China’s Footprint Is Clear in Kashmir Crisis, Analysts Say

A Chinese-made satellite phone was found at the site of the deadly terror attack that killed 26 tourists on April 22.

Protesters demonstrate against the killing of tourists by terrorists near Pahalgam in Indian-controlled Kashmir, in Kolkata, India, on April 24, 2025. Bikas Das/AP

News Analysis

Terrorists killed 26 tourists in a sunny meadow in Indian-controlled Kashmir on April 22. India’s investigating agencies blamed Pakistan for supporting the terrorists behind the attack, a charge Pakistan denied. India responded on May 7 with air strikes on Pakistan.

After the brutal attack, said to be the worst in a quarter century, condolences and support poured in from around the world.

China, however, backed Pakistan’s call for an impartial investigation. Analysts say Beijing has several reasons for supporting Pakistan: chiefly, to undermine India’s rise and disrupt its relationship with the United States.

China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, in a phone call with his Pakistani counterpart on April 27, called China “an ironclad friend and an all-weather strategic cooperative partner.”

“China advocates for a swift and fair investigation and believes that conflict does not serve the fundamental interests of either India or Pakistan, nor does it benefit regional peace and stability,” Wang told Pakistan’s foreign minister, Ishaq Dar.

This is not the first time Pakistan has called for an “impartial investigation” when blamed for abetting terrorism inside Indian territory. However, geopolitical analysts told The Epoch Times that this time, India is unlikely to cede to that demand.

Meanwhile, analysts said that China is backing Pakistan in the matter because the crisis indirectly serves its agenda: namely, undermining India and its strategic and geo-economic ties to the United States.

China “views South Asia and the Indian Ocean region as part of its sphere of influence. It has never recognized Indian pre-eminence in South Asia or the Indian Ocean region,” said Aparna Pande, director of the Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia at the Washington-based Hudson Institute.

China “has also tried to halt India’s rise—economic, military, and technological—and hinder India’s hegemony in the region,” Pande said.

The U.N. Security Council on May 5 held consultations on the Pahalgam attack, at Pakistan’s request.

Pande said China has long supported Pakistan on the U.N. Security Council and has vetoed attempts by the United States or France to pressure Pakistan on terrorism.

“So this support by China is predictable,” she said.

Indian government forces stand guard as journalists take photos of a bus carrying the families of tourists killed and wounded in an attack by gunmen, in Srinagar, India, on April 23, 2025. Yawar Nazir/Getty Images

Call for Impartial Probe

Air Marshal (Ret.) Anil Khosla, former air staff vice-chief for the Indian Air Force, told The Epoch Times that China’s backing of Pakistan isn’t about friendship. It’s about strategically undermining India, he said. It’s also about protecting China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) interests in regions northwest of Kashmir and controlling regional narratives of China’s hegemony.

China is building the multi-billion-dollar China–Pakistan Economic Corridor Project as a flagship BRI project linking Xinjiang with the southern coast of Pakistan.

“The call for an ‘impartial probe’ is part of that larger playbook,” Khosla said.

That involves “positioning China as ‘neutral’ while subtly backing Pakistan to complicate India’s diplomatic standing,” he said.

Khosla said that China’s support for Pakistan on the Kashmir issue stems from a mix of strategic, geopolitical, and domestic considerations that align with its long-term regional agenda.

Before Wang’s phone call to Dar, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun made a statement condemning the attack but offered no words of support for the Indian government or its investigation.

“We strongly condemn the attack,” Guo said during a regular briefing on April 23.

Srikanth Kondappalli, a professor of Chinese studies at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, told The Epoch Times that India agreed to Pakistan’s call for a joint investigation into the 2016 attack on an Indian air force base in Pathankot, in which six soldiers were killed. That investigation went nowhere, he said.

India has sent 20 judicial requests, detailed dossiers, and even DNA samples of terrorists linked to several incidents of terrorism, including the 2008 Mumbai attacks, but it has never yielded anything, Kondappalli said.

According to Kondapalli, Wang’s call for “swift and fair investigation” into Pahalgam is indicative of China’s double standard.

He cited calls for an investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, which were squelched by Beijing.

“When Covid pandemic spread across the globe, killing more than seven million people worldwide, the Australian government took the lead in April 2020 in suggesting an international independent and comprehensive investigation into the origin and spread of the epidemic,” he said.

