evidence: The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) 2023 "standard map" raised familiar protests with its long-invalidated claims to most of the South China Sea as well as the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and other disputed territory. An unexpected assertion of sovereignty over an island at the PRC’s Russian border, however, showed Beijing’s willingness to appropriate territory even from its closest partners. [...] In the days after the PRC’s release of its 2023 map, Russia rejected Beijing’s claim to all of Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island, reported Newsweek magazine. The island, known as Heixiazi, or Black Bear, in Chinese, sits at the confluence of two border rivers, the Ussuri and Amur. After more than a century of territorial dispute, Russia ceded roughly half of the island to the PRC in 2008. Moscow also abandoned its army base there and handed over nearby Tarabarov Island. The PRC agreed in return not to claim more territory from Russia, according to Newsweek. [...] After the PRC’s latest claim to the entire island, Russia’s foreign ministry stated that the issue was settled more than a decade ago and dismissed any suggestion of reopening the dispute, Newsweek reported.