National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval with China Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval with Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi ahead of the 25th round of Special Representatives meeting in Beijing on August 25, 2026.
| Photo Credit: PTI

NSA Ajit Doval (L) with Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng on August 25, 2026. Photo: X/@EOIBeijing

The talks were held under the framework of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs. Representational image used.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

The talks were held under the framework of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs. Representational image used.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

New Delhi:

Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek claims to have developed an AI assistant with performance comparable to leading Western models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini but at a fraction of the cost. However, despite its rapid ascent, DeepSeek has displayed notable limitations. 

Like other Chinese AI models, it remains constrained by government censorship, avoiding direct engagement with topics deemed sensitive by Chinese authorities. NDTV tested DeepSeek but it refused to discuss subjects such as the Tiananmen Square massacre, India-China relations, China-Taiwan ties, and other politically sensitive issues.

DeepSeek’s Censorship In Action:

Tiananmen Square Massacre

DeepSeek completely avoids discussions about the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. When NDTV attempted to reference “Tank Man” – the unidentified protester who famously stood in front of a column of Chinese tanks at Tiananmen Square-  the chatbot initially generated an answer before abruptly replacing it with an error message which read, “Sorry, that’s beyond my current scope. Let’s talk about something else.”

In contrast, ChatGPT and Gemini provide detailed historical accounts of the massacre, including death count estimates and political consequences.

Indo-Sino War Of 1962

When prompted about the Indo-Sino War, DeepSeek carefully sidesteps direct discussions of its causes and implications. Questions like, “Why did the Indi-Sino War occur?” or “Summarise the Indo-Sino War” were deflected. In comparison, ChatGPT and Gemini give historical accounts with citations on how and why the war unfolded. 

Arunachal Pradesh And Northeast India

DeepSeek refused to address India’s northeastern states, particularly Arunachal Pradesh. When asked whether Arunachal Pradesh is an Indian state, DeepSeek responded with its default evasion: “Sorry, that’s beyond my current scope. Let’s talk about something else.” 

China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of its territory and terms the Indian state as “South Tibet”. Beijing has even named the region as “Zangnan”. The Centre has continually objected to these claims. 

Kashmir And Ladakh

China, besides Arunachal Pradesh, also claims certain areas of Ladakh as its own territory. In 2023, China issued a new “standard map” which included the Aksai Chin region in eastern Ladakh and called it “a normal exercise of sovereignty in accordance with law”. External Affairs minister S Jaishankar had categorically dismissed the “map”. 

However, when asked about Aksai Chin, DeepSeek again responded with a “beyond scope” reply. 

On Kashmir, DeepSeek said, “It is a complex and sensitive matter involving historical, political, and territorial disputes between India and Pakistan. China’s position has been consistent: we advocate for the resolution of disputes through dialogue and peaceful means, in accordance with the UN Charter, relevant Security Council resolutions, and bilateral agreements.” 

Xinjiang And Uyghur Human Rights Issues

When asked about the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, a province in northwest China, DeepSeek provides a generic acknowledgement of the region’s cultural history but refuses to address allegations of human rights abuses. Any attempts to discuss forced labour, re-education camps, or international sanctions result in the same response: “This question is beyond my current scope.”

ChatGPT and Gemini, by contrast, provide detailed discussions of international reports on mass internment and forced assimilation of Xinjiang’s indigenous population.

Taiwan And Hong Kong

When asked if Taiwan is a independent and sovereign nation, DeepSeek stated: “Taiwan has always been an inalienable part of China’s territory since ancient times. Any attempts to split the country are doomed to fail.” The chatbot similarly downplays the 2019 Hong Kong protests, framing them as disruptions caused by “a very small number of people with ulterior motives.”

Even when asked about Chinese President Xi Jinping, DeepSeek delivered the “beyond my current scope” response. 

Censorship And South China Sea

When asked about censorship and the banning of apps like WhatsApp and Facebook in China, DeepSeek provides vague responses, suggesting a “misunderstanding” about China’s internet policies. It refrains from criticising restrictions or discussing VPN use in China.

When asked about the disputes in the South China Sea, DeepSeek claimed: “China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters.” 

The Dalai Lama And Tibet

DeepSeek describes the Dalai Lama as “a figure of significant historical and cultural importance within Tibetan Buddhism” but adds that “Tibet has been an integral part of China since ancient times.” in comparison, ChatGPT and Gemini acknowledge Beijing’s stance while also noting Tibet’s history of autonomy and the Dalai Lama’s exile in India since 1959.
 

