Jayadeva Ranade: China includes Nepal in its circle of friendship

In recent months, China has accelerated efforts to expand influence over Nepal. High level governmental visits have been reinforced by financial largesse, conveying that Beijing’s overtures are not cosmetic, but robust diplomatic initiatives intended to elevate Sino-Nepal relations to a new plane. The pronounced role of China’s security and military establishment in formulating the policy towards Nepal is apparent.

Within months of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Chief, General Chen Bingde, travelling to Kathmandu in April and signing a US$19.8 million agreement, China’s security czar and one of the nine members of its all-powerful Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC), Zhou Yongkang, arrived in Kathmandu on August 16, 2011 on a three day visit. His was the highest level visit to Nepal from China in eight years.

Designated Chinese President Hu Jintao’s ‘special envoy’, he led an unusually large 60-member delegation, which included three ministers and four vice-ministers. An especially new feature of this visit was the emphasis on cooperation in security matters. China additionally extended Nepal a grant of RMB (Yuan) 6 million (Rs 67.4 million) for security equipment for the Nepal Police.

Considering that Nepal’s budget for its police force is approx US$264 million, it appears that the grant is intended primarily to strengthen monitoring of the Tibetan community in Nepal and security along the borders with China’s Tibet Autonomous Region.

Though official briefings did not indicate that the Tibet issue was discussed, it was undoubtedly high on the agenda as discernible from the restrictions imposed by Nepalese authorities on the Tibetan community in the days prior to the visit. The Dalai Lama’s representative in Kathmandu was, in fact, asked to leave the capital though he is a Nepali national.

The visit of Zhou Yongkang, who was referred to in the official Chinese media by his title of Secretary of the CCP Central Commission for Political and Legal Affairs, assumes potentially added significance in the backdrop of reports that China is establishing numerous Intelligence Training Establishments.

In a programme initiated in 2008, China has established Intelligence Colleges in Nanjing, Guangdong, Beijing, Shanghai, Xian, Qingdao and Harbin with the eighth opening in Hunan this July.

Graduates of these colleges, which aim to recruit and train 30-50 specially selected undergraduates each year, could well be deployed in Nepal. Nepalese security personnel could also be trained in China.

Zhou Yongkang met a cross-section of Nepalese politicians including Nepal’s President Ram Baran Yadav, caretaker Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal, Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), or UCPN-M, Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala and leaders of the Madhesi parties.

His political agenda was discernible during the meeting with Prachanda, Chairman of the UCPN-M, on August 16. This merited special mention in the official Chinese media. During this meeting Zhou Yongkang observed that ties between the CCP and the UCPN-M had achieved a ‘great leap forward’ since relations were established in 2007.

He recalled that when Prachanda visited China in 2008, as Nepalese Prime Minister, he had reached a broad consensus with Chinese leaders for promoting bilateral relations to lay a solid foundation for closer China-Nepal relations.

China’s security czar expressed gratitude to the UCPN-M for its firm support on issues related to ‘China’s core interests’—a code-word for the Tibet issue.

Zhou Yongkang urged the UCPN-M, as the largest party in the Nepali Constituent Assembly (CA), to resolve differences with other Nepalese political parties through dialogue and push forward the peace and constitutional process. Prachanda described the Chinese leader’s visit as a significant event coming at a ‘critical moment of Nepal’s political transition towards its peace process’ and in Nepal-China friendship.

Assuring that the UCPN-M will work towards early completion of the peace and constitutional process, Prachanda asserted that Nepal has benefitted from China’s economic development and will further promote inter-party exchanges.

The four agreements signed during the visit were Economic and Technical Cooperation, Framework Agreement on Provision of Concessional Loan for Nepal, Letter of Exchange on Security Equipment for Nepal, and Concessional Loan Agreement for Upper Tamakoshi ‘A’ Transmission Line Project.

Chinese aid includes a grant of 150 million Chinese Yuan (Rs 1.69 billion), 154 million Yuan (Rs 1.73 billion) as soft loan for extension of the transmission line, and a grant of Yuan 6 million (Nepal Rs 67.4 million) for security equipment for Nepal’s Police.

China’s objectives in securing a tight grip over Nepal are manifold. The highest priority is for neutralising the threat perceived as emanating from Tibetans residing in Nepal and their potential, in collusion with what Beijing calls ‘hostile forces’, for destabilising Tibet.

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping recently described Tibet ‘as an important security screen for the country’ and ‘major base of strategic resources reserves’. It would also facilitate Beijing’s efforts to acquire influence in the Indo-Himalayan belt and help China further extend its security buffer.