US playing India card against Sino-Pak ties: China

Commenting for the first time on the recent New York Times report about presence of up to 11,000 troops in PoK and denial of visa to Lt Gen B S Jaswal who heads troops in Jammu and Kashmir, 'People's Daily', the mouthpiece of the ruling CPC, said the US seems to have "fixated on the strategic and military indications" behind the China-Pakistan ties.

The NYT report, which was denied by China as an attempt to "provoke" Sino-Pak relations and also hurt its "already volatile ties with India", was "quickly echoed by the Indian media who in chorus bawled China out for its 'aggressive posturing' on issues critical to India's sovereignty and territorial integrity," it said in a write-up .

Interestingly, it referred to the Gilgit-Baltistan area, where the Chinese troops' presence was reported by NYT, as a "region administered by Pakistan" unlike the Chinese Foreign Ministry which has begun referring to the region as "northern Pakistan."

"India has long been wary of the iron-clad China-Pakistan relations, and of late its concerns have been heightened after Beijing's alleged denial of visa to a senior Indian army commander on grounds that his command included Jammu and Kashmir," the write-up titled 'US disguised hand behind China-Pak relations' said.

"Although India flays even the Chinese plan to build dams and other infrastructure projects in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, the US seems to have more often fixated on the strategic and military indications behind the ever strengthening China-Pak ties."

On this assumption, China's reach to Pakistan is "pigeonholed" by some American military strategists as a "muscle-flexing showcase" of Beijing's upsurge in regional and international military clout, it said.

Referring to the tensions brewing between China and the US over military exercises in the South China Sea in the aftermath of the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel allegedly by North Korea, the daily said "the recent media hype about 'Kashmir issue' coincides with the circumstances in which the US, after its Iraq pullout, is anxious to recalibrate its strategic focus to Asia."

"Given this, the US would attempt to take the handle to tame the increasingly 'ambitious' China to ensure its smooth 'comeback' to the region. For this, it has to collude with India, whose nerves would always be frayed even at the rustle of leaves from China, and whose resentment of China is still simmering," it said.

On the US objections to China building two new nuclear power plants to Pakistan, the daily said this was because America views it as a "challenge to its predominance over the non-proliferation issue and the sub-continent."

"Earlier, the US also poked its nose into the China-Pak relations by twisting facts about China's aid to Pakistan's severe floods, trying to drive a wedge between the tested friends. More absurd, it even went so far as to try to fan up a donation race between China and India. "This time, it plays the same old trick, but (by) borrowing India's hand to meddle in China's standard practice and the traditional relations between China and Pakistan," it said.

The US "intervention" in China's relations with its neighbours is by no means incidental, the paper said. "Their logic is simple: any potential challenger to Washington in Eurasia should be the target of US global strategy."

"China has not wavered from the road of peaceful development and the building of good relationships and partnerships with its neighbouring countries, including both Pakistan and India," it said. "But viewed from the geopolitical security, China and the US might as well see each other from a constructive angle, rather than glare at each other and spew fire at each other at almost every turn," it said.