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China India
Beijing considered recurring Sino-Indian border clashes a
potential threat to its security. Negotiations since the 1962 SinoIndian border war failed to resolve the conflicting border claims,
and each side improved its military and logistics capabilities in
the disputed regions. Since the war, China has continued its
occupation of the Aksai Chin area, through which it built a
strategic highway linking Xizang and Xinjiang autonomous regions.
China had a vital military interest in maintaining control over
this region, whereas India's primary interest lay in Arunachal
Pradesh, its state in the northeast bordering Xizang Autonomous
Region. In 1987, although India enjoyed air superiority, rough
parity on the ground existed between the two military forces, which
had a combined total of nearly 400,000 troops near the border. The
Indian Army deployed eleven divisions in the region, backed up by
paramilitary forces, whereas the PLA had fifteen divisions
available for operations on the border. After a 1986 border clash
and India's conversion of Arunachal Pradesh from union territory to
state, tensions between China and India escalated. Both sides moved
to reinforce their capabilities in the area, but neither ruled out
further negotiations of their dispute. Most observers believe that
the mountainous terrain, high-altitude climate, and concomitant
logistic difficulties made it unlikely that a protracted or largescale conflict would erupt on the Sino-Indian border.
Data as of July 1987
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