N. P. Upadhyaya: Kathmandu: The Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for making serious efforts to break new ground in major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics, with the guidance of the thought on diplomacy of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era.
The Chinese President, close to an undeclared Emperor in effect, made such an address when Beijing had been hosting three top communist veterans in its territory.
Those communist leaders were KPS Oli from Nepal, China nursed baby Kim Jong-Un of North Korea and President Juan Evo Morales Ayma of Bolivia.
It was the time when Nepal’s Prime Minister KPS Oli too was fortunately(?) in the Chinese Capital appealing the “flying dragon” for some substantial support for his country in order to negate the lopsided comments being deliberately made both within and without by his known, unknown and paid detractors. And also to lessen Indian dependency of Nepal.
If Mohan Baidya were to be believed then PM Oli’s China trip has failed miserably in that the PM did not dare to raise the Lipulek issue while being in China. However, PM upon his return to Nepal claimed that Lipulek was near and dear to him but “if” …..?
This means that PM is entangled in several “ifs and buts” for a genuine strip of Nepali land.
Subservience this? Indian answer to Nepali accusation would be “we are not an expansionist force as China is”. This shall cap the story of the Lipulek blunder. Roti…Beti…and Bhrikuti….
The use of the word “Chinese Characteristics” in Chinese diplomacy is what hit the tender brains of Nepali people hard and scared us all.
Does this mean that the word “Chinese characteristics” has been deliberately reiterated by the President of the emerging super power, China, when Beijing had three communist top leaders from three different countries as honored guests’ right inside the Chinese territory around the same time?
What he wanted to signal these three visiting communist leaders after all? What could be his inner motives?
Should this mean that the Unified Communists of Nepal, let’s take our case only, would now get influenced by what the Chinese President has said in effect of the diplomacy to be practiced by China henceforth? Is it that President Xi preferred to sound the visiting dignitaries from Bolivia and Nepal to practice now onwards the diplomacy which contains Chinese characteristics? The fear factor gets doubled when analysts have been told by the accompanying media men to China that PM Oli have had associated Nepal Government with the Chinese Communist party in one way or the other.
PM Oli visited the central office of the Chinese Communist party. Chinese characteristics must have unknowingly been stuck in his Daura-Suruwal. Let’s hope so for the time being.
Microbes perhaps in pocket also?
Indian Maoists have now reasons to smile as China has inched closer to Delhi Central via PM Oli. Is the threat to PM Modi then real or orchestrated as the usual?
It is this link that PM Oli established while being in China has invited scathing criticisms from his political opponents back home who forcefully claim that Oli must not have allied the Nepal Government with that of the Communist party of China.
Food for thought for the Champions of Democracy across the globe. Nothing to panic, if President Trump can shake hands with Kim Jong Un then PM Oli has also the right to visit the China communist party office. Communists the world over, Unite, the old slogan goes thus.
We have been told the blood of the Communists look RED the world over.
The fact is also that though Nepal has a communist government which commands the nation but yet the characteristics are based purely on democratic patterns. Not of the Chinese type of Communism or for that matter the socialism. Thanks there is no Chinese Characteristics yet. But chances remain that Chinese communism may enter Nepal through the much publicized Chinese locomotive.
During King late Mahendra’s time, Chinese Communism was almost to travel by taxi as Pundit Nehru guessed, however, Chinese locomotive shall carry the same system to Nepal.
Alas! King Mahendra and Nehru are not in this material world.
Be that as it may, the Chinese President must not have sounded the visiting communist dignitaries on the virtues of the diplomacy with the Chinese characteristics for nothing. He must not have said to copy such characteristics in a direct manner. But yet has been timely sounded.
PM Oli is beaming upon his return from Beijing as if he has won the world. But the fact is that he has failed to see beyond the borders in the South that the regional Goliath remains in a position which is about to explode.
Dilendra Badu of the Nepali Congress feels that PM Oli returned halfhearted from China because the promises made prior to the visit do not match to what he has brought upon return. But PM says the rest shall be finalized this July, 2018.
So let’s presume that PM Oli has bagged considerable gains, if at all he has, from his fresh Beijing visit in lieu of his undeclared promise that he shall exercise henceforth a diplomacy that has at least Chinese characteristics to some extent. But will he?
If so then the China’s homegrown ideology-cum-diplomacy must enter through the Keyrung pass enjoying the pleasure of China built rail. Not bad. Welcome.
China is Nepal’s reliable partner is an undeniable fact however, what is also for sure is that China is concurrently a “business house” which perhaps does not believe in one way traffic and that Nepal too must have to pay back some financial returns as against the assurances that have been made by China in Nepal’s favor this time around. Debt trap may not be the right selection of the word but its equivalent must be present in the entire transaction that has been made in between the two countries: China and Nepal.
