A reset to India-China ties? How things unfolded 1947 onwards?

India–China relations from 1947 to 2020 underwent significant shifts, marked by early friendship, war, strategic mistrust, and cautious engagement. After India’s independence in 1947, ties with the newly established People’s Republic of China (1949) began positively, with India supporting China’s entry into the UN and both countries signing the Panchsheel Agreement in 1954, based on mutual respect and non-interference. However, relations soured due to the 1959 Tibetan uprising, which led the Dalai Lama to seek asylum in India straining trust. This culminated in the 1962 Sino-Indian War, which led to a freeze in diplomatic ties.

From the late 1980s onward, both countries worked to stabilize relations. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s 1988 visit to Beijing marked a thaw, followed by confidence-building agreements in the 1990s and early 2000s. Bilateral trade expanded rapidly during this period, with China becoming one of India’s top trading partners. However, strategic rivalry persisted, especially due to China’s close ties with Pakistan, border infrastructure buildup, and India’s alignment with the U.S. and Indo-Pacific strategies.

Border tensions resurfaced periodically, including the Doklam standoff in 2017, and India grew increasingly wary of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and assertiveness in South Asia. Despite rising trade, by 2020, relations were strained and fragile set to deteriorate further with the Galwan Valley clash in June 2020, which marked the most serious military confrontation in decades and ended the era of "managed competition."

Then in 2020 there were App bans & scrutiny where India banned 59 major Chinese mobile and desktop apps in late June, citing national security. Further, it lead to Visa tightening where Visas for Chinese businesspersons, academics, and advocacy groups began requiring extra security scrutiny. In this backdrop India and the US signed the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) in October.

Then post this in 2021 it was reported that disengagement began at key friction points like Pangong Tso. However, in 2022, on December 9, soldiers clashed in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang region, leaving dozens wounded. But India did took some modest steps during this period in favor of the Chinese for example, India abstained on a UNHRC resolution about Xinjiang in October 2022.

In this backdrop Russia Ukraine war had already started (since February 2022) and in 2023, PM Modi and Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of a BRICS summit in Johannesburg , agreeing to intensify disengagement efforts.

Than major agreement took in 2024 when both sides signed a deal in October 2024 to restore patrolling norms along the LAC, easing tensions and Modi and Xi held their first formal talk in five years in Kazan (October) and after this NSA Ajit Doval visited China in December for Special representative talks, formalizing dialogue channels.

2025 onwards: The reset

Coming to 2025, in January Agreements in principle were made to resume direct flights, reinstate the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, and restore hydrological data sharing mechanisms. Then in April 2025, China issued over 85,000 visas to Indian citizens by April 9, signaling a revival of people‑to‑people ties.

Further, Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh also met with his Chinese counterpart in Qingdao, and had discussions on border disputes.

In July, India resumed issuing tourist visas to Chinese citizens, ending a five‑year suspension and India and China agreed to resume direct flights and re‑open border trade at three points (Lipulekh, Shipki La, Nathu La), expand the Kailash pilgrimage, and enhance visa facilitation across categories. Chinese side agreed to deliver on fertilizers, Tunnel Boring Machines and rare earths, and this has been a a big development as China had put a brake on Indian imports for nearly an year. China supplies nearly 30 per cent of fertilizers to India for agriculture, rare earths for auto parts and tunnel boring machine for road and urban infrastructure development.

Trade & Economic Interdependence

• Trade figures: In FY 2024–25, India ran a trade deficit of $99.2 billion with China, with only ~$14.3 billion in exports.

• India’s imports: Chinese exports to India exceeded $100 billion in 2024.

• Export growth slow: India's exports to China rose just ~19.2% over a decade, from $12 billion to $14.3 billion.

• Dependency concerns: India continues to rely on China for critical components, such as over 40% of its pharmaceutical materials, and supply chains in renewable energy.

There has been a chatter that the recent thaw in India–China relations is primarily driven by Trump-era tariffs, which pushed China to recalibrate its foreign policy and engage more constructively with India. While that is partially true, the reset between the two Asian giants had already been unfolding gradually over several months. India and China are bound—if not compelled—to engage with each other due to a host of converging strategic and economic interests in an increasingly unstable global landscape. India also maintains a deep and evolving strategic partnership with the United States, while China remains an immediate and powerful neighbor. In this context, a recalibration in New Delhi’s approach was both pragmatic and inevitable. However, this renewed engagement does not suggest that bilateral ties between India and China are back to normal or that underlying tensions have been resolved.

Notably, even the Chinese side—albeit indirectly—has acknowledged that they attempted to unilaterally alter the border dynamics by increasing troop presence and disregarding prior agreements related to patrolling protocols along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Overall, let's keep a closer look on the developments.

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By: Ashutosh Garg (Policy, tech and International Relations enthusiast)