China - Taiwan - India
India could have been a deterrent to China but for incompetence of leadership from 1947 to date & lack of public interest/knowledge in geopolitics. There is more expertise in theatrics rather than anything of substance among our leaders. Defense Minister tieing Rakhi to Chinese soldiers & Chinese making Shaheeds of 40 Indian soldiers or making Chinese leader sit on a swing in Sabarmati are the high points of Indian disfunctional diplomacy. That is why not only historically but even now India is seen as a soft target, very easy to trifle with. China on the other hand rose from the ashes of civil war, Japanese occupation, atrocities, broken infrastructure & ruined cities to fight the US in the Korean war from 1950-53 & challenged India from the early 1950s. Today it ranks as an industrial, economic, technological & military superpower. There is a tendency here to ascribe China's rise to dictatorial communism. May be so to an extent but not entirely. Otherwise cou...