It's a Google Translate screenshot, of presumably a Russian-language source. Some of the previous ones have been Telegram channels, which cannot be embedded or linked.
I'm aware we can't access Telegram etc but some visual context or explainers would be ideal.
@inCloud when I embedd Twitter posts are you able to see those like the one below?
I'm not sure exactly what this person means by "widen the river" since the river doesn't appear nagivable further than a few miles. Some Googley mapping tells me that China and Russia have a
very strange border in this area. North Korea is to the south and west of the river, makes sense, and at the mouth of the river, Russia is to the north and east. But for several miles inland, China occupies a sliver of the shoreline, just wide enough for a couple tiny facilities and villages, and at one point the Russian border is only 250 feet away from the water, just enough space for the Chinese to fit a two-lane road.
That particularly tight spot looks like an area that China would want to widen to increase commerce, or traffic. They do appear to be doing
something with their shoreline,
building a stone levee near a few boat docks. The biggest ship there is about 100 feet long, the ones that look military-esque are about 45 feet long, and everything else appears to be small and construction-related or pleasure-related. There is a vacation resort area nearby. They're clearly trying to control the meandering and flooding of the river and ensure that area remains deep near the docks. That said, this river is probably only seasonally navigable at best and clearly varies in depth by a huge margin throughout the year so I wouldn't call it safe for any decent ocean-going vessel. Coastal CG boats and that about it.
As for this "widening", it makes the most sense to me for China to be requesting more land at that skinny spot in the border. Widening that spot would allow them to build a railroad track down to the docks which could be a lot more useful than the current two-land road. So that's, what, 10 acres of land? Not much, that's literally $100,000 here in Ohio. Downstream near where all their tips touch, Russia and NK have a railroad crossing and trade hub which is course doesn't involve China at all, and would become complicated if it did so I think it's unlikely that Russia is selling any land further torward the mouth of the river.
But they could be. Can't count it out because China's favorite thing is to built ridiculous and nonsensical construction projects with monopoly money.
Edit: To illustrate the wealth gap between these two countries - or two extremes of economic incompetence - while the Chinese have build a brand new paved road to this area which appears in excellent condition,
the Russians...didn't.
Edit 2: I take it back! The streetview data is old...
they've paved some of it!
www.cbsnews.com
