In October–November 1962, China and India fought a short but intense war along their disputed Himalayan frontier, triggered by competing territorial claims and India's 'Forward Policy' of establishing outposts in contested areas. China declared a unilateral ceasefire and withdrew from most gains in the eastern sector (near Arunachal Pradesh) but retained control of Aksai Chin in the west, a strategically important plateau linking Tibet and Xinjiang. India considers Aksai Chin part of Ladakh and the loss of the territory a lasting national grievance; the two countries have never agreed on a final boundary in this sector, and it remains patrolled along the Line of Actual Control.
China and India fought a brief border war in the Himalayas; China retained control of the Aksai Chin plateau in the western sector, which India claims as part of Ladakh
Aksai Chin has effectively no permanent inhabitants. The disputed area of roughly 38,000 square kilometres is a high-altitude salt desert above 4,000 metres, crossed historically by Ladakhi and Uyghur trade caravans and used seasonally for grazing, with no settled population to serve as a denominator; this is one reason the Chinese road across it went unnoticed by India until 1957.
Indian official figures record 1,383 killed, 1,696 missing, 548-1,047 wounded and 3,968 taken prisoner; Chinese official figures give 722 PLA killed and 1,697 wounded. Adding the two official counts of the dead gives about 2,100, and the upper end allows for the Indian missing who never returned. Britannica's often-quoted figure of 7,000 Indians conflates killed with captured and should not be read as a death toll. The two governments have never reconciled their counts, and China's figures are the less independently verifiable of the two. China retained roughly 38,000 sq km of Aksai Chin, which India continues to claim as part of Ladakh.
China