At the recent UN closed-door meeting on Jammu and Kashmir at the UNSC, reports have emerged that China not only supported Pakistan on the Kashmir issue but also questioned the Ladakh and Aksai Chin, which Beijing considers part of Tibet.
The Chinese Permanent Representative in the UN claimed that the New Delhi’s decision to revoke Article 370 questioned China’s sovereign interests and violated bilateral arrangements on maintaining peace and stability in the region, according to reports in Indian ET
Beijing decided to raise the issue at the UN despite Foreign Minister S Jaishankar alleviating fears that bifurcating Jammu & Kashmir and making Ladakh a Union Territory would not impact the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and that Modi Government was not making any additional territorial claims with regard to China.
During the bilateral foreign minister-level meeting in Beijing last Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi brought up the issue of legislation passed recently by Parliament on Jammu and Kashmir.
Jaishankar told Wang that it was India’s internal matter. The issue relates to changes in a temporary provision of the Constitution and it is the sole prerogative of the country, Jaishankar notified Wang.
Jaishankar is believed to have clearly conveyed to Wang that so far as the India-China boundary question was concerned the two sides had agreed to a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable settlement on the basis of the 2005 Political Parameters and Guiding Principles.
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According to Indian Media Reports in ET, senior Chinese diplomat also questioned the issue of human rights violation in Kashmir. This comes at a time when Beijing itself is facing global heat for serious charges of human rights violation in Xinjiang, Tibet and, most recently, in Hong Kong.
Last week, China’s stature as a global power received a further shock when no other country backed Beijing at the UNSC on the issue of Kashmir. There were speculations that the UK supported Chinese claims, but it was later rejected by key sources in the British Government.
