China prepared to meddle in Kashmir to protect its overseas investments in the country, says state-run Global Times
Amid ongoing tensions between Indian and Pakistan over the Jammu and Kashmir issue, a Chinese daily on Tuesday said that the country was prepared to interfere in the valley to protect its 'massive investment.'
The remark comes despite India's objections to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which passes through Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (POK).
"Given the massive investment that China has made in countries along the One Belt, One Road, it now has a vested interest in helping resolve regional conflicts including the dispute over Kashmir between India and Pakistan," said the state-run Global Times on Tuesday.
The multi-billion 'One Belt, One Road' initiative is the official name of the Silk Road or the Belt and Road project.
India has protested against China's over $46-billion CPEC, which connects western China's restive Xinjiang region with Pakistan's southern port of Gwadar through the PoK, and has reservations over the Maritime Silk Road as it impacts the Indian Ocean which is important to India's security interests.
Further stating that China has always adhered to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, the daily said, "It doesn't mean Beijing can turn a deaf ear to the demands of Chinese enterprises in protecting their overseas investments."
The daily also said that China has been at the centre of a regional power shift, thus the country now needs to learn how to act as a stabilising force and conflict mediator in the region and needs to be very prudent in dealing with other big powers in the region, including India.
"Mediating between India and Pakistan over Kashmir issue would perhaps be one of the toughest challenges facing China in dealing with regional affairs to safeguard its overseas interests," the report said.
Earlier in January, Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar had said that the CPEC passes through a territory that we see as our territory.
Bilateral ties with China have been clouded with Beijing repeatedly blocking New Delhi's move to gain membership to the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), and the move for a UN ban on Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, who India accuses of being behind the terror attack on the Pathankot air base in January last year.
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