1987 Sino-Indian skirmish
The 1987 Sino-Indian skirmish was the third military conflict between the Chinese People's Liberation Army and Indian Army that occurred at Sumdorong Chu Valley, with the previous one taking place almost a quarter of a century earlier.
Events leading up the near war
After her return to power in 1980 as Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi ordered a general review of India's security plans. In 1982-83, she approved a plan submitted by the Chief of the Army Staff, General K.V. Krishna Rao, to upgrade the sporadic deployment of forces along the Line of Actual Control with the People's Republic of China.
Since the late 1960s, India had developed an elaborate plan to defend the Himalayan frontier with China. This involved the provision of screening defences at the Line of Actual Control, or LAC, and the building of strong defence nodes at key points along the frontier. By the early 1980s, while the forces to man the defences were ready, the nodes were not, and the greatest weakness was in the fact that the servicing road network had not been built. The decision was taken to resume the defence infrastructure construction.