Recently a commentary in The Japan Times titled “India’s appeasement policy toward China unravels” questioned India’s policy toward China. India and China have many outstanding issues including border disputes, the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and China’s close security ties with Pakistan against India’s interests.
That India and China have had an uneasy relationship since the 1950s is well-documented. China’s military takeover of Xinjiang and Tibet in 1949 and 1950 forever blurred the historical boundaries. The freshly minted People’s Republic of China steadily encroached on large tracts of Indian territory in the Aksai Chin region of Ladakh leading to the border conflict in 1962 in which China occupied more territory.
In the halcyon days of the 1950s, Indian pronouncements were blithely laced with calls for fraternal bonds between the world’s two most populous countries. India supported China at the United Nations when the latter was pilloried as the aggressor on the Korean Peninsula. India even lobbied to have China represented on the U.N. Security Council. Preoccupied with global causes such as chairing the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission in the Korean War and co-founding the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence at Bandung, India was blindsided by a militaristic China.