China to take Russian land?

There is a blunt Chinese phrase that explains the contradiction better than any white paper: 吃软怕硬 — bully the weak, fear the strong.

China lost vast territories to Russia. Entire regions, ports, and coastlines were signed away through unequal treaties. Yet this chapter of history is treated as closed, untouchable, and rarely mentioned.

At the same time, Taiwan is framed as the ultimate national obsession. Daily rhetoric. Endless threats. A moral emergency manufactured around an island that was never annexed by Russia and was not the source of China’s greatest territorial losses.

The reason is not history. It is risk.

Russia is hard power. Nuclear armed, militarily equal, unpredictable if cornered. Confronting Moscow carries real consequences. So the humiliation is quietly swallowed and rebranded as “strategic partnership.” Also, Russia leadership hardline attitude makes US and Taiwan like child’s play as Russia will actually do what they say.

Taiwan is different. Smaller. Diplomatically constrained. Constantly framed as an internal issue. It is a target that can be pressured without immediate retaliation, turned into spectacle without inviting annihilation.

The irony is uncomfortable.
China was genuinely bullied and carved up by Tsarist Russia.
But today, it channels that unresolved grievance downward instead of upward.

This is why China will only take the smaller territories from Russia when it breaks up.

This is not confidence.
It is selective courage.

When nationalism only points toward weaker opponents, it stops being justice and becomes convenience.

吃软怕硬 is not strategy.
It is what cowardice looks like when dressed up as strength.