China against any country interfering in Sino-Nepalese ties

The three day visit to Nepal late this March by general Chen Bingde, chief of (PLA), was important, but apparently slipped under the radar due to India’s preoccupation with another important domestic issue.

The visit achieved some first-ever successes. It was the first visit to Nepal by a Chinese army chief in a decade. It was the first time that China’s PLA signed a military aid agreement directly with the Nepal army, ignoring the request of Nepal’s ministry of defence that the agreement should be signed with it. And, importantly, it was the first time that a Chinese PLA chief asserted on Nepalese soil that China would not tolerate a third country coming in the way of friendship between Nepal and China.

The last statement, which is code for India’s alleged interference, reinforces cautionary remarks by a senior Party leader in 2008 and again in 2009. In November 2008, Liu Hongcai, vice-minister of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) International Liaison Department, which is responsible for the CCP’s relations with foreign countries, stated that ‘China will not tolerate any meddling from any other country in the internal affairs of Nepal—our traditional and ancient neighbour’. Three months later he declared ‘we oppose any move to interfere in the internal affairs of Nepal by any force’.

The 15-member Chinese military delegation included: Qiu Guohong, China’s ambassador to Nepal; Wang Jianping, commander of the Chinese People’s Armed Police Force (PAPF); Yang Jinshan, commander of the PLA’s Tibet Military District; Qian Lihua, director-general of the foreign affairs office of China’s ministry of national defence; Zhang Yanling, director of the Health Department of the General Logistics Department of the PLA; and Wang Jin, deputy director of the First Department (Operations) of the PLA’s General Staff Department (GSD). Inclusion of the commanders of the PAPF and Tibet Military District reflects the importance accorded to issues relating to border security and cementing of military ties.

An important indication of the growing warmth in China-Nepal relations was the highest-ever military aid extended by China to Nepal of US$19.8 million. It includes medical equipment for the Military Hospital in Kathmandu, engineering equipment including heavy construction vehicles, and logistics for rescue operations.
General Chen Bingde, who arrived by special aircraft, was given a warm welcome and received separately by Nepal’s president Dr Ram Baran Yadav, prime minister Jhala Nath Khanal and defence minister Bishnu Poudel. He had extensive talks with his Nepalese counterpart, general Chhatra Man Singh Gurung.

General Chen Bingde prefaced all discussions by emphasising that good Sino-Nepal relations are essential for regional peace and stability. The issue of the almost 20,000 Tibetans resident in Nepal was a central topic. To president Rambaran Yadav and prime minister Jhalanath Khanal, he expressed concern that the European Union (EU) might ‘instigate’ the Tibetans and extracted assurances that Nepali territory would not be permitted to be used against China. Talks with the Nepal army chief were more candid with the Chinese general reportedly voicing China’s resentment with the EU, US and India for ‘instigating the Tibetans’ or interfering excessively in Nepal’s internal affairs. Coincidentally, the Chinese PLA Chief’s visit materialised soon after Kathmandu declined to allow Tibetans settled in Nepal to vote for a new ‘prime minister’, or ‘Kalon Tripa’, of the Tibetan ‘government-in-exile’ this March. Last October, the Nepalese government had disallowed voting in internal elections of the Tibetan organisation, Chu Shi Gang Druk.

This visit, which at once raises the PLA’s profile in Sino-Nepal relations, comes in the backdrop of Beijing’s persistent efforts to expand influence in Nepal. The trend accelerated with the advent of Maoists, and especially Prachanda’s government, in Nepalese politics. China is already trying to create belts of influence by unilaterally disbursing old-age pensions in Nepal’s poorer northern border areas and establishing a string of Chinese Study Centres along Nepal’s borders with India. Once completed, extension of the Lhasa-Xigaze railway to Kathmandu will exponentially expand China’s influence. It will facilitate transportation of huge volumes of goods and supplies to Nepal, thereby bringing Nepal closer to dependence on China. India’s special trade and transit treaty with Nepal will additionally permit Chinese goods to flow into India on extremely concessional terms. New Delhi needs to warn Kathmandu that its relationship with China is now unacceptably poised to cross the ‘red line’.

— The author is a former additional secretary in the cabinet secretariat, Government of India