If you have driven from Chamoli to Badrinath via Govindghat, you would know the place is teeming with ITBP and Army camps/units including the Ladakh Scouts. Most of the people who work there are also retired hill people.
Did Manu miss a story where we did something nasty to preempt this rather silly Chinese action... riding on horseback 5 kms into Indian territory? It was a posturing incident. Next time not all of them may make it back home if the orders from the top are clear to engage.
UK is not poorly manned. Fears are unfounded. Yes, they needed a story to break when Modi landed back from the US so a month old incident gets leaked after Modi's US trip.
Yes, the Chinese walk in sometimes.. take a piss and go back... and we also walk over to the other side and do the same.
This gets repeated along the entire NEFA region. At one spot, both sides exchange booze, at another spot, they exchange expletives and at yet another spot, they exchange blows and at yet another, family photos.
Can war break out between India and China?
Anytime or never but incidents like these will go on. China has expansionist plans and GoI will do everything within its means to buy time and keep the bodycount on our side to min or zero. The Chinese are frustrated and we will force their hand to do something spectacularly stupid like their best buddy, Pakistan... then... hopefully QUAD can come into the picture.