evidence: The island is divided in almost equal sections between Russia and China. The Soviet Union occupied the whole of Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island (known as Heixiazi, or Black Bear, in Chinese) following the so-called Chinese Eastern Railway Incident of 1929, but in an historic agreement between Russia and China signed in 2004, Moscow agreed to return about half of it. The transfer took place in 2008. Since then the island in the Ussuri has become a miniature symbol of the vast Asian regions divided between the two geopolitical giants. [...] In fact, the decision to transfer half of the island to China originally met with heavy protests. Members of the Khabarovsk City Council insisted that Bolshoy Ussuriysky was of vital importance to defend the city in case of Chinese aggression. In 2005 tens of thousand of signatures against the transfer were quickly collected and sent to Moscow, but the decision had been taken.