This article generalises the conditions under which the China–India relationship descends into periods of military conflict or attains periods of peace. Adapting from existing scholarship, the article proposes three conditions that govern the occurrence of periods of military conflicts: political and military assertions of territorial claims, tacit support for separatism in either country, and competition for influence in South Asia. Through a comparative a study of two long periods of military conflict (between the late-1950s and mid-1970s; between the late-2000s and early-2020s), a long period of peace (between the late-1980s and mid-2000s), and a short period of military conflict in 1986–1987, this article demonstrates that a heightening of all three conditions leads to protracted periods of military conflict, while their stabilisation leads to protracted periods of peace. The heightening of only one or two of the conditions may lead to a short period of military conflict.
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