While India-China relations have been fairly stable at the strategic level, these have been marked by political, diplomatic and military instability at the tactical level due to Beijing’s increasing belligerence. The latest incident is that of the denial of a Chinese visa to an Indian Air Force officer on the ground that he was born in Arunachal Pradesh. In retaliation, instead of cancelling the visit, the Indian Government decided to reduce the strength of the tri-service military team going to China from 30 to 15 officers.