The China–Kazakhstan border (; zh, s=中哈边界, p=Zhōnghā biānjiè; ), also known as the Sino-Kazakh border, is the international border between the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and the

Republic of Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

. The border line between the two countries has been largely inherited from the border existing between the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and the PRC and, earlier, between the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

and the

Qing Empire The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

; however, it has been fully demarcated only in the late 20th and early 21st century. According to the international boundary commissions that have carried out the border demarcation, the border is long.

History

China-Russia border - protocol of Chuguchak 1864

The origins of the border date from the mid-19th century, when the

expanded into Central Asia and was able to establish its control over the

Lake Zaysan Lake Zaysan or Zaisan, also known by other names in other languages, is a freshwater lake in Tarbagatay District, East Kazakhstan Region, Kazakhstan. It is the largest lake in the region. The lake is generally frozen from the beginning of Nove ...

region. The establishment of the border between the Russian Empire and the

, not too different from today's Sino-Kazakh/Kyrgyz/Tajik border was provided for in the

Convention of Peking The Convention of Peking or First Convention of Peking is an agreement comprising three distinct unequal treaties concluded between the Qing dynasty of China and Great Britain, France, and the Russian Empire in 1860. Background On 18 October ...

of 1860; the actual border line pursuant to the convention was drawn by the

Treaty of Tarbagatai The Treaty of Tarbagatai () or Treaty of Chuguchak () of was a border protocol between Qing dynasty, Qing China and the Russian Empire that defined most of the western extent of their border in central Asia, between Outer Mongolia and the Khanate ...

(1864) and the Treaty of Uliassuhai (1870), leaving Lake Zaysan on the Russian side. The Qing Empire's military presence in the Irtysh basin crumbled during the

Dungan revolt (1862–77) Dungan revolt may refer to: * Dungan Revolt (1862–1877) The Dungan Revolt (1862–1877), also known as the Tongzhi Hui Revolt (, Xiao'erjing: تُ‌جِ خُوِ لُوًا, ) or Hui (Muslim) Minorities War, was a war fought in 19th-centur ...

. After the fall of the rebellion and the reconquest of Xinjiang by

Zuo Zongtang Zuo Zongtang (左宗棠, Xiang Chinese: ; Wade-Giles spelling: Tso Tsung-t'ang; November 10, 1812 – September 5, 1885), sometimes referred to as General Tso, was a Chinese statesman and army officer of the late Qing dynasty. Born in Xian ...

, the border between the Russian and the Qing empires in the

Ili River The Ili River (, , ; ; ; zh, 伊犁河, ; , ; , ) is a river in Northwest China and Southeastern Kazakhstan. It flows from the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region to the Almaty Region in Kazakhstan. It ...

basin was further slightly readjusted, in Russia's favour, by the

Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881) The Treaty of Saint Petersburg or Treaty of Ili was an unequal treaty between the Russian Empire and the Qing dynasty that was signed in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on . It provided for the return to China of the eastern part of the Ili River, Ili ...

and a series of later protocols. In 1915 an agreement was signed more precisely delimiting the border in the Ili Valley and

Dzungarian Alatau The Dzungarian Alatau (, ''Züüngaryn Alatau''; ; , ''Jetısu Alatauy''; , ''Dzhungarskiy Alatau'') is a mountain range that lies on the boundary of the Dzungaria region of China and the Jetisu, Zhetysu region of Kazakhstan. It has a length of ...

region. The southernmost section of the frontier (i.e. roughly the southern half of the modern

China–Tajikistan border The China–Tajikistan border is in length and runs from the tripoint with Kyrgyzstan following a roughly north–south line across various mountain ridges and peaks of the Pamir range down to the tripoint with Afghanistan. The border divides ...

) remained undemarcated, owing partly to the ongoing rivalry between Britain and Russia for dominance in Central Asia known as the

Great Game The Great Game was a rivalry between the 19th-century British Empire, British and Russian Empire, Russian empires over influence in Central Asia, primarily in Emirate of Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Qajar Iran, Persia, and Tibet. The two colonia ...

