China has blocked for the second time the US-UK proposal in the UN Security Council’s sanctions committee to censure Masood Azhar, chief of Bahawalpur based Jaish-e-Muhammad.  Chinese move does not come as a surprise though. On the eve of sanctions committee meeting, Beijing declared its intention to save Azhar and its mentor, Pakistan.

China has again blocked a US proposal for a ban on Pakistan-based Kashmir valley centric terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed’s chief Masood Azhar by the Security Council’s Sanctions Committee. It is a short-sighted action. It may please China’s iron friend but will not insure Xinxiang from attacks by Pakistan based Islamist groups.
The Chinese had earlier put a technical hold on the proposal, which also had the backing of the UK and France, but since the hold couldn’t be extended any further, it officially blocked the proposal and ended the global move to proscribe Azhar.
This is the second time in two years that China put a “technical hold” and later officially blocked the move to ban Azhar. Censuring Azhar would result in freezing his financial assets, cutting off supply of funds to his terror organisation and exposure of Pakistan’s failure to check terrorists moving around publicly across the country.
The Chinese action does not come as a surprise since it has been speculated for a long while that Beijing is was going to bail out Azhar once the hold on the US proposal expired.
Responding to queries on China’s decision, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said India was deeply disappointed that once again, a single country had blocked international consensus. “India strongly believes that double standards and selective approaches will only undermine the international community’s resolve to combat terrorism. We can only hope that there will be a realisation that accommodating with terrorism for narrow objectives is both short sighted and counter-productive,” he said.

Well, China is right; there is no consensus in the committee because China is the only one among 15 members of the committee that has opposed the listing.

India has every reason to believe that Beijing is trying to protect Pakistan because censuring Azhar will expose it as a safe haven for terrorists – a charge made by India, Afghanistan, and Iran and lately by the United States as well. China has huge investments in Pakistan.
China’s case is that there is no consensus in the sanctions committee to place Azhar on the banned list. “We raised a technical hold so as to allow for more time for the UNSC committee and all members to deliberate on this matter, but there is still an absence of consensus,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.
Well, China is right; there is no consensus in the committee because China is the only one among 15 members of the committee that has opposed the listing.
Now, a day after it rejected UN sanctions against Masood Azhar, China is back to its usual refrain on its ties with India. A Hindustan Times report from Beijing said the Chinese foreign office spokesperson has described India as an ‘important neighbour’, and said China is ready to promote bilateral ties with India.
“India is an important neighbour of China. China attaches great importance to relations with India. We are ready to work with India to promote constant progress of bilateral relations guided by neighbourhood diplomacy with Chinese characteristics for a new era,” said assistant foreign minister Chen Xiadong.
Speaking on China’s policy with its neighbours at a presser on President Xi Jinping’s upcoming visit to Vietnam for the APEC summit, Chen claimed that Beijing has always stressed on a policy that focuses on the principles of “sincerity, amity, inclusiveness and mutual benefit”.
“We have been following this concept (of building partnerships with neighbours) for the last few years, deepening our political mutual trust,” he said, adding that this was “the guiding principle” of Beijing.