evidence: The end of the Cold War and reforms in both countries saw India and China enter into agreements to stabilize the status quo on the border and, with it, the Indian-Chinese relationship. But beginning in the second decade of this century, the People’s Liberation Army began to make increasingly assertive moves. In 2013, for example, PLA troops crossed the Line of Actual Control in Depsang and set up tents before agreeing to withdraw after two and a half weeks. The next year, in Chumar, Indian soldiers blocked Chinese construction workers from building a road into territory controlled by India. In 2017, Beijing again attempted to construct a road and occupy foreign territory, this time in Bhutan’s Doklam plateau, before India intervened. (India has security commitments to Bhutan.) After a 72-day standoff, both sides withdrew from the face-off point, but China has since occupied large parts of the plateau. And then on June 15, 2020, Chinese and Indian forces clashed in the disputed Galwan River valley, resulting in the deaths of at least 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese ones. It was the first lethal conflict between the two nations in 45 years.