The origins of the border date from the mid-19th century, when the Russian Empire expanded into Central Asia and was able to establish its control over the Lake Zaysan region. The establishment of the border between the Russian Empire and the Qing Empire, not too different from today's Sino-Kazakh/Kyrgyz/Tajik border was provided for in the Convention of Peking of 1860; the actual border line pursuant to the convention was drawn by the Treaty of Tarbagatai and the Treaty of Uliassuhai, leaving Lake Zaysan on the Russian side. The Qing Empire's military presence in the Irtysh basin crumbled during the Dungan revolt. After the fall of the rebellion and the reconquest of Xinjiang by Zuo Zongtang, the border between the Russian and the Qing empires in the Ili River basin was further slightly readjusted, in Russia's favour, by the Treaty of Saint Petersburg and a series of later protocols. In 1915 an agreement was signed more precisely delimiting the border the Ili Valley and Dzungarian Alatau region. The southern-most section of the frontier remained undemarcated, owing partly to the ongoing rivalry between Britain and Russia for dominance in Central Asia known as the Great Game; eventually the two agreed that Afghanistan would remain an independent buffer state between them, with Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor being created in 1895. China was not a party to these agreement and hence the southern-most section of the China-Russia boundary remained undefined. After the Xinhai Revolution and the Chinese Civil War in China and the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War in Russia, the Sino-Russian border became the PRC-USSR border. However, the Chinese and Soviet authorities were not always in agreement where the border line ran on the ground, which led, in particular to a border conflict east of Lake Zhalanashkol in August 1969. After Kazakhstan became an independent country, it negotiated a border treaty with China, which was signed in Almaty on April 26, 1994 and ratified by the President of Kazakhstan on June 15, 1995. According to the treaty, a narrow strip of hilly terrain east of Zhalanashkol which the USSR and China had contested in 1969 has become recognized as part of China. To delineate certain small sections of the border more precisely, additional agreements were signed on 24 September 1997 and 4 July 1998. Over the next several years, the border was demarcated on the ground by joint commissions. According to the commissions' protocols and maps, the two countries' border line is 1782.75 km long, including 1215.86 km of land border and 566.89 km of border line run along rivers or lakes. The commissions' work was documented by several joint protocols, finalized with the Protocol signed in Beijing on May 10, 2002. In 2011 a cross-border free trade area opened on the border at Khorgos in an effort to boost Chinese-Kazakh trade. The two countries' border protection authorities carry out regular meetings and on occasions even joint border patrols.
Historical maps of the China-Kazakh SSR border from north to south, mid & late 20th century: International Map of the World: Operational Navigation Chart: Tactical Pilotage Chart:
