Beijing, October 12, 2017 | UPDATED 16:32 IST
In the past week, China has signalled it's not ready to move on.
As much as India has sought to turn the page after the tense 72-day standoff in Doklam, Beijing appears to be in no hurry to do so. A month on, signals from Beijing suggest the August 28 disengagement may have, at best, been a tactical pause, likely prompted by China wanting to host a successful BRICS summit and avoid distractions before President Xi Jinping's key October 18-25 party congress.
In the past week, China has signalled it's not ready to move on. First, Beijing on October 3 issued a third travel advisory, cautioning the Chinese against visiting the Andaman and Nicobar islands without a permit or photographing border facilities, and warning of safety issues in India. This was followed by the state media accusing India of using "political tensions" to impose curbs on imports of drug ingredients from China.
Then, on October 9, Beijing reacted guardedly to defence minister 
Nirmala Sitharaman's weekend visit to the border at Nathu La, where she had an unscripted friendly interaction with Chinese troops, even showing them how to say namaste. The video went viral in China and was praised online, though the foreign ministry responded by reminding India that "The Nathu La pass has been the best witness testifying to the fact that the Sikkim sector of China-India boundary has been delimited by the historical treaty of 1890". This is the same treaty China used to justify its road-building in Doklam.
China hasn't resumed road-building yet, but maintains a troop presence in Doklam which is now larger than it was before the standoff. The Indian external affairs ministry pointed out on October 6 that there were "no new developments at the face-off site" and that "status quo prevails in this area", underlining that New Delhi is less concerned by troop presence than by attempts to permanently establish a Chinese presence on the plateau.
The view in Beijing is that Doklam is just symptomatic of a larger downward trend in ties. Chinese observers saw the Dalai Lama's April visit to Arunachal Pradesh and India's boycott of Xi's Belt and Road Forum the following month as signalling a new approach from Delhi.
China, for its part, has shown no signs of relenting on thorny issues such as its investments in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, or the continued obstruction of sanctions against the Pakistani terrorist, Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar. At BRICS, China's support for a reference to the JeM in the joint statement raised hopes that Beijing might reconsider. Now, as the application to list Azhar comes up for review end-October, Beijing's stance will provide the clearest clue yet on whether relations have really turned the corner.