China Asserts J & K is Part of Pakistan
Friday, 14 January 2011 22:57
China, which used to advise Pakistan to sideline the Kashmir dispute, has since had a radical change in its policy. China believes that courting China has not prevented Indian acquiescence to US policy of containment of China. It is confidant that diplomatic self-assertion, and taking a tough stand on issues with India, is more likely to breech the ring around China that the USA is trying to build. This new policy of self assertion became evident in a recent report in the Chinese media which states that Sino-Indian border is 2,000 kilometers long. This is about 1,500 km shorter than what India claims. This has caused alarm among Indias policy makers.
The discrepancy; of 1,500 km is a clear pointer to Beijing's position, not only on its boundary dispute with India but also on Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). While India holds about 45% of J&K territory and Pakistan controls 35%, China occupies about 20% which includes Aksai Chin. An official briefing by China's Assistant Foreign Minister Hu Zhengyue on the eve of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao's recent visit to India triggered the alarm. He said, "China and India share a 2,000-km-long border that has never been formally demarcated." India has held that Sino Indian border is 3,488 km long.
The different positions were made even more explicit by the Global Times, an English-language newspaper published by the People's Daily, the official mouthpiece of the ruling Chinese Communist Party. In an interview with Global Times, India's ambassador to China, spoke of the "long common border of 3,488 kilometers" between the two countries. But a comment by the editors of Global Times in parentheses said: "There is no settled length of the common border. The Chinese government often refers to the border length as being 'about 2,000 kilometers'."
The 1,500 km difference is the length of border between China and India Held part of J&K. China no longer treats approximately 1,500 km long border separating Jammu and Kashmir from Xinjiang and Tibet to be its border with India. Beijing refuses to discuss the delineation of this border with India. It is seeking to exclude from discussion with India the western sector of the boundary. The western sector includes Aksai Chin which is a part of Tibet which India tried to capture in 1962 but gave up after suffering a humiliating defeat.
China has become increasingly assertive in its questioning of India's occupation of J&K. Since 2008, it has been issuing visas on a separate sheet of paper to residents of Jammu and Kashmir rather than stamping the visa in their Indian passports. In August last year, China also denied a visa to Lieut. General B S Jaswal - commander of the Indian army's Northern Command, which includes Kashmir - for an official visit to China, on the grounds that he "controlled" a "disputed area". This month the Chinese troops crossed into India occupied Laddakh area near Leh to stop a contractor building a shed in the area. The Indian media reported the provocation but the India Government did not react.
Over the past year, Beijing has been reaching out to the Hurriyat Conference, an umbrella for Kashmiri organisation fighting for securing their right of self-determination. In March 2010, Chinese Foreign Affairs director Ying Gang met with Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in Geneva on the sidelines of the 13th session of the UN Human Rights Council. Besides questioning India's sovereignty over Kashmir, China has been endorsing Islamabad's stand on Jammu & Kashmir.
Gilgit and Baltistan in North Pakistan, which has a long border with China, is now administered directly by the Government of Pakistan. China is involved in the construction of several infrastructure projects, including roads, hydroelectric power projects, dams, expressways, bridges and telecommunication facilities. During the visit of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to Pakistan, the two countries signed a US $275 million agreement for repair and expansion of the Karakoram Highway. Earlier in September, Beijing underlined its support to Islamabad's integration of Gilgit-Baltistan when it described the Northern Areas as northern part of Pakistan".
The India-Pakistan dispute over Kashmir predates the People's Republic of China (PRC). India and Pakistan had already fought their first war over Kashmir when the PRC came into being. Initially, China took its cues from the Soviet Union and described the conflict as a Western creation and maintained that the US and Britain were hoping to make Kashmir a Western base.
China took a "neutral position" in the 1950s. It opposed foreign arbitration on the Kashmir, which pleased India. At the same time, it did not endorse Delhi's claims over Kashmir. The USSR, however, supported the Indian stand that Jammu and Kashmir was an inalienable part of the Republic of India". China adopted a more "neutral position" until Sino-Indian relations deteriorated from 1959 onwards. China signed a border agreement with Pakistan which dealt with areas that constituted Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The agreement amounted to a de facto Chinese recognition of Pakistan's control over this area. A joint communiqué issued at the end of Prime Minister Zhou Enlai's visit to Pakistan in February 1964 was a strong endorsement of the Pakistani position. It urged a solution of the dispute "in accordance with the wishes of the people of Kashmir".
