An India-Pakistan crisis would test China's claim to leadership

How might China respond if India and Pakistan moved toward war?

Exploiting the crisis for advantage would contradict responsible global leadership and could help widen the war.

This 2020 discussion treats an India-Pakistan confrontation as a difficult test for China. Beijing might be tempted to use a crisis to improve its own position, but that would conflict with a claim to responsible global leadership. A leading power has to help contain conflicts rather than turn every emergency into an opportunity. Opportunism in this case could intensify the dispute and contribute to a wider war.