China supplied more than $20 billion worth of arms to Pakistan.
These include 20 J-10CE and JF-17 Block III fighter aircraft, Wing Loong drones, frigates, submarines, Hongqi HQ-9P surface-to-air missiles, 240 PL-15E air-to-air missiles, LY-80 air defence systems, ZDK early warning aircraft and other weapons, notes China expert Srikanth Kondapalli.
As a ceasefire was announced between India and Pakistan on May 10, pertinent questions are being raised about why China did not take the initiative to bring both nations to the table.
In the few days of the kinetic standoff, questions have also been raised about why China took the route of waging a proxy war by supporting Pakistan's military attacks on India.
China is providing comprehensive diplomatic support to Pakistan at the UN Security Council, coordinating with Turkey and Bangladesh, and, more crucially, providing arms to Pakistan and opening another front in the Indian Ocean.
At the UN Security Council committee #1267 on counter-terrorism, China blocked any mention of The Resistance Force, an offshoot of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, that initially took responsibility for the Pahalgam terror attacks on April 22.
Such watering down of UN sanctions committee reports is not new but the timing in China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi seeking 'investigation' into the Pahalgam attacks led to collusion with Pakistan.
More lethal, of course, is providing latest weapon systems and training to Pakistan personnel in the midst of last week's conflict.
China supplied more than $20 billion worth of arms to Pakistan.
These include 20 J-10CE (a derivative of the Israel Lavi project) and JF-17 Block III (with Russian Klimov RD-93 engines) fighter aircraft under license manufacturing, Wing Loong (similar to the US-MQ-1 Predator) drones, frigates, submarines, missiles such as Hongqi HQ-9P surface-to-air missiles, 240 PL-15E (an advanced version of Israel's Python-8) air-to-air missiles, LY-80 air defence systems, ZDK early warning aircraft, technologies and other weapons.
China intended pincer movements against India in land, air, maritime and space domains through Pakistan.
China was quick to despatch over 200 hundred 'fishing boats' to the Indian Ocean to monitor Indian naval activities involved in actions against Pakistan.
Several nations have recently accused China of cutting undersea cables meant for communications -- an emerging challenge in the region.
The detection of a banned Huawei satellite phone, with messaging services connected to China's Beidou satellite navigation system in Pahalgam after the terror attack is only the tip of the iceberg.
China launched five satellites for Pakistan, including the PRSS-1, Pak TES-1A, PakSat -MM1, PRSC-EO1 and ICUBE-Q, enhancing Pakistan's military intelligence and observation of Indian assets.
China provides real-time battlefield surveillance support and advice to Pakistan and coordinates ground and air level military operations as exhibited in Chinese-supplied JF-17, J-10, Wing Loong and loiter munitions actions in the last few days.
The Sino-Pak Shaheen, Aman, Mir and other military exercises further integrated their national military strategies against India.
China's bloggers and wumao (5 cents) soldiers provided massive support to Pakistan in spreading disinformation and psychological warfare, taking inputs directly from the Pakistan army's inter services public relations, exaggerating Indian losses and shaping Pakistan's narrative warfare.
While several reports indicated less than optimal performance of HQ-9P missiles and JF-17 aircraft in the recent conflict, Chinese-supplied weapon systems did kill scores of Indians in the border areas.
India viewed Beijing's posture as offensive in nature.
By actively entering into a proxy war with India, in addition to an overt conflict in 2020 at Galwan, China has decided to support Pakistan more for strategic rather than pragmatic reasons to keep India off balance.
Pakistan, a member of the Chinese-driven 'community of shared destiny', is considered to be the best bet for Beijing in its dream of becoming a global and regional leader.
However, some Chinese argue that a declining Pakistan, which secured a bailout from the IMF last week, could be an albatross around China's neck.
China's proxy war against India has several consequences. Some Chinese analysts fear that given Beijing's support to Islamabad, New Delhi will retaliate by supporting Tibet, Taiwan and Southeast Asian countries in a conflict situation in these regions.
This would be devastating for China. Besides, they also suggest that the multipolarity camp of opposing US unilateral actions will be depleted with India opting out of the China club.
China's chambers of commerce covet 400 million consumers in India, who in the light of Trump's devastating tariffs, could bail out China's sagging economic growth rates.
However, China's ill-advised misadventures in Pakistan could result in lost business opportunities as public sentiment in India sees through China's designs.
While some of these reasons may explain China's covert support to Pakistan in the 1965, 1971 and 1999 conflicts with India, the current situation is much more critical.
Currently, the militaries of China and Pakistan are closely integrated in a battlefield environment with personnel from both armies placed in command and control structures in Chengdu and Rawalpindi.
Interoperability between the two militaries was enhanced substantially with Pakistan guided by China's operational experience.
China's proxy war against India has implications for bilateral relations for a long time.
The nascent 'normalisation' on the border, announced on October 21 last year and confirmed by both leaders a couple of days later at Kazan, is likely to be affected by China's current all-round support to Pakistan.
India needs to dissuade China in supporting Pakistan, failing which New Delhi should explore increasing costs on China in trade, investments, in the Indian Ocean and other vulnerable areas.
Srikanth Kondapalli is Professor in Chinese Studies at JNU.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
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