By the mid/late 1970s, after Pakistans defeat in 1971 Indo-Pakistan War, China began advocating a status quo on Kashmir. Support for the Kashmiris' right to self-determination was toned down. In 1976, in his speech before the UN General Assembly, Chinese foreign minister Chia Kuan-Hua omitted naming Kashmir in a list of territories where the right to self-determination had not been exercised. It is believed that China's own troubles with separatism and improving ties with India prompted its shrinking support for self-determination.
With Sino-Indian rapprochement gathering momentum in the 1990s, China began describing Kashmir as a bilateral matter to be resolved by India and Pakistan through peaceful means. On his visit to India in 1996, President Ziang Zemin called on India and Pakistan to set aside contentious issues and build a cooperative relationship. During the brief Kargil conflict in 1999, China called on India and Pakistan to respect the Line of Control that separates Pakistani- and Indian-administered Kashmir. These were seen as signs of Beijing taking a neutral position on Kashmir again.
China has never accepted India's sovereignty over Jammu and Kashmir, not only because it wants to support Pakistans claim but also because it would make 43,180 square kilometers of area Aksai Chin a disputed territory. China has avoided provoking tension with India in the past but that has changed in recent years. China spares no opportunity to underline that Jammu & Kashmir is not a part of India and supports Pakistans stand.
India has since articulated its response. A few months ago, in his talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, India's External Affairs Minister S M Krishna did some tough talking. According to officials quoted by the Hindu, Krishna told Yang that just as India had been sensitive to its concerns over Tibet and Taiwan, Beijing too should be mindful of Indian sensitivities on Jammu and Kashmir. The message that India is sending is that if China questions India's sovereignty over Kashmir, India will question Beijing's sovereignty over Tibet and Taiwan.
Krishna's warning was followed up by diplomatic manoeuvres. The joint communiqué issued at the end of Wen's visit to India made no reference to India's commitment to a "one china policy". This is the first time since 1988 that a summit-level joint communiqué has made no mention of the policy. Instead, both sides agreed to show "mutual respect and sensitivity for each other's concerns and aspirations".
While India and China are flexing their diplomatic muscle over Kashmir, Pakistan is strangely reticent almost ignoring the strongest ever civil uprising in the Kashmir Valley against Indian occupation. The question upper most in the minds of Kashmiri Muslims is: is the indifference of Pakistan and rise in diplomatic activity by China in support of Kashmiri struggle for liberation good for the prospects of self-determination in Jammu and Kashmir? I am of the view, it is!
The situation arising in Jammu and Kashmir is similar but opposite to that of Pakistan in 1970-71 Indo-Pakistan War. India would invade Pakistan if the insurrection in Kashmir became unmanageably intense. A full fledged insurrectional war would follow which would be short; it would be followed an all out war that would be even shorter. The reason for my optimism is that the civil insurrection in East Pakistan was almost entirely organised by Indian intelligence agency RAW and could barely be sustained for about one year whereas Kashmiri quest for Azadi is genuine which has been sustained over more than twenty years. That is why even the Weekly Economist of the UK pointed out in an article on Kashmir that the recent lull in the intensity of intifada in Kashmir should not bee seen as a success by India; it indicates that such radicalisation is in the offing that will transform the battlefield of Kashmir to resemble that of Afghanistan.
Pakistan has no more influence or control over the radical forces now being born in Kashmir than over the Taliban of Afghanistan. That is why Pakistans official policy does not matter; what matters is that the people of Pakistan support their Kashmiri brethren and they can and will deliver their support whatever the policy of the Government. But the Kashmiris do need an effective supporter in international diplomacy. China is infinitely more effective as their supporter than Pakistan. More important, India could respond to the battlefield of Kashmir being transformed into one like that of Afghanistan by invading Pakistan as it did in 1965 Indo Pakistan War. However, if China emerges as the chief patron of the Kashmiri struggle for self-determination, invasion of China by India would not be viable option.
China Asserts J & K is Part of Pakistan
