Why Chinese and Indian Troops Are Clashing, Again

China and India, two nuclear-armed powers with a combined population of 2.7 billion, have gathered thousands of troops at a disputed border in a remote area of the Himalayas. It’s the latest flare-up in a long history of border troubles between the two countries that includes a war in 1962 and a skirmish near Bhutan in 2017. The tensions along the 3,488 kilometer (2,167 miles) un-demarcated border come at a time of growing Chinese assertiveness and as India grapples with the coronavirus pandemic and an economy in crisis.

On May 5, China surprised India by deploying thousands of troops in three main locations, two of them in Ladakh, a remote part of northernmost India abutting Tibet (an autonomous region of China) and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The border is ill-defined and the reason for the maneuver remains unclear, but a series of recent actions by India regarding the territories of Ladakh, whose people are culturally close to Tibet, and Kashmir have drawn angry responses from its neighbors. China has accused India of seeking “to undermine its territorial sovereignty.” This year’s confrontations were centered on the Galwan River area and Pangong Tso, a glacial lake at 14,000 feet (4,300 meters) in the Tibetan plateau.