The last thing China needs right now is another hit to its GDP, which would be quite substantial if it was subjected to similar international sanctions as Russia was for its actions in Ukraine.

This isn't meant to be a provocative question: What's the messaging from India been like?

India is actually being quite slow in their response. The general feeling seems to be that India doesn't want escalation, but also do not want to be seen as being bullied by China.

The situation right now is being described as 'tense but calm'.

China changed all of the nation's maps to now include an added claim on a new piece of land in Ladakh. China also works very closely with their new proxy Govt (Oli's Nepal). So, at the same time Nepal is also changing their maps and laying claim on new land that they did not previously stake claim to.

So now technically India is occupying Chinese property, and they China been clear in wanting to use force to claim it.

They have been claiming Arunachal Pradesh from a long time.

We are still in a semi-lockdown and daily cases are still increasing. It's definitely a bad time to go for a war and the government knows that. More efforts are being put into decreasing the nation's reliance on Chinese imports. Previous tresspasses by the PLA were addressed through diplomacy and the results were good. Same approach is being tried now too.

India is seen as too soft by us in the West, for good or for worse.

That's fair. For decades we did not have enough will to retaliate against our adversaries. The result was there were terror attacks in almost every major Indian city. It's only in the last five years that the leadership has shown some resolve to irradiate terrorism. The perception of India being soft will take some time to wear off.

There's no forward policy this time and diplomacy is being prioritised from both sides.