Faced with the charge that it is protecting an international terrorist, China is going around in circles trying to defend its action on Pakistani terrorist mastermind Masood Azhar, the chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed (which is a creation of Pakistan's ISI) which took credit for the February 14 Pulwama terrorist attack in Kashmir.
Beijing began placing a “technical hold” in the UN’s 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee — which lists "global terrorists" and seeks to curb their activities by tightening the noose on them through travel bans and the freezing of assets — on penalising Azhar as far back as 2009, and did so for the fourth time about a fortnight ago.
Yet, Beijing pretends that its action is not intended to provide comfort to a terrorist but to allow time for “the parties concerned” — meaning India and Pakistan — to engage in dialogue.
This laughable explanation, whose only purpose can be to comfort its “all-weather ally” Pakistan, was put out by the Chinese foreign ministry on Friday in response to the tough American action earlier this week of moving a draft resolution in the UN Security Council direct on the Azhar issue.
Eventually this may not be taken to a formal vote as China has a veto in the UNSC, but informally the move could lead to a condemnation of the Pulwama suicide bombing. That would amount to a snub of Beijing.
Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, spoke sharply when he condemned Beijing's “shameful hypocrisy” in abusing a million Muslims at home — who are placed in internment camps — while protecting a known terrorist. This seems a reasonable enough assessment.
