quality:correction, quality:corruption
Military conflict with China

In 1967, a military conflict alongside the border of the Himalayan Kingdom of Sikkim, then an Indian protectorate, broke out between India and China. India won by repelling Chinese attacks and forced the subsequent withdrawal of Chinese forces from the region. Throughout the conflict, the Indian losses were 88 killed and 163 wounded while Chinese casualties stood at 340 killed and 450 wounded, according to the Indian Defense Ministry. Chinese sources made no declarations of casualties but alleged India to be the aggressor.

In December 1967, Indira Gandhi remarked these developments that "China continues to maintain an attitude of hostility towards us and spares no opportunity to malign us and to carry on anti-Indian propaganda not only against the Indian Government but the whole way of our democratic functioning." In 1975, Gandhi incorporated Sikkim into India, after a referendum in which a majority of Sikkimese voted to join India. The move was condemned as being a "despicable act of the Indian Government" by China. Chinese government mouthpiece China Daily wrote that "the Nehrus, father and daughter, had always acted in this way, and Indira Gandhi had gone further".