By Sudeshna Sarkar
KATHMANDU, April 27 – Alarmed at the fall of King Gyanendra’s regime, China has rushed a delegation to Kathmandu to gloss over its unstinted support to the monarch and appease the new government.
When a new democratic government is formed this month, Beijing is apprehensive whether it would be able to retain its stranglehold on Tibetans, a policy so far supported by the King in lieu of support for his coup last year.
On Monday, the King reinstated parliament through a near-midnight proclamation and by Tuesday, China had sent a three-member delegation headed by Mr Luo Chao Hui, Beijing’s deputy director for Asian affairs, to meet prime minister-designate Mr Girija Prasad Koirala, other top-ranking political leaders and influential foreign envoys stationed in Nepal. However, with Beijing preferring to lie low about the visit, it was not known immediately if the team would meet King Gyanendra and any of the royalist ministers.
Already facing international criticism over human right, China’s im-age took another battering when it stepped up financial assistance to King Gyanendra’s regime, continued arms sales and retained diplomatic relations when the international community isolated the King. India, the US and the UK stopped military assistance, President Mr George W Bush declined to invite him to the dinner in New York after the UN General Assembly meeting and Mr Nelson Mandela declined to meet him when the King turned up in South Africa. China, however, sent foreign minister Mr Li Zhaoxing to meet the King a month after the royal coup, followed by a visit
by state councillor Mr Tang Jiaxuan last month. China also invited Royal Nepalese Army chief Pyar Jung Thapa and foreign minister Mr Ramesh Nath Pandey for official visits, an invite repeated only by Pakistan.
It also distanced itself from the Maoists, who could be in the government in future. Beijing dubbed them anti-government forces and used its influence with the King to stop the official media from calling them Maoists, saying they had brought disrepute to their late leader.
One of Beijing’s concerns is the Tibetan refugee issue. Under instruction from the palace, Nepal had shut down the Tibetan Welfare Centre helping refugees and has stopped issuing exit passes to the refugees.
