| Summary: | Approved for public release; distribution unlimited. === Both China and the Russian Federation still claim rightful ownership of numerous small riverine islands which make up a portion of their long Far Eastern border. While the majority of the Russo-Chinese border disputes have been laid to rest, the disposition of these islands has prevented the two countries from completely finalizing a border agreement. The objectives of this thesis is to concentrate on the historical background of the border dispute, trends in current bilateral border talks, and to identify a potentially dangerous new ingredient which may dampen hopes for a successful new agreement--Chinese influx into the Russian Ear East. It is the hypothesis of this paper that both Russia and China, at the government to government level, will strive to maintain the status quo, but that on a local level, continued disagreement and intransigence on both sides will continue and prevent Russo-Chinese relations in the region from being normal and stable
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