On 2 August, China released a
fifteen-page statement reiterating its case and its demand for an Indian withdrawal, but ended on the softer note that ‘China and India are the world’s largest developing countries’.
However, a protracted standoff, stretching into 2018, and involving Chinese pressure on India both on and beyond the border, remains a serious possibility. Given that the India–China relationship was, even before this crisis, at its lowest ebb in many years, this would herald a new phase of heightened mistrust and competition across the Indo–Pacific region. Indeed, even if the dispute is settled a markedly harder edge to relations will persist.
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