with all due respect, but i think some of u are not basing ur conclusions on some key facts, which once taken into account, would make the chinese defence strategy towards india seem much more logical.
the reason china has deployed very few resources to the indian boarder is not because of a lack of knowledge on the indian military capacity or an underestimation of that capacity (it would be very dangerous to underestimate an adverasry, especially one as strong as india).
the main reason the PLA has little in tibet is because there isnt much of great strategic value to defend there. (very few large, modern cities and little manufacturing capaity). compair that to the highly developed coastal regions and u will see that an attack in the eastern parts of china would hurt a great deal more then a similar attack in the western parts. so it is more important to china that any attack in the east be repelled ASAP, hence the PLA’s tendency to concerntrate its best forces in the east.
victor has already pointed out another reason. that is that while the higher chinese positions in tibet offer great advantages to ground forces in defence, it greatly restricts the air force’s ability abilities to operate its assets to their full potential. so the best solution would be not to operate the assets from that area. (PLAAF fighters can always refuel using tankers over central china, indian fighters would be lucky to penetrate that far never mind tankers. )
based on the above, it is my view that the PLA plans to use a similar defensive tactic as the russians inavertantly employed to great success in WWII – allow the enemy to pentrate deep into ur teritory but wearing them down in the process, while china puts its massive manufacturing ability into overdrive and builds up its forces for the counter strike.
once indian forces have penetrated far enough into chinese territiry, it will be they who are facing the restrictions of the high altitudes, giving the PLAAF an extra advantage. and unlike china, india can make few of its weapons systems wholely indiginously, and in times of war, it may find many of its suppliers less willing to provide equipment(especially the europeans whose equipment seem to be prefered to the russian ones) this will mean that attrition is likely to hurt the indian forces more then the chinese, so it will be in china’s best interest to prolong the conflict to maximise on its strengths while exposing india wholy to its weaknesses.
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