China for the second time has blocked India’s move to declare Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) leader as a terrorist, China hoped all members of the UN Security Council who are part of the anti-terrorism committee will follow rules. Jaish-e-Muhammad, a terrorist organisation based in Pakistan, has already been listed by the 1267 Committee. India moved for UN ban against him in March last year accusing of masterminding the Pathankot terrorist attack. China first blocked for six months followed by three months technical hold, which ended on 31st December last year. The US along with the UK and France approached the committee again for the ban and Beijing once again put a six months technical hold on it. What has made China to make a Pakistan-based terrorist leader who has been perpetuating attacks against India so dear to it? The reasons are obvious. It could be Pakistan’s support for China within groupings like the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and others like the Non-Aligned Movement where China has no representation. In the past, Pakistan has reportedly shielded China in the OIC against caustic remarks on Beijing’s crackdowns on its Muslim Uyghur community in its restive Xinjiang province. India’s growing proximity to the US that China definitely sees as a major challenge is another reason which carries weight in China’s tilt. India’s warming relations with the US in the past decade, the high water mark of which was the 2008 civil nuclear deal, has been debated and discussed as moves by the US to find a counterweight to China in Asia. China is also piqued with India for sheltering the Dalai Lama who Beijing considers a “subversive”. The Dalai Lama is the temporal head of Tibetan Buddhists. He was made head of the state at the age of 15 in 1950, the same year that Chinese troops occupied Tibet. In 1959, the Dalai Lama fled Tibet for exile in India after a failed uprising against Chinese rule. That New Delhi has given the Tibetan spiritual leader asylum is a sore point vis-a-vis Beijing.And now it looks China is taking India on Azhar to equal the score. And given that China and Pakistan are “all-weather friends” Beijing’s efforts are aimed at keeping its ally in South Asia happy. India is seen as a competitor and sometimes even a threat.
