TheIndian Army will continue to sit it out along the 1,597 km Line of ActualControl in East Ladakh till China restores status quo ante, people familiarwith the development told Hindustan Times after China’s People’s LiberationArmy made an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate a new normal at the border.Indiahas told China on more than one occasion that restoration of the pre-April 20position at the friction points in east Ladakh is a prerequisite fornormalisation of bilateral ties. But China hasn’t given up.

“The PLAhas made it out to be a staring match and wants India to blink. We are alsoprepared to wait it out and take other steps to make Beijing realise theadverse impact the boundary dispute has on the bilateral relationship,” a topgovernment official familiar with discussions within the government on thestandoff said.India has already banned over 100 Chinese mobile applications andits clones, changed the rules to bar Chinese firms from getting governmentcontracts and is next taking a hard look at tie-ups with Chinese universitiesto ascertain if they comply with existing norms.

Themessage, even if not explicitly spelt out, has been that the longer the PLA ledby commander-in-chief Xi Jinping takes to disengage at the border and restorestatus quo, the more damage it will cause to the India-China relations.China,however, hasn’t given up and appears to have rested its hopes on the Indiangovernment coming under pressure from its domestic constituents to end thestandoff.

Like thepolitical row that erupted on Thursday after a defence ministry note that speltout India’s position on the continuing standoff made its way to the governmentwebsite. It transpires that an official, tasked to compile the ministry’sactivities to be placed on the website, adopted a shortcut and put out theDefence Secretary’s monthly report to the Cabinet Secretary without removingoperational details of the standoff.

Chinahas been betting on India taking the easier way out, even putting outstatements that told the world that the standoff was over and the disengagementcompleted at Ladakh. The Indian government didn’t take the bait, promptingBeijing to shift its stand and speak about the positive progress being made.

On theground, the Indian army has told the government, China’s PLA is dragging itsfeet both at patrolling point 17 and 17A (General Area Gogra) and on the fingerfeatures on the banks of the Pangong Tso.At the meeting of the militarycommanders from the two sides, the PLA has been attempting to persuade theIndian Army to yield to a new normal. “The PLA wants a military reward from theIndian army despite being the aggressor that triggered the border tension and plungedties between the two countries to their lowest point in decades,” an armycommander said.The PLA, the senior army officer said, wants India to move backfrom its traditional points where it has had an advantage before it vacateslocations where it had moved in April-May.

Forinstance, the PLA wants to hold its new positions on the first ridge-line nextto the Kugrang River near Gogra so that the Indian domination on the ridgeline getsreduced comparatively.

AtPangong Tso, the PLA is still sitting on the upper heights of finger 4 reliefin lesser numbers and wants Indian troops to withdraw behind its establishedold base at Dhan Singh Thapa post around Finger 3. The PLA also wants IndianArmy to yield to new normal on general area Gogra and has linked its withdrawalfrom finger feature 4 to 8 in depth at the Pangong Tso.

TheChinese proposal, the army officer said, reflected that it had not been able toaccurately assess New Delhi’s determination not to cede ground. Militarily,China’s effort is clearly an attempt to position the PLA on dominating heightsto add more depth to their bases in the Aksai Chin area.