Efforts to sow discord slammed

China has urged certain individuals not to repeatedly hype up the so-called territorial issue between Beijing and Moscow, saying on April 11 that such rumors have no audience in either country and are doomed to fail.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian made the remark at a daily news briefing, following the publication of an article titled “China’s long game with Russia” by the United Statesbased news website The Hill, which speculated that China is nurturing a longer-term opportunity by staying close to

Russia through the Ukraine crisis.

The article claimed that Russia could then be motivated to “lease or even sell” large parts of the Russian Far East to China.

“The report is a replica of the ‘China threat theory’, which in essence aims to drive a wedge between China and Russia,” Zhao said.

China and Russia made it clear in their extended Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation last year that the boundary issue left over from history has been completely resolved and that neither side has any territorial claim against the other, he added.

Zhao chastised certain major Western countries for, on the one hand being “busy adding fuel to the fire, constantly creating new differences, while at the same time linking the Ukrainian crisis with Sino-Russian relations in an attempt to achieve their ulterior strategic goals”.

“This is not what a responsible major country should do, and we firmly oppose it,” he said.