1993 is when India and China signed an agreement for "peace and tranquility" and was the first set of CBMs. That year China's GDP was $440 billion and India GDP was $280 billion. Military expenditure in both countries was on par at about $8 billion.
Fast forward 5 years to 1998 when the Vajpayee Government took office and India tested a nuke. India's GDP had grown to $420 billion but China had grown faster to just over $1 trillion.
6 years later in 2004 the Vajpayee Government was defeated at the polls by which time India's GDP had grown to just over $700 billion but China had grown faster to $2 trillion.
And by the time 10 years later in 2014 Manmohan Singh handed over the baton to Modi, India had just breached the $2 trillion mark but by then China was 5x larger at $10.4 trillion.
And China outpacing India's economic growth has not slowed down since. In 2020 China is at $14+ trillion, India at $3.2 trillion.
While these facts are well known, in hindsight what is now apparent is that in all of these past 27 years, China was biding it's time. From a position of military parity in 1993, it built up it's comprehensive national strength until it was in a position by 2020 to flex it's muscles. It had no intention of settling the border dispute and hence never seriously made efforts to demarcate the border. Every single Indian Government since 1993 is at fault for not recognizing the exponentially growing national security threat to India from a rising China.
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