“Instead of allowing any investigation, including for the WHO team, Beijing banned trade with Canberra. Neither a swift nor a fair investigation was allowed so far on this issue.”

Chinese-Made Phone at Terror Site

Investigators from India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) detected signals from a Huawei-brand satellite phone at the site of the Pahalgam attack. Experts said the presence of the Chinese-made phone points to the potential direct involvement of China.

Huawei is banned from selling 5G phones in India. The brand has also been banned or restricted in the United States and Europe. Frank Lehberger, a Europe-based geopolitical analyst and China expert, told The Epoch Times that the use of a Huawei phone at Pahalgam is “completely unprecedented.”

“To work as sat-phones, these types of mobiles e.g. the Huawei Mate 60 Pro, P60 series, and nova 11 Ultra, all need to link to the Chinese Tiantong-1 satellite network, operated by China Telecom,” Lehberger told The Epoch Times in an email.

Khosla said that the presence of a Huawei phone—banned in India as a national security risk—raises the possibility that it was smuggled from Pakistan, which shares a border with the region.

Huawei phones require Chinese telecom SIM cards and subscription plans, Lehberger said. The phones can connect without external equipment because they feature internal satellite antennas and specialized chips that allow them to link up.

“China Telecom is a state firm that tightly regulates and monitors the credentials together with Chinese police, who are allowed access to subscriptions for its services inside and outside China,” Lehberger noted.

“This is indirect proof that persons in Pakistan with an official background approved by China, have been cleared by Chinese government authorities to access special Chinese subscription plans before those dastardly attacks.”

The Huawei phone was using Chinese apps banned in India because they used strong encryption techniques, according to Lehberger.

He said that non-Chinese, Thuraya satellite phones were already being used by infiltrators and terrorists inside Jammu and Kashmir.

Thuraya is a regional mobile-satellite service provider primarily serving Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The hand-held devices are designed for regions with a lack of terrestrial cell coverage.

Khosla said that Chinese equipment is already being used by terrorists operating inside Jammu and Kashmir, reflecting both the global proliferation of Chinese technology and its targeted use by terrorist networks.

Lehberger alleged that Chinese spies and operatives are using other Chinese-made equipment on India’s border in the eastern sector.

“On the Chinese side of the LAC [Line of Actual Control] in neighboring Ladakh and further away in Arunachal Pradesh, Chinese civilian government employees, spies and other undesirable elements are also using similar devices to clandestinely infiltrate remote areas of India to map, survey or monitor what is going on inside India,” he said.

“Those elements have to use the rather reliable handheld devices of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System to complete their tasks in remote and inaccessible Himalayan regions.”

The satellite system, BDS, is also integrated into Huawei phones.

Indian security officers inspect the site where terrorists opened fire on tourists in Pahalgam, in Indian-controlled Kashmir, on April 23, 2025. AP Photo

Attempts to Disrupt US–India Ties

U.S. Vice President JD Vance landed in India for a four-day personal-professional tour on April 21, and a day after the attack, an Indian delegation was scheduled to start tariff negotiations in Washington. The timing of the attack led some to speculate that the Pahalgam tragedy was aimed at challenging India–United States ties.

“The timing of the attack, during Vance’s visit and amid trade negotiations, suggests a possible intent to maximize disruption,” said Khosla. “The choice of Pahalgam, a tourist destination, ensured global media coverage, potentially overshadowing trade discussions.”

Lehberger cited controversial remarks made by Vance in March about the Chinese government. The April 22 attack, he said, was possibly an “indirect revenge” for Vance’s remarks, and a strategy to divide Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the U.S. vice president.

“Chinese call this: ‘borrow a knife to commit murder,’” he said. “In Delhi, both countries have pledged to engage in closer and broad cooperation in the near future. This was anticipated and could have been a reason why China has an interest in disrupting this newfound entente by drastically demonstrating to both partners how ill-prepared and vulnerable India actually was.”

India Responds

On May 7, India launched what it called “focused and precise” air strikes against nine terrorist camps inside Pakistan. According to a statement from the Indian Embassy in Washington shortly after the strikes, Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval spoke to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and briefed him on the strikes.

In response, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said Pakistan has “every right to respond forcefully to this act of war imposed by India.”

Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the number of Huawei-brand satellite phones at the site of the Pahalgam attack. The Epoch Times regrets the error.