Russia-Ukraine War May Lead to China Taking Outer Manchuria Back from Russia

(Edit, March 17, 2022: Media reports of Japan observing additional Russian troop withdrawels by ship out of Vladivostok, further reducing Russian forces in Outer Manchuria)

Before I go on, please do not take this article as a prediction, but rather as a plausible hypothetical scenario.

On February 4, 2022, just prior to the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Winter Olympics, Vladimir Putin paid a personal visit to Chinese President Xi Jinping. This was seen in the West as being closely related to Russia’s military build-up along the Ukrainian border. We can now conclude that Putin was seeking certain reassurances from Xi Jinping that China would have Russia’s back at least to some extent regarding their impending action against Ukraine. But China may actually be playing a double game and raising a knife to Russia’s back instead.

Publicly the two autocratic world leaders proclaimed their tightening alliance in opposition to supposed aggression by the West against the “territorial integrity” of both Russia and China.

The logical analysis is that, through Xi Jinping’s eyes, Ukraine is to Russia what Taiwan is to China. Just as Putin believes that Ukraine is culturally, historically, and politically part of Russia, Xi believes that Taiwan is a…