ABSTRACT
How did American perceptions of India and China change after the clashes at Galwan in 2020? By the time the Galwan stand-off occurred in May 2020, US views of China had already hardened and were worsening due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as Beijing's intellectual property theft, coercion in the South China Sea, threats against Taiwan, crackdown in Hong Kong, and Xi Jinping's more repressive domestic policies. Although polling of the American public about favorability toward India saw only modest changes post-Galwan, experts updated their assessments of India's future path. Galwan convinced many experts that Sino-Indian ties would remain fraught, opening new opportunities for US–India security cooperation. Optimism about security cooperation, however, coincided with greater pessimism about democratic backsliding in India. This essay traces these changes using a combination of polling data and expert assessments from both before and after the Galwan clashes. It concludes that although Galwan increased American confidence in India as a security partner, the relationship will remain burdened by different interests and domestic political instincts.
