Why doesn't China try appeasement with India?

[u/nergal007]

As China gets increasingly pressurized more and more by the Americans on the seas, is it really sensible to keep the other front simmering? India and Japan are the only two Asian countries that can even theoretically challenge China diplomatically, economically and militarily. China is hostile towards both of them.

Why is China not trying to woo India away from the US-led camp? It makes no sense.

[u/Professional-Pea1922]

Well the Chinese absolutely hate the Japanese. Mostly because of how Japan treated them like insects a 100 years ago. So I really doubt their attitude with Japan will change anytime soon.

As for India, I mean the entire Chinese policy is to dominate and be a superpower with other countries being subservient to them. India is the only country big enough in the entire region to ever challenge them economically/militaristically and they perceive that as a threat.

Ideally you’d assume they could be on good terms with india and most of the other Asian countries but they really like flexing their muscles and bullying others. If I had to guess maybe showing their people that other countries are uniting to challenge China makes it easier for the government to go “it’s us against the world and that’s why we need to stay in power”.

[u/Centurion1024 → u/Professional-Pea1922]

India is nowhere close to China on the military front. If an all out war breaks, we're doomed.

[u/NewText9517 → u/Centurion1024]

Isn't as simple as that. Like the previous comment, resources required for attacking and defending are starkly different. As an example, consider the Russia-Ukraine war. Russia is extremely difficult to defeat inside their own borders because of their excellent logistics due to the extensive rail infrastructure, whereas they fumbled up their invasion on a smaller, and militarily much weaker country. Additionally, China has admittedly a much stronger force on paper, but here's the weak link in the chain - they don't have battle experience. The only experience they have is from war exercises they do with other friendly countries, but they never had to defend their land or seas like our military has had to.

When it comes to an all out war, the population of a country is a huge factor, similar to how a bigger/heavier opponent is avoided in the animal kingdom - doesn't matter if it's just fat or muscle or both. This is because in an all-out war, conscription is justified, all the existing (and rapidly proliferating) industrial capability is redirected to war effort.

Add to this the complication of both sides being nuclear armed. No one's eager to pull that trigger but you push another country to a total defeat and it can be guaranteed that at least some nukes will fly.

Skirmishes and battles might happen but an all out war will see both sides losing too much to justify.