‘US trying to drive wedge between China,Pak using India’

US seems to have fixated on strategic indications behind China-Pak ties,said the mouthpiece of the ruling CPC.

Accusing the US of trying to drive a wedge between “tested friends” China and Pakistan,the official media here today said that America was “poking its nose” into the Sino-Pak ties using “India’s hand” with “hyped up” reports of the presence of Chinese troops in PoK.

Commenting for the first time on the recent ‘New York Times’ report about presence of up to 11,000 troops in PoK and denial of visa to Lt Gen B S Jaswal who heads troops in Jammu and Kashmir,’People’s Daily’,the mouthpiece of the ruling CPC,said the US seems to have “fixated on the strategic and military indications” behind the China-Pakistan ties.

The NYT report,which was denied by China as an attempt to “provoke” Sino-Pak relations and also hurt its “already volatile ties with India”,was “quickly echoed by the Indian media who in chorus bawled China out for its ‘aggressive posturing’ on issues critical to India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” it said in a write-up .

Interestingly,it referred to the Gilgit-Baltistan area,where the Chinese troops’ presence was reported by NYT,as a “region administered by Pakistan” unlike the Chinese Foreign Ministry which has begun referring to the region as “northern Pakistan.”

“India has long been wary of the iron-clad China-Pakistan relations,and of late its concerns have been heightened after Beijing’s alleged denial of visa to a senior Indian army commander on grounds that his command included Jammu and Kashmir,” the write-up titled ‘US disguised hand behind China-Pak relations’ said.

“Although India flays even the Chinese plan to build dams and other infrastructure projects in Pakistan-administered Kashmir,the US seems to have more often fixated on the strategic and military indications behind the ever strengthening China-Pak ties.”

On this assumption,China’s reach to Pakistan is “pigeonholed” by some American military strategists as a “muscle-flexing showcase” of Beijing’s upsurge in regional and international military clout,it said.