Ok, let's see what the issues are and why it's going to be sticky for us.
As we know, in April 2018, PM Modi informally met with President Xi in Wuhan. This was after the 2017 Doklam crisis.
Both sides agreed that they would ‘cooperate with each other’ and not be rivals. But according to China, India has reneged on that consensus. The Chinese are not happy at what India is doing which is 'against their supreme national interest'.
They cite instances of betrayal which includes:
1. India’s growing strategic footprint in support of the Indo-Pacific strategy.
2. The Quad dialogue meant to contain China.
3. A host of bilateral trade issues where they think India has acted against the interests of Chinese companies keen on business in India; ostensibly at the behest of the US.
4. Revocation of Art 370 in August 2019 and the legal change made to J&K when it was divided into two separate Union Territories of Jammu-Kashmir and Ladakh. As we are aware, China had protested, saying that the creation of the UT of Ladakh has altered the status quo. However, unmindful of China’s protests, the HM Amit Shah declared in parliament that Aksai Chin was part of the Ladakh UT. External affairs minister Jaishankar tried firefighting and to explain to Beijing that the new constitutional status of Ladakh had not changed things on the ground but that did not assuage the Chinese leadership.
5. In the midst of all this, PM Modi in a virtual summit with Australian PM Scott Morrison raised the level of bilateral relations – giving a fillip to the Quadrilateral Dialogue and the Indo-Pacific strategy, which pissed off Beijing. This led to a further hardening of positions between China and India at the diplomatic and military level talks.
And Galwan will be the bone of contention as it dominates the road to DBO which poses a threat and jeopardises PLA's future plans for the Karakoram Pass and to other objectives in Ladakh. We need to be prepared for the long haul.