India’s ongoing crackdown on once-autonomous Kashmir has fueled a lot of
criticism from neighboring Pakistan, and unsurprisingly is also being
criticized by Pakistan’s closest regional ally, China.
China’s foreign ministry says that it wants to see India play a
constructive role in regional peace and stability, and not take
unilateral actions. These comments came as India’s FM flew to China to
meet his counterpart related to the upcoming UN Security Council matter.
Pakistan has promised to take the issue of India’s crackdown on Kashmir
to the UN Security Council, and is counting on China’s support. The
Indian government, however, is warning China to stay out of the matter, saying it should not allow any differences of opinion to become disputes.
That’s likely unavoidable, however, as Kashmir is a huge issue to the
Pakistanis, and anything that brings India and Pakistan into conflict
will also be a huge issue to China. The Chinese government may have less
direct interest in whether India respects constitutional autonomy for
Kashmir, but that area is right on their border, and they clearly don’t
want to see it flare up, either internally in Kashmir, or into a direct
India-Pakistan War.
