FaujHistorian
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Hi. Some of you know my background from the initial introduction I made when I joined these forums. And those who did not read it, pretty much assumed my background from the name I've taken here. Something you may missed all the same, was that my background and the theater I was specifically deployed to was the South Asia Theater, specifically Afghanistan / Pakistan and India.
While I’ve been here, I've been struggling with what areas I go into, discuss openly without compromising privileged conversations and communications. Let's face it, even after retirement I'm obliged to keep silent on the very many interactions I've been honored to have as US State department employee.
There some areas I can speak to in broad strokes and I've been thinking that I should here. Forewarning- the nature of these forthcoming posts you may find very cryptic and opaque.
Having stated that - I would like to start introducing and hope to do this from time to time, posts that speak to this specific region and my experiences when dealing with the various diplomatic corps, think thanks and what I qualify as deeply ingrained and deeply experienced people with knowledge of this region.
Here is my snippet about China's stance on Kashmir. Much of this has been behind closed doors and you won't see it being discussed in the media often.
China is wary of the Kashmir issue and is trying to balance their act of being a good ally with Pakistan- when it comes to stating their support. Very rarely will you see China speak on Kashmir and support Pakistan’s position all out. Rather most for what you will official see is at best a tactic support.
The reason for this and what I've encountered is twofold:
On one end, China does not want to open the Pandora’s Box to then give any sort of legitimacy to groups in Taiwan, HK, Tibet and SCS. Can you imagine a plebiscite call or any U.N negotiations in those regions?
On the other end, they do not want to write off India. For China to be successful as far their global ambitions go, they truly need India to be their Canada, if not a somewhat prickly Mexico.
Feel free to discuss the merit of what I submitted, and I'll try to answer as much as can.
Welcome to the forum
and thanks for touching the raw nerve issue for both Pakistanis and Indians.
it got even more complicated by adding Chinese "spice" in it.
I explain this to my fellow Pakistanis, that we must quit this obsession with ICK (Indian Controlled Kashmir).
Let's focus on PCK and the rest of Pakistan and bring some peace to ourselves.
It is time to write off the losses and move on.
Because if we don't, we will continue losing more and more and more.
But I know there are my fellow countrymen who do not want to reap "peace-with-India-dividend".
This dividend is less of the stuff from India
and a lot more from the rest of the world.
Our fever pitched pitch forks on Kashmir have hurt us a lot more in terms of our international standings than anything else.
It is time to understand that our loss is a loss, and time to move on.
peace at home,
peace abroad
Peace to everyone
and Merry Christmas.