History is most unforgiving. As historical mistakes cannot be undone, they have a complex cascading effect on a nation's future. China was able to bring the world to its knees with its export of the China virus via international air travel while simultaneously banning its domestic travel. China just won World War III: Defeated the world with its booming economy and biowarfare techniques.
Unfortunately but unsurprisingly, China has used this current powerplay to undermine Indian sovereignty. The aggressive move by PLA and the Chinese Communist party along LAC proves that China is an existential threat to India. It started in May 2020, with China grooming its new puppet Nepal's communist government to pick a new fight with India - in this case, regarding Nepal's false maps claiming Indian territories. It is now clear that India needs to treat Nepal as a hostile state that poses a threat until there is a change from the current pro-China communist Nepalese government, especially Nepal's PM KP Sharma Oli, who is essentially now a Chinese puppet. The Indian government needs to rethink trade policies and the preferential treatment that Nepal enjoyed for the past seven decades.
At the same time, China audaciously decided to venture into Indian territories along LAC, to "show India its place". The main reasons behind this aggressive move seem to be that India's recent border infrastructure development along the LAC, which China itself has been doing for the past seven decades, and fear of India warming up to the QUAD global alignment (India, US, Japan, and Australia).
Also, India was able to get a leadership position at the WHO, which is a nightmare scenario for China, especially if the WHO, under new leadership, decides to deeply look into the Chinese Communist Party's role in the Wuhan Virus. Moreover, finally, if there is one thing that makes China lose its sleep is a stable and strategic partnership between QUAD countries that include India, USA, Japan, and Australia. Along with the Indo-Pacific QUAD, India would likely attract global countries who are trying to move manufacturing and trade away from China as a potential destination.
As much as China wants the world to believe that "China does not consider India as a threat" or "China's rivalry is with US not India", one has to look at the actions, not the words. The following are some of the Chinese actions regarding India in recent history. Ever since Xi Jinping has become president of the People's Republic of China, China put its expansionist ambitions into overdrive. Xi Jinping started the "One Belt One Road" initiative, started altercations with multiple countries in the South China Sea. China also started the construction of CPEC through Indian Kashmir illegally occupied by Pakistan at the moment.
Incidents where India benefited from lessons from 1962 failure in the India-China paradigm:
While we only talk about the 1962 war when it comes to India-China wars, there is another lesser extent war in 1967 in Nathu La and Cho La where the Indian army completely humiliated and crushed China's PLA army. Unfortunately, pro-Chinese/pro-congress Lutyens media were successful in hiding this part of history that clearly shows Indian upper hand when it comes to ground war confirming the stereotype of the PLA army as "paper-dragon army."
India was able to crush Pakistan's attempt to invade Kashmir in 1965 successfully. What is essential is that India was able to prevent Chinese involvement by preemptively strengthening Chinese borders.
A proper Indian Intelligence unit RAW was set up in 1968.
After the 1962 war, India has never lost a war with either China or Pakistan. India was able to successfully pose a strong challenge to China, avoiding direct Chinese involvement in India-Pakistan wars.
In 1987, when China tried to intimidate the Indian army, when it came to face-to-face battle, China-backed down realizing the extent of Indian army preparation in case of any escalation.
In 2017, this time, India was able to cross the border successfully (into Bhutan) to defend India's close ally by stopping Chinese plans to militarize critical junction by intimidating Bhutan, an Indian ally. After months-long intimidation and stare down tactics by Chinese media, government, and army. China had to turn back; this is even with the Chinese now a more prosperous economy and superior global outreach. Too bad if only India had a similar strong leadership during Tibet invasion of a then Inferior China in the 1950s. Unfortunately, this later turned into a strategic setback to India after the Wuhan meeting between Modi and Xi where PLA finished the construction in Doklam.
After the June 15 Galwan incident where 20 Indian soldiers were martyred, there are signs from Modi's government signalling a massive shift from Chinese appeasement policy including purging Chinese contracts in Indian projects and banning spyware apps like Tiktok and 58 other Chinese mobile apps.
Now that we have a decent backdrop of India-China past relations. Let us get into an essential topic: What should India do now? This has to be from both the Indian government and the Indian public. Because unlike China, India is a democracy with state governments holding key powers in non-federal issues. As a rapidly growing economy, we also have to abide by World Trade Organization rules that prevent relying solely on the Indian government regarding the Threat of China. On the bright side, now is a rare golden opportunity for India to strike while the iron is hot and avoiding repeating of grave blunders that Nehru and previous Congress governments did in the past. These opportunities include QUAD alliance and reform of Indian military capability.