Eerishika Pankaj and Omkar Bhole
On April 22, militants gunned down 25 Indian civilians and one Nepali in Kashmir. The attack was claimed by The Resistance Front (TRF), which India considers to be a proxy of the Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), before the TRF reversed course and denied responsibility.
On May 7, 2025, India responded with Operation Sindoor, a series of coordinated military strikes targeting terrorist infrastructure within Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Later on the same day, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson called India’s military operation “regrettable.” That calibrated diplomatic rebuke served to signal China’s continued strategic hedging between counterterrorism discourse and its enduring “all weather” alliance with “iron-clad” friend Pakistan.
China’s response cast a shadow over its self-ascribed role as a leader of the Global South as well as an aspiring peace-broker in regional conflicts. By characterizing India’s counterterrorism operation as “regrettable” – while remaining silent on the massacre of Indian civilians in a terrorist attack on Indian soil – China revealed the asymmetries in its normative commitments. Diplomatically shielding Pakistan not only undermines its credibility as an impartial negotiator but also exposes the limits of China’s “neutrality” in South Asian crises – a pattern increasingly at odds with its declared ambitions for global leadership and conflict mediation.
To understand the layered nature of China’s response, it is critical to look beyond the statements made by the Foreign Ministry and instead examine the broader ecosystem shaping Beijing’s regional posture. From diplomatic engagements with Islamabad – such as Wang Yi’s call with Pakistan’s foreign minister calling for “impartial investigation” on the terror attack and the Chinese ambassador’s meeting with Pakistan’s prime minister reaffirming the latter’s “legitimate security concerns” – to the strategic framing of events in Chinese state media, and the silences and tactical narratives circulating on social platforms, China’s handling of the Pahalgam killings and Operation Sindoor reveal the contours of a complex balancing act. This act is not merely rhetorical, but instead reflects a deeper strategic calculation, wherein Beijing seeks to protect its stake in Pakistan while managing regional optics.
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