“The Chinese alignment, as was apparent from Chinese statements, was inexplicable on the basis of any geographic principle.” In 1960, Sarvepalli Gopal, a historian who had worked in the external affairs ministry and negotiated boundary issues with the Chinese authorities, reflected on being befuddled during the talks.
In the years to come—only a decade-and-a-half since independence—the strangeness of China’s cartographic sense culminated in the Indo-China War. In the decades that followed, despite an upsurge in bilateral trade, the essence of India-China ties has been defined by managing tensions over the border issue. More recently, amid the military standoff in Eastern Ladakh since May 2020, several rounds of diplomatic and military talks have been added to the constant tension-diffusion exercises between the two countries.
