Afaik, our men were para/heli dropped. The Chinese were extremely upset and deployed M-11 missiles. MEA babu's wet their jocks as usual.
This incident happened when we were facing certain war against Pakistan and operation Brasstacks was in progress. So the whole two-front war threat has persisted for a long, long time before it came into public discourse.
The period between 86-87 was when war broke out almost on two fronts. Also the time when Soviet Union was losing the battle in Afghanistan. Not the greatest time to be a MoD or MEA officer.