Syed Qamar Afzal Rizvi
CHINA has once again reiterated its principled stand on Kashmir during the recent visit of the Pakistani FM Shah Mehmood Quresh to Beijing. China’s galvanized stance has the logical support based on the Kashmir historical, legal and geopolitical dynamics. Obviously, Modi’s evil drive (August 5, 2019) of Kashmir’s status quo ante has motivated China to boldly but principally support Pakistan’s claim over the India-occupied Kashmir. “The Chinese side reiterated that Pakistan and China are iron brothers and Pakistan remains China’s staunchest partner in the region and that China firmly supports Pakistan in safeguarding its territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence, independently choosing a development path based on its national conditions, striving for a better external security environment and playing a more constructive role in international and regional affairs,” the joint communiqué read. The Chinese side reiterated that the Kashmir issue is a dispute left over from history between India and Pakistan, which is an objective fact, and that the dispute should be resolved peacefully and properly through the UN Charter, relevant Security Council resolutions and bilateral agreements. “China opposes any unilateral actions that complicate the situation.” “Given the massive investment that China has made in countries along the One Belt, One Road, China now has a vested interest in helping resolve regional conflicts including the dispute over Kashmir between India and Pakistan,” it said.
Kashmir is a deep-rooted and historic conflict between India and Pakistan. The rivalry between two nuclear South Asian states on this issue is increasing concerns for international peace and security. India and Pakistan fought three major wars and one major conflict over the issue. Now beyond these, this conflict overlaps with the security issue, ethnic conflict, human rights violations and nuclear proliferation in South Asia. United Nations has failed to implement its decision regarding the future of Kashmir. Though China is not a South Asian country, it has deep stakes in the South Asian region. China shares its border with Kashmir and one-fifth part of the territory is under its occupation. It adopted different policies on different times but one or another way it supported Pakistan. China supported Pakistan on different occasions and it shares some sentiments with Kashmiri people. In 2009, China adopted separate visa policy for India-occupied Kashmir but no policy was made regarding the people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. This thing shows that in the view of China, the Indian official viewpoint that Kashmir is an integral part of India is a direct rebuke. China invested billions of dollars on different energy and power generation projects in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and similarly in the Gilgit-Baltistan region. There is a clear-cut difference in China’s approach regarding both sides of Kashmir. China has refused to accept Indian control of Kashmir and considers it as disputed territory while on another side it is actively involved on Pakistan’s side and perceives this control as legitimate. In 1964, China’s PM Zhou Enlai visited Pakistan and declared support of China for the resolution of Kashmir dispute “in accordance with the wishes of people of Kashmir as pledged to them by India and Pakistan”. “The Chinese government has consistently held that the Kashmir question should be settled on the basis of respect for Kashmiri people’s right of self-determination, as pledged by India and Pakistan in 1948. That is what is meant by China’s non-involvement in the dispute between India and Pakistan. But non-involvement absolutely doesn’t mean failure to distinguish between right and wrong; it absolutely does not mean that China can approve of depriving the Kashmiri people of their right of self-determination”
And most significantly, Beijing is firmed to see progress on the Diamer Bhasha dam site, where construction has already begun and has recently signed two other agreements with Islamabad to develop hydroelectric power projects in Kashmir that will receive Chinese investment of up to $4 billion. Rightly, China considers Pakistan’s geostrategic position as highly pivotal for the CPEC. China’s fair intention is to economically help the stranded people of the Gilgit-Baltistan region on the one side while also enlarging the fruits of economic benefit to the stranded people of the Ladakh via its expanding CPEC trajectory. Obviously, because of the unresolved issue of India’s occupied Kashmir, the people of the region have become victim of poverty, illiteracy and disease. China’s CPEC is the best healing alternative for the people of this region. Clashes between India and Pakistan over the Line of Control in Kashmir, the de facto border between India and Pakistan-administered territories, have been so frequent that it is sometimes easy to overlook China’s role elsewhere in the region. But Beijing also has competing claims over parts of Kashmir and has contributed to long-running frictions. In recent years, however, it is the uneasy semi-détente between China and India over the Line of Actual Control—which separates Chinese-controlled territory from India-occupied Kashmir, and so-called McMahon Line on Kashmir’s northerly flank that has kept India-Pakistan tension in check. Because of Modi’s scrapping of Article 370, Buddhist Ladakh was then carved off from Jammu and Kashmir, and also given the status of a union territory, much to the delight of its residents, who had long demanded separation from troubled Kashmir. Ladakh region is especially complex, encircling Aksai Chin, a territory that is under China’s control since long. China began building a road through the area in 1956, linking Tibet to Xinjiang, and has occupied it since 1962.
Experts are justified in analysing that India’s stripping part of the disputed Kashmir region – which lies between India, Pakistan and China – of its autonomy on August 5, 2019, exacerbated existing tension with China and culminated in the deadliest clash between the Asian giants in more then 45 years. China took Modi’s unilateral move threatening its territorial sovereignty and condemned it at the United Nations. Pakistan has “strongly rejected” the Indian statement on Kashmir in reaction to the recent China-Pakistan Foreign Ministers’ Strategic Dialogue, terming the comments made by spokesperson of Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Anurag Srivastava “unwarranted and irresponsible”. “India’s self-serving claims regarding Jammu and Kashmir, including the parts which are under illegal Indian occupation, have no basis whatsoever, the statement declared.
—The writer, an independent ‘IR’ researcher-cum-international law analyst based in Pakistan, is member of European Consortium for Political Research Standing Group on IR, Critical Peace & Conflict Studies, also a member of Washington Foreign Law Society and European Society of International Law.
