Opinion: Is China enabling Pakistan’s proxy terror against India?

By Jianli Yang

The April 22 Pahalgam attack represents one of the deadliest terrorist incidents in India since the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

 Five armed militants targeted tourists in the picturesque Baisaran Valley of Kashmir, killing 26 civilians including 25 tourists and a local Muslim pony ride operator.

The attackers, armed with M4 carbines and AK-47s, specifically targeted Hindu tourists, forcing them to identify their religion before executing them at point-blank range. Several newlywed couples were among the victims, with husbands shot in front of their wives.

This massacre follows a disturbing pattern of attacks including the 2019 Pulwama bombing, which killed 40 Indian security personnel, and the 2016 Uri attack, which claimed the lives of 19 Indian soldiers. In each case, the operational trail leads back to organizations such as Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) — groups that are not only tolerated but, in many cases, sustained by elements of Pakistan’s military-intelligence establishment.

(The Pakistani government, naturally, denies any connection or support to these groups.) Nevertheless, security agencies have identified Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafeez Saeed and his deputy, Saifullah Kasuri, as the masterminds behind the Pahalgam attack. Both men operate freely from Pakistan.

Many Westerners may not realize, however, that Beijing’s use of procedural vetoes to block the listing of known terrorists has become a familiar and dangerous pattern of Chinese statecraft. At the U.N. Security Council’s 1267 Sanctions Committee, China repeatedly blocked the designation of JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist, despite overwhelming evidence of his involvement in numerous attacks on Indian soil. Between 2016 and 2019, China placed “technical holds” on proposals to list Azhar as a terrorist four times, creating years of delay that allowed him to continue operating with impunity.

Even after the Pulwama attack in February 2019, China blocked a U.N. Security Council measure to blacklist Azhar in March 2019, only relenting in May 2019 after intense international pressure. China has similarly obstructed sanctions against other Pakistan-based terrorists and organizations, including Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), Lashkar-e-Taiba’s political arm.

This pattern continues today, with China likely to veto any resolution against Pakistan regarding the Pahalgam attack, as predicted by former U.N. diplomat and Indian politician Shashi Tharoor.

China’s protection of Pakistan-born terrorism stems from calculated strategic interests. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative worth over $60 billion, traverses through sensitive territories including Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Launched in 2015, this 3,000-kilometer corridor connects China’s northwestern Xinjiang province to the Arabian Sea port of Gwadar in Balochistan.

For China, Pakistan serves as more than just an economic partner. It represents a critical strategic counterweight to India’s regional influence. By keeping India preoccupied with cross-border terrorism, China is effectively constraining a potential rival while advancing its own regional hegemony. As noted by strategic analyst Brahma Chellaney, “While Pakistan employs terrorist groups as proxies to bleed India, China uses Pakistan as a proxy to box in India.”

What makes China’s behavior particularly egregious is its blatant double standard on terrorism. While Beijing enforces sweeping measures against what it deems extremist threats in Xinjiang, including the internment of over a million Uyghur Muslims in “vocational education and training” camps, it adopts a strikingly different approach to Islamist terrorism directed at India.

In Xinjiang, China has created a dystopian surveillance state and implemented radical programs of “de-extremification” against Turkic Muslim minorities, actions that many consider tantamount to genocide. Yet when confronted with evidence of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism against its neighbors, China repeatedly calls for “dialogue” and “mutual understanding,” reflecting a deeply cynical approach to international counterterrorism efforts.

For India, the challenge extends beyond individual attacks. After tensions escalated following the Pahalgam massacre, with India conducting airstrikes on targets inside Pakistan itself on May 7, 2025, the risk of wider regional conflict grew quickly. India must develop a comprehensive strategy that addresses both immediate security concerns and long-term diplomatic challenges.

Domestically, counterterrorism and intelligence efforts must remain robust. However, the larger battle is diplomatic and narrative-based. India must systematically expose China’s strategic enablement of terrorism and build stronger coalitions with nations that share concerns about Beijing’s selective approach to international norms.

At the U.N. Security Council, recent closed-door consultations have already revealed growing skepticism about Pakistan’s position, with members grilling Islamabad’s representatives over Lashkar-e-Taiba’s involvement in the Pahalgam attack.

By shielding Pakistan diplomatically and financing it economically, Beijing is playing an active role in normalizing asymmetric violence in South Asia. The Pahalgam attack must be understood not just as a tragic isolated incident, but as the product of a broader system of indirect enablement, in which China’s diplomatic cover allows terrorism originating out of Pakistan as a low-cost, high-impact tool of asymmetric warfare.

Each time Beijing blocks international action against Pakistan-based terrorist leaders, it sends a message that terrorism against India carries minimal diplomatic consequences. This calculated approach undermines global counterterrorism efforts and threatens stability across South Asia. Until the international community directly addresses China’s role as a strategic harborer of terrorism, the deadly cycle of violence will likely continue, with innocent civilians bearing the ultimate cost of this dangerous geopolitical game.

Jianli Yang is the founder and president of Citizen Power Initiatives and author of For Us, The Living: A Journey to Shine the Light on Truth and It's Time for a Values-Based "Economic NATO."