China on Thursday denied the presence of its troops in Gilgit-Baltistan, but voiced support to Islamabad's claims on the disputed region by describing it in a statement as “a northern part of Pakistan.”
India views the region as an integral part of Jammu and Kashmir that is under illegal occupation. China has, in the past, refrained from voicing its support to either Indian or Pakistani claims to the disputed region.
“The story that China has deployed its military in a northern part of Pakistan is totally groundless and out of ulterior motive,” the Foreign Ministry here said. “We believe the attempts of some people to fabricate stories to provoke China-Pakistan or China-India relations are doomed to fail.”
Asked if the reference to Gilgit-Baltistan as a “northern part of Pakistan” was an indication of Chinese support to Pakistan's sovereignty claims or whether it was unintended, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu only said China's position was “clear.”
“About the Kashmir issue, our position is we believe that it is an issue left over from history by India and Pakistan,” Ms. Jiang said. “As a neighbour and friend of both countries, China believes the issue should be left to the two countries to be properly handled through dialogue and negotiation.”
Indian officials, however, say China appears to be recalibrating its position on Kashmir. China is currently engaged in a number of infrastructure projects in the strategically significant region, which borders its Muslim-majority Xinjiang region.
Last month, China refused visa to Lt. Gen. B.S. Jaswal, chief of the Army's Northern Command. And, last year, China began issuing stapled visas to Indian citizens from Jammu and Kashmir. Asked if this suggested a change from China's earlier position, Ms. Jiang said: “Our visa policy towards Indian inhabitants from Kashmir is consistent and stays unchanged.”
She did not reply when asked what this policy was, and if Indian citizens from Kashmir indeed faced different visa rules.
Ms. Jiang also did not comment on why China refused visa to Lt. Gen. Jaswal, which Indian media reports said was because of China's position that Kashmir was disputed. She said: “After reading the report, we have checked with the competent authority. The relevant media report is not true.”
Chinese strategic analysts cautioned against “reading too much” into the visa denial, and said China's decades-old position on not interfering in Kashmir remained unchanged.
“I do not see any changes in China's policy,” Rong Ying, a senior South Asia scholar and vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS), an influential think-tank affiliated to the Foreign Ministry, told The Hindu .
“It does not make sense to single out a single visa case and relate it to China's policy on Kashmir, or even to the larger context of the overall relationship,” he said. “It is also important to remember that the relationship is now mature and developing overall and it can withstand one or two small incidents. Both governments are now quite positive about the relationship, so we should not play up too much one or two disagreements.”
