Not how proxy wars work.
> India and Pakistan have enough reasons to hate each other. They don't need America or China's goading
Not how proxy wars work. The backers enable. The proxies fight.
> neither India nor Pakistan would accept their conflict being characterized as a US-China war
This is how proxy wars work. They literally don’t if the proxies realise they’re fighting a foreign war on their homeland.
India and pakistan have contested boundaries and their hostilities doesn't depend on foreign powers. Interestingly, when the hostilities between china and india flared up in 2021, and india moved many divisions from its pakistan border to its chinese border, pakistan didn't change its posturing to put pressure on india. This was acknowledged by indian army during a press briefing. Both so far have never fought against each other for foreign powers, but have fought against each other for their own reasons. So no proxy wars so far.
Yes? That’s what lends it proxy war potential. An endemic war. Like, there were actual conflicts in e.g. Vietnam and Afghanistan before they became proxy wars. Those same risk factors are present today.
Source: I am an Indian.
Nobody said as much. The original comment described how this can escalate.