emperor ordered Soltu to negotiate the border issue with the Russian envoys at Selengesk. Unexpectedly, the Garbu suddenly rebelled, and the discussion had to be postponed until the twenty-eighth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1689). During this period, the Tsar saw that the Kangxi Emperor was resolute, so he secretly instructed Golovin to destroy the defenses of Yaksa and withdraw all the Russian soldiers and civilians. However, in order to allow Russia to invade Heilongjiang in the future, the Russian side also had to ask the Kangxi Emperor that the Qing army could not garrison yaksa to fortify.
In June 1689, the Qing minister Soetu was ordered to go to Nebuchu to discuss the Sino-Russian border. The Russian envoys set out from Moscow in February 1686 and traveled for more than three years to reach Nebuchu. After a brief period of preparation, formal negotiations between China and Russia began on August 22, 1689. At the outset of the negotiations, Russia aggressively demanded the Heilongjiang River as its border. After hearing this, Soetu flatly refused, saying that he could only choose the border near the Onen River and Nebuchu. The two countries argued for a day, but neither could convince the other.
Golovin made concessions to the Tsar according to his original plan, proposing to use the Niuman River or the Jingqili River as the boundary. Soetu also made concessions after refusing, agreeing to let Nebuchu out. However, the insatiable Golovin was still not satisfied and wanted to grab greater benefits in the Qing Dynasty. He saw that Soetu's translator was a foreigner, so he wanted to buy the Jesuits and then work on the agreement. Unexpectedly, the Jesuits coldly refused Golovin's request, and the Russian conspiracy was once again in vain.
From August 24 to September 6, during the half month, the two countries made concessions and gradually became more and more agreed. On September 7, China and Russia signed the Treaty of Nebuchu, which stipulates that the two countries will be bounded by the Xing'an Mountains (i.e., the Stanov Mountains) to the sea, the Gelbizi River and the Erguna River. As long as it is the land near Lingnan, as long as it is a river flowing into Heilongjiang, it belongs to the Qing Dynasty. The land and rivers to the north, however, belonged to Russia. In the disputed Uddi River Basin, both sides agreed to discuss it later.
After the signing of the treaty, both China and Russia were very satisfied, which is also a rare equality treaty in modern China. From a legal point of view, the treaty demarcated the eastern border between China and Russia, so that the Heilongjiang region was spared from war and achieved relatively long-term stability. For more than 150 years, China and Russia have adhered to the treaty, and there has been no war in the Heilongjiang area.
Resources:
[Modern Chinese History: Chapter V: Foreign Relations, The Treaty of Nebuchu between China and Russia]