China's Kashmir Policy

This paper focuses on China's Kashmir policy, but before discussing the main theme, it briefly looks at the origins of the Kashmir dispute and recalls that Beijing's position has always reflected its evolving equation with India and Pakistan. Openly favourable to New Delhi in the fifties, the People's Republic became supportive of Pakistan in the wake of the 1962 Indo–Chinese War. After keeping a careful balance between the South Asian adversaries for most of the last three decades, China now appears to implicitly question the legitimacy of Indian claims on Kashmir, in line with its alliance with Pakistan and its own designs for using Pakistan occupied Kashmir as a transit route between Xinjiang and Pakistani ports on the Arabian Sea.