evidence: One interpretation is that the Chinese are signalling something. The interpretation, too, is a bit troublesome. In their study Paul H.B. Godwin and Alice L. Miller (China’s Forbearance Has Limits: Chinese Threat and Retaliation Signaling and Its Implications for a Sino- American Military Confrontation INSS, NDU, 2013) note that there is a hierarchy of signals. At the first level are statements of Politburo members, PRC officials, PLA leaders in meetings with foreign guests. At another level are speeches by these leaders at banquets and press conferences and at the third level are interviews of PRC leaders with the foreign media. Then there are official protests by government spokesmen or Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson. At the third level are editorials and commentaries in the People’s Daily and other authoritative newspapers. In the case of the Chinese action on the Depsang plains, the act of establishing an encampment was the signal and the statements and commentaries quite benign. Indeed, at the highest level the statements were quite baffling. The provocative Chinese action on the Depsang Plain must be taken in conjunction with two statements of Communist Party of China General Secretary Xi Jinping. On 19 March, speaking to BRICS country correspondents in Beijing, Mr. Xi repeated the five proposals for better China-India relations that had originally been mooted by his predecessor, Hu Jintao -- the need to maintain "strategic communication" to undertake "win win" cooperation, foster stronger "cultural ties" and coordination in multilateral affairs and finally to accommodate each other’s "core concerns."