India and China’s Uneasy Coexistence

China prefers low-cost gray-zone coercion over resolving the India border dispute, betting time and capability gaps favor Beijing.

• China's decision logic: Gokhale says China's use of force is driven by achieving political goals, not cost-benefit math on men and material, and has a recurring domestic-crisis trigger (1962, 1969, 1979).
• Gray zone over war: Beijing prefers cheap, indefinite coercion over protracted conflict, believing India is "under pressure" and that time favors China given the widening capability gap.

Themes, sentiment and reasons are AI-written paraphrases, checked so they never quote an episode. They may contain errors. Not investment advice. Episodes remain the property of their creators.