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When the Indian leadership brings up the border problem, the customary response from Chinese leadership is that boundary disputes should be put in their "proper place" and that the two nations should cooperate to normalize their bilateral relations in other areas. This is also code for telling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to engage Chairman Xi Jinping in constructive conversation rather than bringing up the boundary clarification each time they meet. Simply noted, Emperor Xi should not be approached on the India-China boundary dispute since he is focused on more important global matters.
Even then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recognized this when he first met President Xi in March 2013 on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Durban. President Xi has little time to settle territorial disputes or other significant irritants in bilateral relations, such as China's upstream construction of dams on the Brahmaputra in the Great Bend region of Tibet. It is believed that on his first meeting with the Indian Prime Minister as President, XI was rather aloof and had little time for Indian problems.
The very next month, the PLA and the Indian Army engaged in a standoff in the Depsang Bulge region of East Ladakh, south of Daulet Beg Oldi, and the PLA denied Indian troops the ability to monitor 1976 designated points within the Bulge area or from patrolling points 10 to 13. The PLA once more barred the patrol route in May 2020 as the Chinese Army engaged in aggressive incursion in the Galwan, Khugrang nullah, Gogra-Hot Springs, and Pangong Tso area of East Ladakh after the patrolling rights to the Depsang area were restored in 2014–2015. The PLA claims that the Indian Army's dispute over patrolling rights in Depsang is a 2013 legacy issue, although it hasn't been settled as of yet.Â
In September 2014, when Prime Minister Modi accorded paramount leader Xi the red carpet treatment in Gujarat, his home state, the PLA violated in the Demchok and Chumar area, sparking a major standoff with the Indian Army. While Indian Army commanders who were stationed there claim that the PLA earlier restricted Indian Army patrolling rights in the years 2005 to 2007, the Chinese Army's stance on CNN junction tightened in September 2014. The rights of the Indian Army to patrol CNN Junction have not been restored as of this writing, and they are still being disputed by PLA commanders. In this regard, it is important to keep in mind that the Indian Cabinet Secretary designated all 65 patrolling locations in 1976.
The Chinese approach to border settlement is completely flimsy and deceptive, despite the PLA amassing some 50,000 troops in East Ladakh with rockets, artillery guns, and tanks in the western sector and inducting about six more combined armed brigades in the eastern sector. When PM Modi meets with the supreme leader, who may feel it is not worthwhile for him to address this urgent matter and prefers to keep the boundary pot stoked, he always insists on the LAC being clarified because he understands the importance of the situation.
While China claims that India should not let boundary disputes sever bilateral ties, the reality is exactly the opposite, as Beijing has taken an aggressive stance against India on almost all fronts, with the exception of a few concerns affecting emerging developing nations. Think about this
In order to provide Pakistan, a recognized nuclear proliferator and client state of China, the same status as India, China prevented Pakistan from joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in 2016. One must keep in mind that China was the source of Pakistan's 1990s acquisition of nuclear missile systems and technology via North Korea.