; eventually the two agreed that

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

would remain an independent

buffer state A buffer state is a country geographically lying between two rival or potentially hostile great powers. Its existence can sometimes be thought to prevent conflict between them. A buffer state is sometimes a mutually agreed upon area lying between t ...

between them, with Afghanistan's

Wakhan Corridor The Wakhan Corridor (; ) is a narrow strip of territory in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. This corridor stretches eastward, connecting Afghanistan to Xinjiang, China. It also separates the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajiki ...

being created in 1895. China was not a party to these agreement and hence the southernmost section of the China-Russia boundary remained undefined. After the

Xinhai Revolution The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC). The revolution was the culmination of a decade ...

and the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government, government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued intermitt ...

in China and the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

and the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

in Russia, the Sino-Russian border became the PRC-USSR border. During

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

collectivization Collective farming and communal farming are various types of "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member- ...

and

sedentarization In anthropology, sedentism (sometimes called sedentariness; compare sedentarism) is the practice of living in one place for a long time. As of , the large majority of people belong to sedentary cultures. In evolutionary anthropology and arch ...

policies beginning with the

First Five-Year Plan First five-year plan may refer to: * First five-year plan (China) * First Five-Year Plans (Pakistan) * First five-year plan (Soviet Union) The first five-year plan (, ) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was a list of economi ...

and resulting in the Kazakh famine, large numbers of nomads from

Soviet Central Asia Soviet Central Asia () was the part of Central Asia administered by the Russian SFSR and then the Soviet Union between 1918 and 1991, when the Central Asian Soviet republics declared independence. It is nearly synonymous with Russian Turkest ...

fled across the border to Xinjiang. However, the Chinese and Soviet authorities were not always in agreement where the border line ran on the ground, which led, in particular to a

border conflict Borders are generally defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

east of

Lake Zhalanashkol Lake Zhalanashkol (, literally "Bare Lake", or "Exposed Lake"; ) is a freshwater lake in the eastern part of Kazakhstan, on the border of Almaty Province (Alakol District) and East Kazakhstan Province (Urzhar District). It is the smallest out of ...

in August 1969. After Kazakhstan became an independent country, it negotiated a border treaty with China, which was signed in

Almaty Almaty, formerly Alma-Ata, is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population exceeding two million residents within its metropolitan area. Located in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains ...

on April 26, 1994, and ratified by Kazakh President

Nursultan Nazarbayev Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev (born 6 July 1940) is a Kazakhstani politician who served as the first president of Kazakhstan from 1991 to 2019. He also held the special title of Elbasy from 2010 to 2022 and chairman of the Security Council of ...

on June 15, 1995. According to the treaty, a narrow strip of hilly terrain east of

which the USSR and China had contested in 1969 has become recognized as part of China. To delineate certain small sections of the border more precisely, additional agreements were signed on 24 September 1997 and 4 July 1998.О ратификации Протокола между Правительством Республики Казахстан и Правительством Китайской Народной Республики о демаркации линии казахстанско-китайской государственной границы. Закон Республики Казахстан от 4 июля 2003 года, N 469
("On the ratification of the Protocol agreed by the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the demarcation of the line of the Kazakhstan-China international border. Law No. 469 of the Republic of Kazakhstan. July 4, 2003") Over the next several years, the border was demarcated on the ground by joint commissions. According to the commissions' protocols and maps, the two countries' border line is 1782.75 km long, including 1215.86 km of land border and 566.89 km of border line run along (or across) rivers or lakes. The commissions' work was documented by several joint protocols, finalized with the Protocol signed in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

on May 10, 2002. The agreements are not recognized by the

government of the Republic of China The Government of the Republic of China is the central government, national authority whose actual-controlled territory consists of Taiwan (island), main island of Taiwan (Formosa), Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu Islands, Matsu, and list of islands of ...

on Taiwan. In 2011 a cross-border free trade area opened on the border at

Khorgos Khorgos (from ; zh, s=霍尔果斯), officially known as KorgasThe official spelling according to , (Beijing, ''SinoMaps Press'' 1997); ( Kazakh: ; ), is a county-level city in Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, China. It straddles ...

in an effort to boost Chinese-Kazakh trade.

Border crossings

* Maikapchagai (KAZ) –

Jeminay Jeminay County or Jimunai County, is a county situated in the north of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and is under the administration of the Altay Prefecture. A road border crossing into Kazakhstan is located in Jeminay town. The Kazakh se ...

(CHN) (road:M-38,S319) * Bakhty (KAZ) –

Tacheng TachengThe official spelling according to (), also known as Tarbagatay, Chuguchak or Qoqek, is a county-level city and the administrative seat of Tacheng Prefecture, in northern Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang. The Chinese name "Tach ...

