(TibetanReview.net, Apr07, 2016) – India is reviewing its liberal policy of allowing Chinese entrepreneurs to do business in India after Beijing again left it red-faced on Mar 31 by vetoing its move to include Pakistan-based terror chief Masood Azhar in the UN Security Council 1267 sanctions committee list, reported indiatoday.intoday.in Apr 5. Had China not requested the committee, just hours before the deadline of Mar 31, to keep on hold India’s request, the UN would have ensured freezing of his assets and imposed travel restrictions on him.
The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which came to power in 2014, for the first time allowed Chinese investors to come to India by relaxing stringent security clearance norms, overruling objections raised by the intelligence agencies. As a result, 26 Chinese investors got security clearance to do business in India and set up industrial projects mostly in power, telecom, railways and infrastructure sectors.
This became possible after the Indian government decided to remove China from the list of ‘countries of concern’ for doing business in India.
The report said the decision, while being in line with Mr Modi’s ‘Make in India’ campaign, was also motivate by hope that in return China would be an important ally in combating Pakistan-based terror.
India was forced to release Azhar after the hijack of Indian Airlines flight IC 814 from Kathmandu in 1999.
Earlier, in 2008 too, India’s efforts to get Azhar in the UN sanctions list failed because China opposed the move, even though his organization, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), had been banned by UN since 2001.
India’s latest bid to have Azhar designated as a terrorist was made after investigating agencies gathered evidence of his involvement in the attack on the Pathankot Air Force base in Punjab, located close to Pakistan’s border, earlier this year.
Also, in Jul 2015, China blocked India’s efforts in the UN to initiate action against Pakistan after it allowed the release of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.