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The leadership transition that took place in the People’s Republic of China between autumn 2012 and spring 2013 drew the attention of Indian authorities mostly because of the friendly gestures to which it gave rise. These goodwill gestures raised hopes of progress on the security issues that had been disrupting the otherwise intense and wide-ranging relations between the two countries. Yet as China’s new leadership tried to deploy this policy of goodwill towards India, a serious incident in the border areas came as a reminder that the Sino-Indian relationship was still marked by a profound asymmetry. This incident, the most serious since the late 1980s, also confirmed that the two neighbors were locked in a worrying security dilemma. Although the principle of status quo in the border areas has remained the point of reference for authorities on both sides, it has been weakened due to small-scale – albeit highly symbolic – military movements in the Himalayas.