China; S Obstrusive Involvement in Pok: Implications for India
CHINA’S OBTRUSIVE PRESENCE IN PAKISTAN OCCUPIED KASHMIR: IMPLICATIONS FOR INDIA AND UNITED STATES
Introductory Observations
1. China is once again in focus in challenging the status-quo in South Asia in collusive strategic facilitation by Pakistan. This time China has shifted the strategic focus from India’s borders with China- Occupied Tibet in Arunachal Pradesh in the North East to Ladakh and to India’s Line of Actual Control with Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). Reports emanating from unimpeachable sources in the United States indicate that China has positioned nearly 12,000 Chinese Army troops in the Gilgit-Baltistan Region of the Northern Areas presently in illegal occupation of Pakistan. China in one quiet but swift stroke has changed the geopolitical and geostrategic equations in this critical region which borders China, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan. The deployment of Chinese troops in this region even though for the ostensible purposes of infrastructural improvements of the ‘Karakoram Corridor’ heralds a new phase of China flexing its muscles not only against India but more significantly against United States in the wider global context. Ominously, China’s upgradation of the Karakoram Corridor on Pakistan’s behalf enables China’s strategic outreach to the North Arabian Sea and the Gulf. Building oil and gas pipelines through this Corridor significantly improve China’s military postures in Western Tibet and Xingjiang both against India and countering the NATO’s Eastward creep towards China’s peripheries. Notwithstanding that the Karakoram Corridor initially passes through disputed territory, China has gone ahead with this major project as the major portion traversing Pakistan gives a strategic advantage to China in not only in outflanking US embedment in Afghanistan but also places a strong ‘strategic pressure point’ in China’s hand against the United States when coupled with Chinese naval presence at Gwadur Port in proximity of the
Introductory Observations
1. China is once again in focus in challenging the status-quo in South Asia in collusive strategic facilitation by Pakistan. This time China has shifted the strategic focus from India’s borders with China- Occupied Tibet in Arunachal Pradesh in the North East to Ladakh and to India’s Line of Actual Control with Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). Reports emanating from unimpeachable sources in the United States indicate that China has positioned nearly 12,000 Chinese Army troops in the Gilgit-Baltistan Region of the Northern Areas presently in illegal occupation of Pakistan. China in one quiet but swift stroke has changed the geopolitical and geostrategic equations in this critical region which borders China, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan. The deployment of Chinese troops in this region even though for the ostensible purposes of infrastructural improvements of the ‘Karakoram Corridor’ heralds a new phase of China flexing its muscles not only against India but more significantly against United States in the wider global context. Ominously, China’s upgradation of the Karakoram Corridor on Pakistan’s behalf enables China’s strategic outreach to the North Arabian Sea and the Gulf. Building oil and gas pipelines through this Corridor significantly improve China’s military postures in Western Tibet and Xingjiang both against India and countering the NATO’s Eastward creep towards China’s peripheries. Notwithstanding that the Karakoram Corridor initially passes through disputed territory, China has gone ahead with this major project as the major portion traversing Pakistan gives a strategic advantage to China in not only in outflanking US embedment in Afghanistan but also places a strong ‘strategic pressure point’ in China’s hand against the United States when coupled with Chinese naval presence at Gwadur Port in proximity of the