Matrix Report
India has received a ‘polite’ dressing down from China for unilaterally changing the special status of Kashmir. “China opposes any unilateral action that complicates the regional situation and hopes India and Pakistan can resolve the disputes through peaceful methods,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a statement released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday.
The statement came after Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. In their meeting, the Indian minister “assured his Chinese counterpart that the Indian action won’t create new sovereignty claims and won’t change the Line of Control (LoC) in the Kashmir region.”
According to the statement, the Chinese foreign minister further said that his country was concerned about “the current Kashmir situation and the escalating India-Pakistan conflict”. Wang noted that the Indian move in Kashmir “will change the status quo of the disputed area and result in regional tensions”.
It seems that the Indian move has irked the Chinese government, especially because Wang Yi believes that “India’s move is neither valid to China nor will change the status quo that China exercises sovereignty and administrative jurisdiction over the territories involved”.
Yesterday, Chinese daily Global Times, in a strong-worded editorial, called India “reckless” for taking unilateral decisions on border issues. The editorial noted:
“New Delhi is too reckless on border issues. It keeps taking unilateral actions and breaking the status quo with an impact on the regional situation. Its actions challenge surrounding countries’ interests, but it wants these countries to swallow the provocation and accept the new facts made by India. It is highly sensitive in all countries to change an autonomous region, based on ethnicity or religion, into a centrally administered region. Kashmir is a disputed area in which three large India-Pakistan wars broke out in the 20th century. Pakistan is mostly impacted by India’s move. It is unimaginable if Pakistan does not take strong countermeasures”.
Experts on the region in China also believe that the Indian move in Kashmir is nothing but “nationalistic posturing”. Zhao Gancheng – director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies – says that “scraping Kashmir’s special status is just a carnival of nationalism. If the Indian government continues hyping this mood, it will become more and more radical and will surely backfire”. He further believes that “a radical and nationalistic India won’t be embraced by Asia, whereas India’s rise needs a peaceful neighbourhood, and provoking Pakistan is not a good way to solve it”.
On the other hand, criticism on the Indian decision from rights organisations around the world has also continued. In this regard, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) has asked India to “step back from Kashmir”. Meenakshi Ganguly, the South Asia Director for HRW, asked the Indian government to ensure justice and accountability for human rights abuses in Kashmir.
“Instead of continuing repressive restrictions, Indian authorities should ensure justice and accountability for human rights abuses, repeal abusive laws like the Public Safety Act or the Armed Forces Special Powers Act which gives government forces immunity from prosecution, end aggressive treatment of Kashmiris at checkpoints and during search operations”, wrote Ganguly on the HRW website.
