An expert on Chinese affairs, SRIKANTH KONDAPALLI is Professor of Chinese Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He completed his Chinese studies in India as well as in China, and obtained a Ph.D. He learnt Chinese at Beijing Language & Culture University.

The deployment, perhaps one of the biggest in the recent years, comes at a time when India and China are locked in a hitherto unprecedented standoff – for eight weeks now – at multiple points along their border.