Birendra P Mishra
Republica
January 6, 2015
In the recent years visits by the Chinese delegations to Nepal have become a regular phenomenon. Hardly has any month passed without a visit by a Chinese official either from Beijing or from the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. At times, more than one delegate has visited Nepal in a month. In mid-December last year the Chinese Vice-Minister for the International Development of the Communist Party of China Chen Fengxiang visited us. After that Foreign Minister Wang Yi was here for his three-day visit and in the near future, president Xi Jinping is likely to visit Nepal.
It is always good to have visits by the neighboring countries, especially by the powerful and developed country like China, which always cares for Nepal’s stability, independence and sovereignty. On the contrary, the other neighbor, India, does not seem to take much interest in visiting Nepal. After the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s 2002 visit to Nepal to participate in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, no Indian PM visited Nepal till PM Narendra Modi made his visit as a pilgrim in August and again to participate in SAARC summit last November. However, he utilized his visit politically. Perhaps, till such times security agencies of India take care of its concerns in Nepal.
From frequent visits by the Chinese delegations to Nepal it is easy to conclude that the Chinese establishment is under some kind of apprehension from the Nepali side. It seems to suffer some sort of insecurity syndrome. Arguably, either it is not getting support or cooperation from Nepal that it wants to have or it is unable to withstand the pressure or maneuvering exerted by the international community with regard to its respect for human rights and is seeking neighbor’s support or it is more anxious about the Tibetan refugees fleeing Tibet every day. Is it not able to cope with the democratic aspirations of the people in some regions and China as a whole? Or is it experiencing cooperation deficit between the People’s Liberation Army and the political wing of the party?
Some skeptics find China’s desperation in seeking help from Nepal to secure higher status if not membership of the SAARC and also having good relationship with India. However, its PLA has not reconciled with this development. While the government seeks to continue and enhance its economic partnership with India, the PLA is allegedly intruding India’s territory regularly. It was intriguing that when president Xi was on a visit to India last year, there were reports of PLA’s intrusions into the Indian side. It appears that China wishes to continue its warm relations with Pakistan and also have improved relations with India. But maintaining this balance is really a tightrope walk for China. Perhaps, India wants China to rein in Pakistan but China prefers to keep Pakistan and India at loggerheads for its own benefit.
Against this backdrop, perhaps, it will be appropriate to evaluate the recent visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who was here from December 25-27, 2014. His three-day visit was successful, as he seems to have conveyed his messages to the Nepal government diplomatically. He not only announced almost a four-fold enhancement in Chinese annual grant assistance of RMB 800 million (approximately Rs 13 billion) to Nepal for the next fiscal year in comparison to last year’s grant, but also promised all sorts of help in nine areas including infrastructure, agriculture, investment, connectivity and energy development, where cooperation is urgently required. He also assured the Nepali establishment of Chinese president Xi’s visit to Nepal on the occasion of celebrating the 60th year of the establishment of diplomatic relations between these two countries next year.
Significantly, Foreign Minister Yi focused sharply on the promotion of neighborhood policy as recently outlined by the Chinese leadership, especially, President Xi’s stance on stronger relations with the neighboring countries. Yi showed his concern on border security by saying, “We have some common security concerns. For instance, we need to crack down on illegal border crossing and transnational crimes”.
At the same time, he spoke highly of Nepal’s sincerity in curbing anti-China activities and hoped the same to continue in days to come. He also highlighted the unique geographic location of Nepal between its two large and growing neighbors with its potential to become a bond and bridge between them and also in the entire South Asia. He offered full support in graduating Nepal from the status of Least Development Country towards the path of a developing country.
Interestingly, Minister Yi met the President and the Prime Minister but cancelled his joint or separate meeting with political leaders at the eleventh hour. Perhaps, either he avoided the meeting which might create misgivings among the political stakeholders at this critical juncture when the drafting of the new constitution has got stuck because of major parties’ intransigence or he wanted to show his displeasure to the establishment for not toeing China’s lines.
The author is a former election commissioner.
