The pastures of Hunza and the slogan China’s friendship with Pakistan

 

The pastures of Hunza and the slogan  China’s friendship with Pakistan

 In the 1950s, there was a buzz of ‘Indian-Chinese brotherhood’.  At the height of the Cold War, the communist China of the newly formed People's Republic of China preferred a Pakistan aligned with the US to an India aligned with the Soviet Union. So, few would have thought that in the next decade it would have an agreement with Pakistan that would make the two countries ‘steel brothers’ and ‘all-weather friends’.

 Andrew Small writes in his book ‘The China-Pakistan Axis: Asia’s New Geopolitics’ that in the early 1950s, Beijing’s closest ally was not Pakistan but India.

 ‘China-India relations were at their highest for at least a few years, at least, at the height of the ‘Indian-Chinese brotherhood’ slogan.’  China even made the idea of resolving the border dispute it has with India by negotiating and exchanging territories under their control. In the West, China-administered Aksai Chin is considered by India to be part of Ladakh, which it controversially granted a separate union territory from Kashmir six years ago.

 Arunachal Pradesh is considered a part of India because of the dispute over the McMahon Line, which was drawn by the British in India to the east. China does not recognize it and refers to it as "Zhangnan" because it is a part of the autonomous region of Tibet. However, Pakistani military spokesman Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry recently stated in a press briefing that "Kashmir is an external issue between the three countries Pakistan, India, and China" in the context of the same dispute, which is partially related to the Himalayan region of Kashmir. Kashmir is typically thought to be the source of tension and wars only between Pakistan and India. According to Rong Xing Guo’s book ‘Territorial Disputes and Conflict Management’, India has 45.62 percent of Kashmir, Pakistan has 35.15 percent and China has 19.23 percent.

 The map dispute and the end of British rule When India was ruled by Britain, this dispute arose. Dr., a contemporary historian of South Asia, claims that Yaqub Khan Bangash, after the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Sikh Empire weakened, and the British, after their first war against it, sold it to Raja Gulab Singh of Jammu Valley in Kashmir for 7.5 million rupees under the Treaty of Amritsar on March 16, 1846.

 “This border was barren and uninhabited towards Tibet and Xinjiang, so no one was too concerned about it.”

 In her book ‘White as the Shroud: India, Pakistan and War on the Frontiers of Kashmir’, which covers the disputed border areas between India and Pakistan, and between India and China on the edge of Ladakh, South Asian expert Myra MacDonald writes that when the British authorities in India tried to determine this border, the Chinese Empire was in decline.

 ‘The British considered various proposals, including the Ardagh-Johnson Line of 1865, which included most of Aksai Chin in Ladakh, and the Macartney-Macdonald Line of 1899, which was a relatively cautious proposal.  Internationally, however, these proposals would never be accepted. Therefore, the British failed in this and left behind a muddled legacy. Dr Bangash, Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, Information Technology University, Lahore, explains that from the Ardagh-Johnson Line of 1865 to the McMahon Line of 1914, the border was determined differently from one another.

 "Occasionally, the Indian British government would declare one region to be a part of Jammu and Kashmir and other times to be another." There was also confusion that although Tibet was often included in the process, there was rarely any discussion with the Chinese government in Xinjiang about what the border would be.

 That is why China never recognized these British-era border lines in northeastern Kashmir and this position remained the same even after the establishment of the Communist government in China in 1949.

 According to Bangash, China claimed that its Beijing government had no agreement with any Indian government official regarding the east or west boundary. Macdonald writes that “when British rule ended, there was no clear border of Aksai Chin on British maps.”

 Disputes over the borders of Aksai Chin and Kashmir

 As a "no man's land" at the time, Aksai Chin was claimed by both China and India. In his book "India’s China War," journalist Neville Maxwell says that Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru believed that Aksai Chin had been a part of the Ladakh region for centuries. The McCartney-Macdonald Line, which included a portion of Aksai Chin within the Chinese border, was the only border proposal that had ever been made to a Chinese government, according to Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. He also asserted that Chinese control already existed over Aksai Chin and that current ground realities should be taken into account during negotiations. Adam Zidan wrote in his research for the Encyclopaedia Britannica that after consolidating its control over Tibet and Xinjiang, China moved into the northeastern regions of Ladakh. ‘The purpose of this advance was to build a military road through the Aksai Chin region, which was completed in 1956–57.  This road made communication between Xinjiang and western Tibet easier, and China also took control of a number of important passes that connect Tibet and India. According to the German organization SWP's report titled "Redrawing the Maps in Kashmir," Christian Wagner and Angela Stenzel made the proposal in 1959 to give China Aksai Chin and give up its claim to northeastern India (the current state of Arunachal Pradesh) in exchange for some territories. But the Indian government rejected this proposal.

