With respect to the South China sea, maritime territorial disputes and rising tension affirm the need for safeguarding maritime security to ensure freedom of navigation and over flight throughout the region. In this context, discuss the bilateral issues between India and China.

Introduction

Tensions in the South China Sea—China's nine-dash line claims, rejected by the 2016 PCA award in the Philippines case, and militarised artificial islands—touch India directly: over half of India's trade transits these waters, and ONGC Videsh explores hydrocarbons in blocks offered by Vietnam. Maritime friction thus overlays an already crowded bilateral agenda with China.

Key bilateral issues

• Unsettled boundary: differing perceptions of the LAC across Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh have produced repeated stand-offs—Depsang (2013), Chumar (2014), Doklam (2017) and Galwan (2020)—with the October 2024 patrolling agreement only beginning normalisation.
• Sovereignty irritants: stapled visas for residents of Arunachal Pradesh and J&K, China's renaming of Arunachal locations, and CPEC running through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
• Economic asymmetry: a bilateral trade deficit approaching $100 billion, concentrated in electronics, machinery and pharmaceutical ingredients, creates strategic dependence even as China restricts market access for Indian pharma and IT services.
• Water security: limited hydrological data-sharing on the Brahmaputra and China's approval of the giant Medog dam raise lower-riparian anxieties.
• Maritime competition: Chinese port footholds across the Indian Ocean, the Djibouti base and survey vessels near Indian waters; conversely, India's naval outreach and freedom-of-navigation stance in the South China Sea irks Beijing.

Conclusion

India's response mixes deterrence with dialogue: border infrastructure and mountain forces, Quad and ASEAN partnerships, supply-chain de-risking, and consistent insistence on UNCLOS-compliant freedom of navigation and overflight—engaging China while refusing to let the maritime order be rewritten unilaterally.