The International Herald Tribune, the global edition of The
New York Times, ran an opinion piece last week that said up to 11,000 soldiers
of the People’s Liberation Army were in Gilgit, a northwest area of disputed
Kashmir.
“The story that China has deployed some military in the
northern part of Pakistan is totally groundless,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman
Jiang Yu said at a regular briefing.
“Some people are making fabrications to destroy relations
between China, Pakistan and India, but their attempt will arrive nowhere,” she
said.
The piece by Selig Harrison, director of the Asia program at
the US-based Center for International Policy, said China wants control of the
region to get clear road and rail access to the Gulf through Pakistan. It said
many of the soldiers are working on a railway link.
The article comes amid reports of military unease between
China and India.
Last week, an anonymous Indian official was quoted in the
Hindu newspaper as saying that military exchanges and a joint exercise between
Indian and Chinese defense forces had been suspended after Beijing refused to
grant a visa to a top Indian army general from the Indian-controlled part of
Kashmir.
China’s Ministry of National Defense, however, said in a
statement faxed to The Associated Press that it had not suspended the exchanges
nor received word from India about any suspension.
Jiang said Beijing had no intention to interfere in the
Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India. “As a neighbor and friend of both
countries, China believes that the issue should be left to the two countries so
that it can be properly handled through dialogue and consultation.” India and
Pakistan, an ally of China, each control part of the Himalayan region while
claiming all of it. China also claims part of northeastern Kashmir that it says
is part of Tibet.
While relations between China and India have improved in
recent years, they are still testy over territorial claims dating back to a
brief border war in 1962.
In recent years, India and China have held more than a dozen
rounds of talks on settling the border dispute but have made little progress.
Beijing is also highly critical of India’s support for the
Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 and set up a
government-in-exile in the northern Indian hill town of Dharmsala.