 According to Zeidan's writing, "India learned about the road late, after which border clashes between the two countries began, which eventually led to the Sino-Indian War in October 1962." Since that war, the northeastern part of Ladakh has been in China’s possession.

 "After 1988, when relations between India and China improved, the border issue became the center of attention again," states the report from the German agency. “The 1993 agreement recognized the current Line of Actual Control, which is actually a mutually recognized area of patrol routes and military posts rather than a ‘line’.

 However, on August 5, 2019, the Indian government abolished the state of Jammu and Kashmir and divided it into two union territories.

 In response, on August 4, 2020, Pakistan released a new map showing the entire Kashmir as part of Pakistan.

 Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a press briefing that “Recently, India has unilaterally changed its internal legislation and undermined China’s territorial sovereignty.”  There is no legal justification for this action, which is unacceptable.’ The German agency’s report states that at the end of September 2020, China also terminated the status with India in the Ladakh/Aksai Chin issue.

 "All of these steps show that the Kashmir dispute has entered a new phase, one in which China and Pakistan might work together more." China and Pakistan have reached a border agreement. Pakistan and China also had differences over some border areas.

 A.G., a historian, lawyer, and intellectual from India Noorani writes in an article published in the magazine Frontline on October 20, 2006 that when Pakistan offered talks in November 1959, he found China's attitude cold and suspicious.

 India was favored by China over Pakistan, an American ally. China finally responded to Pakistan's offer on December 8, 1960, after waiting a full year. Under the title 'Facing the Truth', this article writes that Pakistan's military ruler Ayub Khan wrote in his autobiography 'Friends Not Masters' that in December 1961, the Chinese ambassador sought Pakistan's support for China's seat in the United Nations, to which Ayub reminded him of the border issue.

 The Chinese ambassador described the issue as complex, to which Ayub replied: ‘We should look at both issues on their merits.’

 The talks began on 12 October 1962.  The Khunjerab Valley and areas near K2 were initially claimed by the Chinese, but they eventually accepted the Line of Control drawn on Pakistan's map with minor modifications. It was agreed that the two nations would share the K2 summit. Pakistan seized grazing lands across the Shamshal Pass that the Hunza had utilized for centuries. The area was eventually ceded to Pakistan after the Chinese representative agreed that the dispute would be settled on "merits." An agreement in principle was announced on 27 December 1962.  A protocol for the demarcation of the land boundary was signed on March 26, 1965, and the agreement was signed on March 2, 1963, in Beijing. Noorani asserts that the Karakoram watershed, not the Kun Lun or the 1897 Ardagh Line, served as the foundation for the treaty. It was based on the Macartney-Macdonald Proposal of 1899 and the Curzon Amendment of 1905.

 India said that Pakistan had ceded a large area to China and had declared the treaty ‘illegal’, as it claimed that the entire Kashmir was part of India under the 1947 Treaty of Accession.  Additionally, India addressed a protest letter to the UN Security Council.

 Bhutto’s pro-China policy

 In his speech of 26 March 1963, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto referred to the letter of protest and said that ‘the territory of Jammu and Kashmir is neither a part of the Union (i.e.  India) nor an ‘integral part’ of it.  The people of Jammu and Kashmir own this region. According to the resolutions of the United Nations Commission of 13 August 1948 and 5 January 1949, the territory's future will be decided through an impartial plebiscite overseen by the United Nations to determine whether it should be annexed to India or Pakistan. "It is extremely regrettable and inappropriate for either party to claim sovereignty over Jammu and Kashmir, since both India and Pakistan are bound by these resolutions." "The boundary agreement came to an end"