Wen’s Hug And Fly Visit To Nepal
By B. Raman
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China, who had cancelled a scheduled visit to Nepal in December for unexplained reasons, halted in Kathmandu for a little more than four hours on January 14,2012, while on his way from Beijing to Saudi Arabia for an official visit.
This is the first time a Chinese Prime Minister had visited Nepal since the visit of the then Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji in 2001. There have been a number of high-level visits of political and military figures from Nepal to China since the Nepalese Maoists came overground, suspended their insurgency and joined the power structure in Nepal, but reciprocal visits from the Chinese side to Nepal were very few.
However, the Chinese have considerably stepped up assistance to the Nepalese since the end of the monarchy in 2008 and established a “comprehensive and cooperative partnership” with Nepal in 2009.
China has strong security concerns in Nepal due to the presence of about 20,000 Tibetan refugees in Nepalese territory and their support to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the radical Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC).
These concerns have been magnified by fresh indicators of unrest in the Tibetan community of China—particularly in Western Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai regions. There have been 16 self-immolation attempts since the beginning of last year by pro-Dalai Lama monks and others. Twelve of them were reported last year and four in the first 15 days of this year. Fourteen of these attempts were in Western Sichuan and one each in Tibet and Qinghai.
The large-scale round-up and detention in a special military camp of suspected pro-Dalai Lama monks of the Kirti monastery in Sichuan last year have aggravated the situation leading to frequent public demonstrations in support of those attempting self-immolation. The public demonstrations remained largely non-violent last year, but since the beginning of this year there have been two violent attacks by enraged Tibetans on Police Stations.
In the latest violent attack reported on January 14, a crowd of about 1000 Tibetans demanding the body of a Tibetan who committed self-immolation the same day attacked a police station where, they suspected, the body was kept. The Police reportedly opened fire to disperse the protesters killing two of them—one of them a woman.
The affected areas have been far away from the Nepal border. The fact that Tibet itself has remained relatively calm with only one incident last year would indicate that these self-immolations and the subsequent protest demonstrations were largely spontaneous due to local anger against the Chinese security forces and not inspired or instigated by the Tibetan refugees in Nepal.
The Chinese are worried over the danger of a recrudescence of unrest and violence in Tibet, particularly Lhasa, similar to the violent outbreak of 2008 and have stepped up pressure on the Nepalese authorities to tighten controls over the refugees and to allow the Chinese Ministries of Public and State Security to post more intelligence officers in the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu.
During his brief visit to Kathmandu, Wen met, among others, Nepalese President Ram Baran Yadav and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai.
Wen was quoted by the local media as saying as follows: “My trip is aimed at consolidating good-neighbourly friendship, deepening cooperation and boosting the joint development of China and Nepal.”
A joint statement issued at the end of his visit said: “As a close neighbour of Nepal, the Chinese side is pleased to see the progress in the peace process in Nepal and sincerely hopes that Nepal will realize peace, stability and prosperity, including the drafting of a new constitution in the near future. Nepal firmly supports the efforts of the Chinese side to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity and will not allow any force to engage in anti-China activities by using Nepali territory,”
Wen was further quoted as saying: “China and Nepal are good neighbours, good friends and good partners. China supports Nepal’s peace and constitutional process, and its efforts to safeguard independence, sovereignty, territorial integration and national unification. China is ready to provide, within its capacity, assistance to Nepal for economic and social development and believes that Nepal can overcome difficulties to realize the goal of building a new Nepal.”.
Wen reportedly pledged $140 million in aid to Nepal of which US $ 20 million would be spent on consolidating the peace process and US $ two million for strengthening the police. Nepal has reportedly sought Chinese assistance for a modern airport at Pokhra, for the development of its railway network and for the construction of three hydel power stations.
Dear Editor,
The visit of the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao in Nepal was very cordial and he agreed to provide bilateral aids to Nepal on the sectors of development, peace, hydro projects, and security. According to an official source, the six bilateral agreements were inked between Nepal and China, which are: Agreements on Financial and Technological Grants worth 200 million Yuan. Nepal Police Strengthening Grants worth 10 million Yuan, Armed Police Force Strengthening Grants 4 million Yuan. West Seti Hydropower Project Grants worth millions of Yuan. 20 million dollar Budgetary Grants on peace process.
Nepal is landlocked and nuclear locked country between two big neighbors – India and China-but is inhabited by a brave, strong, and warlike people. But Nepal had been influenced by Chinese good conduct – while that of Britain was the Rule of Might. Such behavior has reflected in reality of Nepal, India and China. As Nepal and China enjoyed long and historical relations, China was well aware of Nepal’s peace process, as to achieve social-economic development of the country.
An Indian scholar Dr. Arvind Gupta writes: “The Anti-India feeling in Nepal is at its peak. The peace process in Nepal is extremely complicated. India helped bring about the 12-point agreement. It is doubtful that India can help bring the peace process to the desired outcome. There is no guarantee that the Constitution will be drafted soon and that even if it is drafted, that it will bring stability.
The Nepalese Communists are not responsible for the country’s identity and sovereignty. Due to the traitor’s regime, Nepalese identity is danger position. The Christians are very active for Christianity in Nepal. They do not speak a word when Christians move from villages to villages violating Hinduism. Those wanting to sell the nation are taking the support of RAW and CIA. They continue to remain in power to pillage state treasury. They will be subjected to the retribution that the Nepalese will unleash on the mad dogs.
Nepal could remain an independent and sovereign country only because of monarchy and China. From the very beginning of history Nepal and China have been regarding their sovereignty each other. Nepal supports- ‘One China policy’- Tibet as an integral part of China. But, India’s the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and CIA of America are active to destroy the Chinese integration.
The most unfortunate fact is that majority of our political leaders are Indian agents including the PM Baburam Bhattarai and Maoist leader Prachanda. There are many leaders of Congress, UML, Maoist, Madhesi are the agents of RAW. It is worthless to expect from these leaders to save our nationality and independence. Unless traitors and corrupt leaders dominating in the big parties are chased away, democracy and nationalism will not be secured. They have no political vision. They are destroying the norms of National unity, prestige and the relation between Nepal and China in the name of Free Tibet.
There is no alternative to parliamentary monarchial democratic system in Nepal. But never adjust the republican democracy which is designed by Indian conspirators. The definition of Nepal’s nationality is to maintain balanced bilateral diplomatic ties with both the countries, China and India, based on democracy and by protecting its pride.
Yes, Cordial people to people level relations between Nepal and India has existed since ancient times. We have to keep friendly relations with India due to our similar cultural and religious traditions. But sadly Indian congress, ever since coming to power has been striving to destabilize Nepal. India, through its intelligence agency ‘RAW’, has been found continuously involved in destabilizing our national identities – royal institution, Hindu Kingdom and national language, which were developed along with the ideology of national unity, security and national identity. The permanent institution- ‘monarchy’ can put unite the national instigation as it remained since many years ago. So, Nepalese people need to reinstate the people’s oriented monarchy. In between the two big neigh ours-China & India, the monarchy has been playing a balanced role. So, Nepalese monarchy is the most convincing identity of Nepal’s independence and its sovereignty.
We extend thanks the cordial Visit of the Chinese PM in Nepal in 14 Jan.2012.
Thank you.
Dirgha Raj Prasai
Former Member of Parliament-Nepal
Political Analyst.