China View: Who Will Wear More Kashmir?
Getty Images / Stringer
The region of Kashmir is a Himalayan territory that has been heavily contended between India, Pakistan, and China for the past six decades. Long inhabited by separatist groups hardly tolerating the internal political divisions suffered, the population-dense region of Kashmir constitutes a pivotal economic corridor between Pakistan and China.
When discussing Chinese Foreign Policy, Sino-Indian relations are often underestimated. Chinese international affairs are, indeed, often paired with Japanese, Korean, or Southeast Asian politics. Interestingly, issues between China and India - the largest, most prosperous, and densely populated powers in Asia - remain largely unexplored. The keyword “Kashmir,” is popular in India-Pakistan debates but, in fact, China might be far more involved in the region than what is officially claimed.
Even though one may not be familiar with Asian security dynamics, the name “Kashmir” is extensively renowned worldwide, due to a fiber produced from goats in that area: the cashmere. While it is true China’s industries really make the difference in the textile sector, cashmere might not be the reason China is interested in the Himalayan region at all.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is one of the most prominent projects planned as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), started in April 2015. This multi-billion program includes ambitious infrastructure projects to connect Pakistan and China. Regardless of the mixed opinions expressed on the topic claiming that most of the projects are still incomplete in 2020, it is certain this cooperation brought benefits to both these countries. The Karakoram Highway, the Gilgit Ancient Silk Road, and the multiple hydropower and coal stations across Pakistan are only some of the positive advantages emerging from the Sino-Pakistani friendship.
Looking at it through India’s perspective, however, this economic corridor might signify a violation of its sovereignty over Kashmir. Since August 2019, tensions escalated when China and Pakistan jointly brought this issue to the U.N. Security Council, condemning India’s decision to revoke the special administration status of the regions of Kashmir and Jammu. Being the international community nearly as divided as Kashmir itself on deciding what to do, it is unlikely either of these countries will gain unanimous ownership over those territories.
In reality, this question did not reach a feasible solution due to countries like the U.S. and France opposing China on the matter. Possibly, the U.N. assembly was more pragmatic on the issue, understanding the borders of India as the basic world map states them to be, but ignoring that there is indeed a greater humanitarian and security problem there. Another truth is that the U.N. is unlikely to take either the side of China or India, because their influence is considered extremely powerful in Central and East Asia, and giving consent to one country to accuse the other would spark serious conflict.
While the media tends to portray China’s strategies as questionable, it is true all of the involved actors do have valid reasons to claim territories inside Kashmir. India may believe Chinese attitudes are of expansionist nature but, regardless, it is still dominant in nearly half of Kashmir. Pakistan seems to remain stable in its administration of the Northern Areas and the co-protection of a share of the territories ceded to China in 1963. The object of litigation is now the eastern Aksai Chin area, militarily controlled by China. Following the fall of 2019, there has been a series of warnings made by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang, urging India to respect the historical legacy of China’s sovereignty over the region, because creating tensions at the border will “neither change the fact that the relevant region is under China's actual control nor produce any effect.”
China’s position on Kashmir is firm: China is there to stay, and it is willing to call on the international community if not permitted to. It is unlikely that either India or any other power external to Asia will support a military conflict on the matter. China and India agreed put future efforts in further diplomatic cooperation.
What of Kashmiris? They remain a voice that has not been heard so far, which China, Pakistan, and India should consider valuing more if they are interested in gaining credibility in the region. Military tensions have caused the dispersion and killings of thousands of goats, hurting Kashmir’s textile industry badly. At the same time loosening diplomatic grips on the region is not an easy option because India and China fear putting power in the hands of extreme Islamist groups that may seek to liberate Kashmir with violent methods.
This too is an important battle China has been fighting in the Western region of Xinjiang, populated by a Muslim majority and over which China attempts to maintain stable and severe control. As shown in a video by the South China Morning Post below, however, all that emerges about Kashmir is ghost-cities, public discontent, protests, and a heavy presence of the military. While one cannot have a clear idea of whether this war-like images truly embody the situation of every area in Kashmir, it surely raises a question to the international reader on whether this is an ideal condition anybody would want to live in. Kashmir deserves greater care and attention by all the countries that claim bits of it as Chinese, Indian, or Pakistani. If a polity identifies a territory as its own, then it should be responsible for its inhabitants.
