India and China have been neighbours for thousands of years. But neither were the Chinese aware in detail about the Indians nor vice versa. Both were westwards focused.. However now the relations between India and China have come to focus with the British trying to give a direction to the relations. The relations were given a focus in 1914 – shortly after China underwent an internal revolution of sorts. The British colonial masters set up a three party commission to demarcate the border territories of China, Tibet and India. After a few rounds the Chinese withdrew from the commission by not coming any more to the meetings. In the end, fed up by the Chinese posture, the British side led by McMahon, finalized the agreement with British India and signing the Sino-India border deal.
India and China became free from imperialism in 1947 when the British left India and China moved into communism in 1949. Mao who came to power in China was very angry with India because India had become an agent of Great Britain during the time that they ruled over India. Not only had the border deal been finalised, in spite of Chinese reservations but the British through Indian companies had propagated the use of opium in China. This corrupted the elite in China, who were taken in by consumption of intoxicating stuff. Most of the opium was grown in India and exported by Indian companies like J N Tata had an office in Shanghai and its said that Bombay city grew due the revenues of opium exports that accrued to the Bombay businessmen. The opium exports led to major Opium wars in China in the 1840s and 1850s
The latest round of trouble began in 2020 in Tibet when the Chinese went to capture a little section of Ladakh. Why? Because this part of Ladakh had an outreach to the highway built by the Chinese to a Pakistani port on the Indian Ocean. This will allow Chinese goods from deep inside China to be exported out of the country unhindered. These would allow the Chinese to access middle eastern and African markets to which they had no easy access earlier.
But why is China doing a deal with India now ? Because India is a major importer from China- with things from consumer durables including hospital furniture available. Indian corporates make a bee line there for purchases. India has a huge benefit from these imposts and thus the Chinese in their present level does not want to disturb this.
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