(CHN) (road:A-356,S221) *

Dostyk Dostyk (, ''Dostyq'') or Druzhba () is a small town in Kazakhstan's Jetisu Region, on the border with Xinjiang, China. It is a port of entry (by highway and railroad) from China. The rail portion serves as an important link in the Eurasian L ...

(KAZ) –

Alashankou Alashankou is a border city in Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. It is a port of entry by both railroad and highway from Kazakhstan as part of the Eurasian Land Bridge. Overview The city is located ...

(CHN) (road: E014, G3018 / rail: Northern Xinjiang railway) * Khorgos (KAZ) –

Khorgas Khorgos (from ; zh, s=霍尔果斯), officially known as KorgasThe official spelling according to , (Beijing, '' SinoMaps Press'' 1997); ( Kazakh: ; ), is a county-level city in Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, China. It straddl ...

(CHN) (road: E012, G30 / rail: Jinghe–Yining–Khorgos railway) * Kolzhat (KAZ) – Dulata (CHN) (road:A-352,S313)

Settlements near the border

China

* Huocheng *

Kazakhstan

* Alekseyeva * Taunchang * Akshoky * Bakhty *

* Almaly * Khorgos * Kolzhat * Sarybastau * Sumbe *

Narynkol Narynkol (, ''Narynqol'') is a village in Raiymbek District of Almaty Region of Kazakhstan. It is the administrative center of Narynkol rural district. Narynkol is located near the border with China, about 82 km east-south-east (ESE) from Kegen ...

Historical maps

Historical maps of the China-

Kazakh SSR The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Kazakhstan, the Kazakh SSR, KSSR, or simply Kazakhstan, was one of the transcontinental constituent republics of the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1936 to 1991. Located in northern Centr ...

border from north to south (west to east), mid & late 20th century:

International Map of the World The International Map of the World (IMW; also the Millionth Map of the World, after its scale of 1:1000000) was a project to create a complete map of the world according to internationally agreed standards. It was first proposed by the German g ...

: File:Txu-oclc-6654394-nm-45-3rd-ed.jpg, near Altai Town File:Txu-oclc-6654394-nl-45.jpg, near

Altay City Altay or Aletai is a county-level city in Altay Prefecture within Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, in far Northern Xinjiang, China. The city centre is located on the banks of Kelan River. Administrative divisions Altay City is divided into ...

File:Txu-oclc-6654394-nl-44-2nd-ed.jpg, near

Zharkent Jarkent (; ) is a city which serves as the administrative center of Panfilov District in Jetisu Region, southeastern Kazakhstan. It is located near the Usek River, not far from the Ili River. It is also right by the border with Xinjiang, China. T ...

File:A-k`o-su NK-44 (1950) - panoramio.jpg, near

Aksu City Aksu (, ; zh, s=阿克苏, p=Ākèsū) is a city in and the seat of Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang, lying at the northern edge of the Tarim Basin. The name Aksu literally means "white water" (in Turkic) and is used for both the oasis town and the ...

Operational Navigation Chart: File:Operational Navigation Chart E-6, 7th edition.jpg, near

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

(modern-day Russia) File:Operational Navigation Chart F-7, 4th edition.jpg, File:Operational Navigation Chart F-6, 6th edition.jpg, near

Kirghiz SSR The Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic (Kirghiz SSR), also known as the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic (Kyrgyz SSR), KySSR or Kirgiz Soviet Socialist Republic (Kirgiz SSR), was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1 ...

(modern-day Kyrgyzstan) Tactical Pilotage Chart: File:Txu-pclmaps-oclc-22834566 e-6c.jpg, File:Txu-pclmaps-oclc-22834566 f-7a.jpg, File:Txu-pclmaps-oclc-22834566 f-6b.jpg, File:Txu-pclmaps-oclc-22834566 f-6c.jpg,

References

External links

中哈边界
(China–Kazakhstan border); shows detailed maps of border lines claimed by China and USSR/Kazakhstan, and the final treaty border {{DEFAULTSORT:China-Kazakhstan Border

border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

Borders of China Borders of Kazakhstan International borders

History

Border crossings

Settlements near the border

China

Kazakhstan

Historical maps

See also

References

External links