Outer Manchuria

English

Etymology

From outer +‎ Manchuria.

The 21st century sense referring to territories ceded by China to Russia in the 19th century seems to have been popularized with the May 2004 creation of a Wikipedia article for Outer Manchuria; it may be an instance of citogenesis. The same article may also be the source of Inner Manchuria referring to Manchuria (all northeast China).

Proper noun

Outer Manchuria

1. (neologism) The part of Russia near northeastern China (including Primorsky Krai and other nearby areas) which was annexed by the Russian Empire in the mid 19th century understood as part of Manchuria; similar or equivalent to Russian Manchuria.
   • 2009, Christopher Meyer, Getting Our Way: 500 Years of Adventure and Intrigue: The Inside Story of British Diplomacy‎, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, page 181:

     In particular, Elliot found himself confronted by a redoubtable opponent in Count Nikolai Pavlovich Ignatyev, the Russian Ambassador to the Sublime Porte. Ignatyev was cunning, agile and bold. He had had adventures aplenty and narrow escapes in Central Asia, where he had sought to build Russian influence. A particularly nimble piece of diplomacy had led to his acquiring Outer Manchuria from the Chinese Emperor.

   • 2010, John Vaillant, “Markov”, in The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival‎ (Adventure/Nature), →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 59:

     Two years later, Czar Alexander II went a step further and coerced the Chinese into signing the Treaty of Peking, thereby adding another slice of Outer Manchuria—what is now Primorye and southern Khabarovsk Territory—to the Russian empire. In the mid-1960s, it seemed as if Mao might try to get them back.

   • 2011, Henry Kissinger, “From Preeminence to Decline”, in On China‎, New York: Penguin Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 68:

     For these services Moscow exacted a staggering territorial price: a broad swath of territory in so-called Outer Manchuria along the Pacific coast, including the port city now called Vladivostok.¹⁴ In a stroke, Russia had gained a major new naval base, a foothold in the Sea of Japan, and 350,000 square miles of territory once considered Chinese.

   • 2012 February 21, Frank Jacobs, “Manchurian Trivia”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-07-29, Opinion Pages‎:

     Russian settlers took possession of the fringes of the Chinese world, de facto annexations that were ratified by a series of “unequal treaties” [8], the Treaty of Aigun of 1858 and the Russo-Chinese Convention of Peking of 1860, which established the easternmost part of the present-day border between China and Russia [9].

     Establishing what is now known as Russia’s Far East but is still referred to by some in China as Outer Manchuria. Basically, the Russian territory south of the Stanovoy Mountains, a 500-mile-long range that forms the watershed between the Arctic and Pacific Oceans and that until 1858 constituted the border between Russia and China.

   • 2019 February, Angela E. Stent, Putin's World: Russia Against the West and with the Rest‎, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page :

     After praising the border agreement, Deng led the Soviet foreign minister into a room where a map of China lay on the table. The map showed Outer Manchuria, which forms the Russian Primorsky Krai province, as Chinese, not Russian, territory.

   • 2023 April 12, John Bolton, “A New American Grand Strategy to Counter Russia and China”, in The Wall Street Journal‎, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 29 April 2023, Opinion:

     Third, after Ukraine wins its war with Russia, we must aim to split the Russia-China axis. Moscow’s defeat could unseat Mr. Putin’s regime. What comes next is a government of unknowable composition. New Russian leaders may or may not look to the West rather than Beijing, and might be so weak that the Russian Federation’s fragmentation, especially east of the Urals, isn’t inconceivable. Beijing is undoubtedly eyeing this vast territory, which potentially contains incalculable mineral wealth. Significant portions of this region were under Chinese sovereignty until the 1860 Treaty of Peking transferred “outer Manchuria,” including extensive Pacific coast lands, to Moscow. Russia’s uncontrolled dissolution could provide China direct access to the Arctic, including even the Bering Strait, facing Alaska.

   • 2023 April 20, Alexander Etkind, “Putin Is Opening A Door For China”, in Noema Magazine‎, archived from the original on 2023-04-20, Geopolitics & Globalization‎:

     China did eventually regain Harbin and, much later in 1997, Hong Kong. However, big parts of Manchuria, which China lost along with Hong Kong, still belong to Russia. Outer Manchuria, as the Russia-controlled region is known, has great strategic value, abundant natural resources and game-changing potential. Important cities and military harbors were built on these lands. But in Russian hands, this gigantic area of almost 400,000 square miles — roughly equivalent to a tenth of China — remains underpopulated and underdeveloped.
     In 2016, shortly after the annexation of Crimea, the Russian government issued a law that encouraged settlement in the Far East, including Outer Manchuria, promising each adventurous migrant a hectare (0.4 acres) for free.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Outer Manchuria.
2. (literal) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see outer,‎ Manchuria (a region of northeast China/Manchuria)
   • 1998, Working Paper‎, numbers 267-274, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 27:

     Zhang Xinxin was born in 1953 in Nanjing, but not long after her birth, her family moved to Beijing. Like many urban youth of her generation, she was sent to a military farm in the Great Northern Wilderness of outer Manchuria to accept education from farmers and soldiers during the Cultural Revolution in 1969. In 1979, at age twenty-six, she passed the college entrance exam and entered the Central Academy of Drama.

   • 2011, Joseph S. Nye, Jr., David A. Welch, “The Cold War”, in Understanding Global Conflict and Cooperation: An Introduction to Theory and History‎, 8th edition, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 139:

     East Asia was a fourth issue. The Soviets were neutral in the Pacific until the last week of the war. Then the Soviets declared war, seizing from Japan Outer Manchuria, southern Sakhalin Island, and the entire Kurile Island chain. At Potsdam, the Soviets asked for an occupation zone in Japan, like the American occupation zone in Germany.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Outer Manchuria.
3. (figurative) Any proverbially distant or remote place.

   Synonyms: Outer Mongolia, Timbuktu

   • 2010 [2009], Andreï Makine, translated by Geoffrey Strachan, The Life of an Unknown Man: A Novel‎, Graywolf Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 24:

     "Fine. Give me your manuscript and in an hour I’ll come back with forty copies. You can sign the first one for your Australian neighbor, and he’ll wedge open his skylight with it. You’ve got the wrong period, Ivan! These days the most popular man in France is a footballer, not a poet . . ."
     "In some countries that period survives!"
     "Really? In Outer Manchuria, I suppose."
     "No. In Russia . . ."

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Outer Manchuria.

Usage notes

In 21st century usage in English, the term Outer Manchuria most often refers specifically to territories ceded by the Qing Dynasty (Manchu) to the Russian Empire in 1858 and 1860. This sense is closely associated with discussions of irredentism. However, in 20th century usage, Outer Manchuria or outer Manchuria refers to remote parts of Manchuria or northeast China in a more general sense. Additionally, Outer Manchuria can be used in a figurative sense like Timbuktu to refer to a proverbially remote location.

Coordinate terms

• Inner Manchuria

Related terms

• South Manchuria

Translations

See also

• Russian Manchuria

References