Kathmandu [Nepal], February 10 (ANI): China has been making major investments in Nepal, which it claims will boost its economy but they may be aimed at assertng its influence in the eartwhile Himalayan kingdom, epardafas.com, an online magazine based in Nepal reported, adding that these infrastructural investments in Nepal will result in major imports and fewer exports.
China’s significant investment in Nepal is being represented through nine projects that include building new highways and tunnels, dams and railway lines as well as setting up a technical institution in Nepal. The most significant of these projects is the Nepal-China trans-Himalayan multi-dimensional connectivity system, the report said.
According to the report, custom data on the total value of China’s foreign trade imports and exports to Nepal in 2021 was only 12.770 billion yuan, about 1% of China’s total foreign trade to South Asia. If Nepal imported Rs233.92 billion worth of goods from the northern neighbour in 2020-21, its exports across the Himalayas were valued at a mere Rs1 billion, it said, adding that these exports mostly include wool and metal handicrafts. Items while importing electrical goods, machinery and parts, readymade garments, telecom equipment and parts.
These agreements and trade have paved a way for China to assert its influence in Nepal. Therefore, the local population of Nepal which suffers from rampant unemployment has expressed concern that the influx of Chinese will negatively affect their chance of employment, the report said, adding that this has led to a large number of Nepalese citizens migrating to less densely populated areas in north and northeast India.
A vast majority of these migrants are forced to take up odd jobs such as rickshaw pullers or waiters to make ends meet, the report stated.
The Chinese government provides scholarships and sponsors study tours for Nepali students, civil servants and journalists. Mandarin has been introduced as a compulsory subject in schools across Nepal. A huge number of hotels, restaurants and other businesses are now owned by Chinese nationals.
Although there have been some altered reports from China’s scholars about emerging tensions in Nepal, the report claimed that Hinduism, which had been a major religion in Nepal, has been marginalising other religions such as Buddhism, Islam and Christianity, as well as the indigenous Nepalese population by varying degrees.
Claims made by these reports have masked the ulterior motives that these BRI projects serve in the region, the report said, adding that China’s aid and investment are mostly concentrated in the northern part of Nepal, close to the Tibet autonomous region. This means that the security forces are also concentrated in that specific region.
Is it a way to control the general Tibetan population and contain the “Tibet independence” forces in the region which pose a great challenge to China? The answer in the fact that Nepal hosts the largest number of Tibetan refugees after India.
This means that the Tibetan population is constantly under surveillance, unable to move, speak or do anything freely in their own country. China has constructed hundreds of checkpoints along the borders of Tibet stopping any Tibetan emigrant from escaping to Nepal or India, the report said. (ANI)
