China–India Rivalry: The Saga of Game Changers

Abstract

China and India have surprised the world by their military brinkmanship since mid-2020 amid the global coronavirus pandemic. Also surprising was their sudden disengagement at a key site, Pangong Tso Lake area in the western sector of their disputed boundary, in February 2021. But the continuing crisis has eroded their summit-level consensus reached in 2018 and 2019 that they were neighbourly partners, not rivals. The genesis of this crisis is the clash of their new perspectives on the Kashmir issue which, originally an India–Pakistan affair, has now become a major Chinese concern as well. Two new game changers in the troubled Sino–Indian engagement have caused this crisis. The author suggests a nuanced agreement on mutual military accommodation. Such an accord could create the ambience for serious negotiations to settle the intractable Sino–Indian boundary disputes.