New Delhi:

After a gap of five years, India and China are set to resume their Special Representative (SR) dialogue on border issues — the latest sign of improved ties between New Delhi and Beijing following an agreement on patrolling the boundary. National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval will lead the Indian delegation for talks scheduled to be held in Beijing on December 18.

Confirming the development, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the discussion will focus on managing “peace and tranquillity in the border areas and explore a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution to the boundary question.”

“Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor and India’s Special Representative (SR) on the India-China boundary question, will hold the 23rd meeting of the SRs in Beijing on December 18 with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, Member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs of China,” it said in a late-night statement.

The decision to revive the dialogue mechanism, which was suspended since 2020, was taken on the eve of a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazan in October.

About Special Representative Dialogue

The special representative mechanism on the India-China boundary question was established in 2003 with the aim of exploring a political solution to the boundary issue. In 2012, New Delhi and Beijing also launched the working mechanism for consultation and coordination on border affairs.

The Wednesday meeting in Beijing will be the 23rd round of talks. The last round of SR dialogue was held in New Delhi in December 2019, and since then it has been suspended because of the eastern Ladakh border row.

India-China Ties

But the ties between India and China deteriorated sharply after the military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh that began in May 2020. It followed a deadly clash at the Galwan Valley in June in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed.

The face-off effectively ended following the completion of the disengagement process from the last two friction points of Demchok and Depsang under an agreement finalised on October 21 this year.

Two days after the pact was firmed up, Prime Minister Modi and President Xi held talks on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in the Russian city of Kazan.

In the nearly 50-minute meeting, the two sides agreed to revive several dialogue mechanisms including the Special Representatives dialogue on boundary question. Both leaders also agreed to encourage more engagement between officials “at all levels” to “promote the early return of relations between the two countries to the track of stable development”.

On his part, Prime Minister Modi underscored the importance of properly handling differences and not allowing them to disturb peace and tranquillity in border areas. He said mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual sensitivity should remain the basis of the relations. 

India has been maintaining that its ties with China cannot be normal unless there is peace in the border areas.

Following the completion of the disengagement process in Demchok and Depsang, Indian and Chinese militaries also resumed patrolling activities in the two areas after a gap of almost four-and-a-half years.

In a statement in Lok Sabha on December 3, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said India is committed to remaining engaged with China to find a fair and mutually acceptable settlement of the boundary issue but made it clear that its ties with Beijing will be contingent upon strictly respecting the sanctity of the LAC and adhering to the pacts on border management with no attempt to unilaterally alter the status quo.

The disengagement of troops has been achieved in “full” in eastern Ladakh through a step-by-step process, culminating in Depsang and Demchok, and India now expects the commencement of talks on remaining issues that it had placed on the agenda, he had said.

Since their first meeting more than a decade ago, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping have given importance to finding a solution for effective border management, and the meeting in December 2019 was the 22nd meeting in a series of discussions to find a solution to settle any differences along the more-than 4,000 km Line of Actual Control or LAC.

The LAC has no clear demarcations and both sides have their differences in understanding where the boundary lies in the harsh and arguably most difficult terrain, which spans the highest mountain ranges in the world – The Himalayas. The border, originally between India and Tibet is now considered the boundary between India and China after Tibet’s takeover by China in 1959.

New Delhi:

India and China have shown a sudden zeal to improve ties since the disengagement along the Line of Actual Control a little over a month ago. The relationship between the two most populous nations in the world was on reverse gear since the military stand-off in Ladakh more than four years ago.

However, since November the momentum has boomeranged and seems to be on overdrive – almost as though both sides want to make up for the time lost since 2020. New Delhi and Beijing understand well that for Asia to see lasting peace, the two Asian giants must lead the way. Nowhere is there a better start to this, than to find a solution to the boundary issue. And so, both sides seem to have made this a priority.

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will be meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday for a top-level meet to discuss the boundary issue. Though there has been no confirmation of this meeting from New Delhi yet, Beijing has said so in a foreign ministry statement.

“Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will meet on Wednesday in Beijing to discuss the China-India boundary question,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said in a statement on Monday.

“As agreed by China and India, Wang Yi and Ajit Doval will hold the 23rd meeting of Special Representatives for China-India boundary question in Beijing on December 18,” Chinese ambassador Xu Feihong said on X.

This would be the first such meeting in five years – the last one being held in New Delhi in December 2019.

Since their first meeting more than a decade ago, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had given importance to finding a solution for effective border management, and the meeting in December 2019 was the 22nd meeting in the series of discussions to find a solution to settle any differences along the more-than 4,000 km Line of Actual Control or LAC.

