Kathmandu, August 10 – Anxious to make friends with the new government of Nepal and keep abreast of political developments in the country, China has sent yet another high-level delegation to Kathmandu – the third official one in four months.
Ai Ping, general director of the International Department of the Communist Party of China, is heading the delegation sent to enhance bilateral ties and discuss bilateral economic, social and cultural issues.
The Chinese team is also being briefed on the ongoing peace talks between the seven-party government and the Maoists.
The visitors have so far met Ram Chandra Poudel, former deputy prime minister and general secretary of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s Nepali Congress and are expected to meet senior leaders of the other parties.
After having backed King Gyanendra, who last year seized power with the help of the army and ruled the kingdom directly for 15 months, the Chinese government is worried about the fallout with the opposition parties coming to power.
The worries are compounded by the fact that the Maoist rebels seem set to join the government in future. During King Gyanendra’s regime, Beijing supplied the Royal Nepalese Army liberally with arms to control the rebels as well as the anti-king protests by the opposition and denounced the Maoists as tarnishing the image of their leader Mao Zedong.
In April, when it became clear that the royal regime would be brought down by the mounting public protests, Beijing rushed a team to Nepal to take stock of the changes and extend an olive branch to the new government.
Last month, Vice Foreign Minister Wu Tawei was sent on a three-day visit to offer increased assistance and bring reassurance from the new government that it would continue to support the ‘One China’ policy, which means regarding Taiwan and Tibet as inalienable parts of China.
After the Nepal government under the influence of King Gyanendra closed the Kathmandu office of the representative of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader, China wants to ensure the office wouldn’t be allowed to re-open. Nor does it want any softening of the Nepal government’s stance on Tibetans fleeing China to go to India and other destinations.
In addition to the three official meetings, Beijing also sent a team, comprising a diplomat and two intelligence agents, to meet the Maoist top brass.
Besides maintaining good relations, China also wants to protect the arms deals struck with the royal government at a substantial profit to Chinese manufacturers.
The new government had at first said it would cancel all the arms deals that have caused a loss to the state exchequer but has since then been soft-pedalling on the issue, reportedly at the intervention of powerful royalists, who brokered the deals.
