Washington: China is providing tacit
support to Pakistan in its jihadi strategy with an aim to pin
down half a million Indian troops in Kashmir, a leading
European security expert has said.
Beijing has provided direct protection to these
militant groups at the UN Security Council`s 1267 committee,
blocking efforts against Jamaat-ud-Dawa (the Lashkar-e-Taiba
[LeT] front)," Andrew Small, an European expert has said.
Writing in the latest issues of the `Washington
Quarterly` journal, Small of German Marshall Fund of the US,
said, the Chinese managed to bar action against JuD, until
political pressure on Pakistan escalated after the LeT
involvement in the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Labelling the Chinese policy as that of "managaing
tensions" in the South Asian region, the security expert said
this was at odds with the US which was working hard to
convince Pakistan to move away from India-centric military
strategy.
Small also said that China had propped up Pakistan`s
conventional military capabilities by providing full spectrum
of support to Islamabad`s air and land missiles and "tacit
support for the jihadi strategy that has helped to bind
half-a-million troops in Kashmir."
Based in Brussels, Small noted that the Chinese
approach in the case of its Af-Pak policy is "proving
increasingly" unsuccessful.
"As is true of its foreign policy elsewhere, China
pursues a relatively narrow conception of its interests in
Afghanistan and Pakistan, rather than supporting a more widely
shared set of goals," he said.
"Security for its workers and major investment
projects has deteriorated the Chinese while the US role in the
region has expanded, much to Beijng`s discomfort," Small said.
There is a debate starting in China about whether a
strategic reassessment is needed, which has already resulted
in a few tactical shifts on Beijing`s part.
But until China is forced to go through a more
fundamental reappraisal of its strategy for dealing with
extremism in the region, prospects for the US and China to
pursue complementary policies will remain limited," he said.
"The strength of the Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP) has also
been a concern to China. While initially sanguine about the
Pakistani government`s deals in Swat and Buner, they became
increasingly worried that the writ of the Pakistani state was
running out in a territory that runs dangerously close to the
principal Sino-Pakistani trade route, the KKH," he said.
PTI
