Ili crisis, (1871–1881),
dispute between
Russia and
China over the Chinese region centred on the
Ili (Yili) River, an area in the northern part of Chinese
Turkistan , near Russian Turkistan.
The Russian troops used China's internal social disorders as an excuse to occupy the territory in July 1871, claiming that they were attempting to protect their citizens from Muslim raids and would
withdraw as soon as the Chinese reestablished order.
In 1879 China sent a delegation to
St. Petersburg to ask the Russians to evacuate the territory. The mission head,
Chonghou, had no knowledge of the geography of the region, and he was duped into signing the
Treaty of Livadia (October 1879), which returned Ili in name but actually allowed almost three-quarters of it to remain in Russian hands. In addition, the Russians were given the right to establish consulates in seven key places and were promised an indemnity of 5,000,000 rubles.
Upon learning of the treaty, the astonished Chinese government immediately imprisoned Chonghou and sentenced him to decapitation. Zuo poised his troops for attack while the Russian fleet demonstrated off the Chinese coast, and the situation became very tense. Neither country really wanted war. Chonghou’s life was spared after the intervention of a group of Western diplomats, and a second mission was sent to St. Petersburg to negotiate. Under the
Treaty of St. Petersburg (February 1881), almost all of Ili was returned to China, and the Russian consulates in the area were reduced to two, but China was made to pay an indemnity of 9,000,000 rubles.
Following the settlement, the region was in 1884 incorporated into China's province of
Xinjiang (now the Uygur
Autonomous Region of Xinjiang). Of more immediate importance, the victory encouraged the rise of a militant faction within the Chinese government, which was partially responsible for China’s embroilment in the
Sino-French War (1883–85) over Vietnam.
