Chairman Mao line
@roma envisaged is out of question under current circumstances. When Mao and Zhou put forward the "swap" deal China was earnest to bail herself out of isolation even at the cost of Chinese territory as China was under embargo and in confrontation with the US over Korea and Taiwan. But then Nehru rejected amid the conceit of being in a position of strength and instructed arrogantly to "throw them out". How can China make more concessions now that the relative strength of India and China has been reversed in China's favour? It's India who is the most isolated in South Asia, being encircled by the string of pearls.
As a reference, after economic recovery Putin and Medvedev paid unprecedented visits to Kurils and pledged investments there to fortify Russian grip of S. Kurils. Is it imaginable Yeltsin was even willing to cede 2 islands of South Kurils to Japan in exchange for aids back in 1990s?
Furthermore,
in no hurry shall China be to resolve the boundary with India before a strategy is fully thought out, always bearing in mind the all-weather partnership with Pakistan. It will lead to loss of the balance on the subcontinent if China rushes to appease India who will never stop undermining China by all means in a wishful thinking. Never shall any blunder of that sort be made to risk alienating Pakistan who's pivotal in China's Afghanistan strategy and gateway to Arabian Sea and the Gulf.
