India has redirected at least 50,000 additional troops to its border with China, in a historic shift toward an offensive military posture against the world’s second-biggest economy.
Although the two countries battled in the Himalayas in 1962, India’s strategic focus since the British left the subcontinent has primarily been Pakistan — with the long-time rivals fighting three wars over the disputed region of Kashmir.
Yet since the deadliest India-China fighting in decades last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration has sought to ease tensions with Islamabad and concentrate primarily on countering Beijing.