Predicting when the Chinese will attack India has become the favourite past time of Indian strategists. Recently, it was suggested that China will attack India by 2012 primarily to divert attention from its growing domestic troubles. Though this suggestion received wide press coverage, the Indian media was more interested in sensationalizing the issue than investigating the claims with the seriousness they deserved. Meanwhile, the official Chinese media picked up the story and gave it another spin. It argued that while a Chinese attack on India is highly unlikely, a conflict between the two neighbours could result from an escalation of the aggressive Indian policy toward the present border dispute with China. Unsurprisingly, the Chinese media went on to speculate that the “China will attack India” line might just be a pretext for India’s deployment of more troops in the border areas.