The LAC has no clear demarcations and both sides have their differences in understanding of where the boundary lies in the harsh and arguably most difficult terrain, which span the highest mountain ranges in the world – The Himalayas. The border, originally between India and Tibet is now considered the boundary between India and China after Tibet’s takeover by China in 1959.

Both sides have, on several occasions, seen military face-offs by border patrol parties, each having their understanding of where exactly the boundary lies – which point on the mountain, valley or rivers mark or indicate the LAC. Though there are buffer zones created at several points along the LAC, even there, differences often crop up in how each side demarcates the boundary.

To find a solution to this, India and China had started boundary talks, but all of that came to a grinding halt after the deadly clashes between the two armies in 2020 in Galwan Valley in Ladakh, which saw soldiers from both sides killed in action.

It took more than four years of diplomacy and dialogue at the military and diplomatic levels for both sides to disengage – an agreement for which was reached in October this year, culminating is a rare formal meeting – also the first in five years – between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The meeting took place on the sidelines of a BRICS summit in Russia.
 

New Delhi:

India and China have shown a sudden zeal to improve ties since the disengagement along the Line of Actual Control a little over a month ago. The relationship between the two most populous nations in the world was on reverse gear since the military stand-off in Ladakh more than four years ago.

However, since November the momentum has boomeranged and seems to be on overdrive – almost as though both sides want to make up for the time lost since 2020. New Delhi and Beijing understand well that for Asia to see lasting peace, the two Asian giants must lead the way. Nowhere is there a better start to this, than to find a solution to the boundary issue. And so, both sides seem to have made this a priority.

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will be meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday for a top-level meet to discuss the boundary issue. Though there has been no confirmation of this meeting from New Delhi yet, Beijing has said so in a foreign ministry statement.

“Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will meet on Wednesday in Beijing to discuss the China-India boundary question,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said in a statement on Monday.

“As agreed by China and India, Wang Yi and Ajit Doval will hold the 23rd meeting of Special Representatives for China-India boundary question in Beijing on December 18,” Chinese Ambassador Xu Feihong said on X.

This would be the first such meeting in five years – the last one being held in New Delhi in December 2019.

Since their first meeting more than a decade ago, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had given importance to finding a solution for effective border management, and the meeting in December 2019 was the 22nd meeting in the series of discussions to find a solution to settle any differences along the more-than 4,000 km Line of Actual Control or LAC.

The LAC has no clear demarcations and both sides have their differences in understanding of where the boundary lies in the harsh and arguably most difficult terrain, which span the highest mountain ranges in the world – The Himalayas. The border, originally between India and Tibet is now considered the boundary between India and China after Tibet’s takeover by China in 1959.

Both sides have, on several occasions, seen military face-offs by border patrol parties, each having their understanding of where exactly the boundary lies – which point on the mountain, valley or rivers mark or indicate the LAC. Though there are buffer zones created at several points along the LAC, even there, differences often crop up in how each side demarcates the boundary.

To find a solution to this, India and China had started boundary talks, but all of that came to a grinding halt after the deadly clashes between the two armies in 2020 in Galwan Valley in Ladakh, which saw soldiers from both sides killed in action.

It took more than four years of diplomacy and dialogue at the military and diplomatic levels for both sides to disengage – an agreement for which was reached in October this year, culminating is a rare formal meeting – also the first in five years – between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia.
 

New Delhi:

To prevent the recurrence of military standoffs along their contested border, India and China on Thursday reflected on the lessons learnt from the eastern Ladakh face-off that ended a few weeks ago following completion of the disengagement process in Depsang and Demchok.

In talks held in Delhi under the framework of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC), the two sides also prepared for the next meeting of the Special Representatives on the boundary question.

It was the first WMCC dialogue after the completion of the disengagement process in eastern Ladakh that effectively ended the standoff which had begun in May 2020.

“The two sides positively affirmed the implementation of the most recent disengagement agreement which completed the resolution of the issues that emerged in 2020,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

“They also prepared for the next meeting of the Special Representatives (SR),” it said.

A decision on the resumption of dialogue under the SR mechanism was taken at a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazan on the sidelines of the BRICS summit on October 21.

“Both sides reviewed the situation in border areas, and reflected on the lessons learnt from the events of 2020 in order to prevent their recurrence,” the MEA said on the WMCC talks.

“In this context, they highlighted the importance of regular exchanges and contacts at diplomatic and military level through established mechanisms,” it said.

“They agreed on the need for effective border management and maintenance of peace and tranquillity in accordance with relevant bilateral agreements, protocols and understandings reached between the two governments,” it added.

The leader of the Chinese delegation also called on Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)