The Changing US-China Relations

The media is buzzing with news that China has successfully brokered an agreement between rival Hamas and Fatah to help end tensions and form a Palestinian unity government.

The rapid expansion of China’s collaboration with Muslim and communist authoritarian countries is forcing American policymakers to reconsider China’s potential threats to the free world.

Sen, JD Vance, R-Ohio,  has increased his attacks on China as America’s most serious threat, as the Republican presidential campaign continues with renewed promises to ensure citizens’ safety and security. Vance wants President Trump to assist Moscow and Kyiv in resolving the territorial dispute as soon as he takes office so that attention can be refocused on the real challenge, China.

Senator Vance’s attacks on China are not new. In the past, he advocated for restricting Chinese access to US financial markets and eliminating communist influence in American educational institutions. Vance, like President Trump, supports high tariffs on Chinese goods and investments, as well as penalizing Chinese imports made with slave labor in Tibet and East Turkestan.

Elbridge Colby, a former Pentagon advisor and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Trump, agrees with Vance that China is Asia’s hegemon and poses concrete threats to American interests. Colby claims that many countries, particularly in Asia, despise China’s unwarranted control, and that the Trump administration must form an overarching anti-hegemonic coalition with these countries to counter Beijing.

Both President Trump and Senator Vance see India as a key ally in the fight against communist China. In the past, the US has expressed support for India in light of China’s illegal presence in Aksai-chin. The US also recognizes Arunachal Pradesh as an Indian state, which is an important step toward conveying the message of strategic cooperation against China.

Despite pressure from China and Pakistan, the United States did not object to India hosting G20 meetings in Ladakh and Kashmir. According to numerous articles, the US rushed to assist India in countering China’s Galwan encroachment. Unlike many of India’s friends, the US has referred to Gilgit Baltistan as a land with disputed sovereignty, despite Pakistani outrage.

The renewed collaboration between the United States and India to promote freedom in Tibet and East Turkestan has infuriated Beijing. China views this as an intrusion into internal affairs and an attack on its sovereignty over these provinces.

China is also opposed to the US and India working together to build the transcontinental India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), which could jeopardize China’s long-term vested interests in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

Professor Sajjad Raja, Chairperson of Kashmir’s Equality Party, believes that China will eventually lose Gilgit to India, which is the most important direct strategic route to the Indian Oceanic Region.

China can see that the current Indian regime’s efforts to revive the economy and expand infrastructure in Jammu Kashmir are persuading the vast majority of Kashmiri Muslims to support India over Pakistan. Javed Beigh, an activist and business owner from Budgam, Kashmir, says that now that peace has returned after four decades, Shias, who account for nearly one-fourth of Kashmir’s population, have the freedom to hold Muharram processions, which has increased their respect and confidence in India.

Not only that, but improved economic growth has sowed seeds of unity with India among thousands of people in the Gilgit and Muzaffarabad divisions of the POJK, which are still under Pakistani occupation.

China’s method of exacting vengeance on India and challenging India’s sovereignty over Jammu Kashmir is to use its client state, Pakistan, to disrupt peace and impede economic growth in India. For more than four decades, China has financially and diplomatically bailed out Pakistan’s terrorist activities in Indian Kashmir.

China’s infiltration in Ladakh helps Pakistan maintain control over Gilgit. China regularly criticizes India’s stance on Kashmir in multilateral forums and uses its veto in the UN Security Council to shield Pakistani terrorists. Much like Chinese support to Hamas which helps gain Arab trust and maintain anarchy in Israel; the support of Kashmiri militants helps China strengthen its relations with the Indian Muslims.

In recent weeks, there has been an unexpected increase in terrorist incidents in Indian Jammu Kashmir. Ten terrorist attacks have occurred since Prime Minister Modi took office in June of this year, killing 22 people and injuring over 50. The most recent attack occurred on Monday, July 22, on the Indian military post in Rajouri. These incidents occur as India prepares to hold the Jammu and Kashmir assembly election in September.

History demonstrates that the bloodbath in Jammu and Kashmir helps China divert India’s attention away from Tibet and East Turkestan. Given the high stakes, China cannot be dismissed as a direct beneficiary of the ongoing terrorism in Kashmir.

As the world’s oldest and largest democracies band together to challenge China’s hijacking of people’s freedoms in occupied territories, there is hope that such efforts will contribute to the end of authoritarianism and the manipulation of global markets and shipping routes.