This led to the first ever war between these two nations. China is very sensitive about the territorial sovereignty and having Dalai Lama run a shadow government in India has historically been a major irritator for them.
Following Tibet are two border disputes - one in a region called Aksai Chin and another in a region called Arunachal Pradesh. Both nations claim both regions although China controls the former and India the latter. In both these places the geography favors the current arrangement. With both nations nuclear armed, it is inconceivable for any solution other than formalizing the status quo. However, both nations have a fairly noisy nationalist brigade that doesn't want to lose face by stating that reality. Thus, the border remains unresolved leading to frequent flare up of anger. Balaji Viswanathan's answer to Why did China invade India in 1962?
The third one and the one rapidly becoming important is the domination of Indian Ocean through a Chinese strategy termed the String of Pearls. Here is a map from that Wiki page. The stars in red circles are China's plans for naval bases, stars in blue circles are American bases and Indian flags are Indian bases. Red circles surrounding India's naval bases are feared by India as containment strategy. China’s Silky Indian Ocean Plans
Indian government is spending a lot of energy from preventing this from
happening. This includes both defensive punches such as pulling Sri Lanka, Maldives, Myanmar and Bangladesh back to Indian sphere of influence and offensive punches such as a counter-containment strategy in South China sea. Vietnam And India Sign Oil, Naval Agreement Amid South China Sea Disputes, Angering Beijing. From India's perspective, China cannot have it both ways - either both nations stick to their respective oceans or both nations get involved in both places.
The fourth bone of contention that is yet to erupt fully is water. What is the strategic significance of the Tibetan Plateau to China and India? A lot of subcontinent's water supply comes from the Tibetan Plateau and this is one historic reason why India was uncomfortably having any hostile power control that plateau. However, as China continues to dam in the Tibetan Plateau, the water scarce subcontinent will face greater pressures. China and India are yet to have any kind of water sharing agreement.
Originally Answered: What are the main points of conflict between China and India?China and India do not have much issues, and all issues can be traced back to the following...
From India's POV, the only two issues are
Water security — China controls the source of the Brahmaputra River (east), Indus River (west), and the Sutlej River (west). If China does anything that would alter the water flow into India (it would likely be because China needs to do it for itself, not to screw over India for fun), that could be devastating to populations in those watersheds. However, any dam actions on the latter two would affect Pakistan, so really its the only the Brahmaputra that India worries about. Which leads to...
Pakistan — aka India's evil twin (in their opinion), and China's BFF and only true ally for 65 years and counting. Note that a preferential relationship with Pakistan is not mutually exclusive to good relations with both India and Pakistan. The issues between these two countries are none of China's business, and the onus is on India to solve it, not China to stop supporting Pakistan, which would be an advocation for denial of sovereignty to Pakistan, not much different than Israel vs Arab world conflict. This is out of China's hands.From China's POV,
Anti-China Axis — the West, specifically the US, wants to encircle China, like it did with the USSR during the Cold War, by controlling directly or with significant diplomatic leverage regions physically surrounding China. India being on the western/southern/southwestern frontier of China is a vital part of this encirclement. China wants to convince India that "containing the rise of China" is not as nice as the alternative "rising with China".
Tibet — aka territory that China almost lost forever (joining a huge list of other places since 1842) and still has undefined border due to Western imperialism, and a spiritual extension of Bharat. India's support for the Dharamasala regime is a huge issue for China, but not even headline-worthy for India. However, I think the onus is on China to win over the Dharamasala regime and convince them that living in Tibet is nice. This is out of India's hands.I think all other issues are political smoke-and-mirrors.
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