If no financial gains from Nepal then China must have compromised with Nepal on other strategic fronts which could be a matter of discussion of those who are interested and possess the expertise in the conduct of International relations.
And here is what may astound you, the readers, and the internal dynamics of the OBOR-the Chinese brainchild as seen using the Indian lens.
Look how an Indian Retired Major General Shri Rajiv Narayanan, Distinguished Fellow at the USI of India, has cleverly defended his country as regards the India’s bete noir project of China. His comments have appeared in an interview conducted by Ms. Jennifer Loy, on China’s OBOR/BRI and the motivations behind it.
(We have copied a small portion of the interview from the web page of the Nepal Matters for America posted on June 26, 2018, in the larger interest of the valued readers. Thanks Nepal Matters for America).
This distinguished Fellow from India says that primarily “India is ready to work with China for the larger good of the region”.
Sugar coated words indeed. Sounds good but during the course of interview, the retired general ultimately adheres to the Indian stance, that stands as of now, which gets clear when we read these utterances from him: (Sic)
“The common man is only able to read what the government wants him to know. The media and internet censorship within China is very harsh. As such he / she can only mouth what the Communist Party of China wants them to know.
He forgets to talk of the Modi sponsored Indian media. Understandable. Good or bad, India is my country psychology.
The Indian population understands where the feku Indian media hits.
To yet another question of Ms. Jennifer regarding the BRI project, Mr. Narayanan says: “The BRI project is to provide jobs to the Chinese and not to the host countries. Very limited labor is being utilized from the host country – the CPEC is a classic case in point”.
Pakistan has now reasons to remain cautious henceforth. It is up to Pakistan to clarify the employment issue or accept to what the Indian national has said. But reports say that Pak nationals too have been working in various CPEC projects.
Mr. Narayanan has made these observations only after PM Modi rejects the possibility of Indian engagement in the BRI.
At Qingdo, PM Modi talked India’s reluctance in joining the BRI project candidly.
Wuhan meet was to reset India-China ties, however, Qingdo’s SCO informal meet upset the bilateral ties, and at least this much could be read in between the lines.
Now Plus two mechanism has been brought into the political milieu to sort out bilateral or even trilateral meet which could be held in a third or fourth country of common preference.
Chinese PM appears to have sounded this plus two theory to our PM Oli during the one-on-one talks.
In fact China wants to engage both Nepal and India in the BRI scheme of things so that a sort of trilateral cooperation remains in place and that the Road initiative without any hitch enters the South Asian region. Is it here that the plus two China coined mechanism fits into?
Professor SD Muni understands the Chinese game, if it were any. He says, whether India agrees or not but China has already entered its footsteps in South Asia and that China shall remain in SA for an indefinite period. Nepal facilitated its entry into South Asia is also a fact.
The fresh debacle in Maldives and the Seychelles have frustrated India under Modi that he in his sheer frustration may impose yet another Blockade on Nepal blaming the latter as to why she encouraged China to almost invade Maldives and Seychelles ? Nepal is always a scapegoat for the Indian regime.
China’s open heart welcome extended to the Nepal PM Oli must have caused internal brain hemorrhage of many a gentlemen inside the South Block and its paid think-tanks who have made the Nepal-India ties a business to milk the RAW machinery as and when they wish to do so.
A sizeable chunk of financial assistance that India earmarks for Nepal gets gulped by the Delhi based former “rejected” diplomats under the garb of what they called the “think tanks”.
Kathmandu embassy appointments is tentatively taken as a bumper prize for the mentally and financially poor diplomats who abuse the Indian tax payer’s money as much as they can.
(Annually India receives US$ 62.744 billion in remittance. Nepal is in the list of top ten countries and sends US$ 2. 744 billion every year. From India, Nepal receives only US$ 971 Million in remittance. Courtesy: Masum Aryal from Biratnagar in Face Book).
But yet some senile Indian brains claim that India has been feeding the poverty stricken Nepali population. But the fact is that it is Nepal that has kept India empty stomach going. The mentally retarded Indians, albeit a few, should correct their myopic version before it is too late. Read the figures please.
President Xi has himself assured the Nepal PM Oli that Chinese Rail will enter Kathmandu within a short span of some years. This news must have jolted the entire Indian establishment to the hilt and that some naughty brains in Delhi must have been hired by the Modi clique to encourage the Indian Jayachands’ and Mirjaffors with Nepali souls in Kathmandu to damage the political credentials of PM Oli.
Despite reservations of Mr. Narayanan the Belt and Road Initiative of China has thus become a buzzword that has been annoying India in an unimaginable manner.
“No other countries proposals can outdo the Belt and Road Initiative for participating countries, the benefits of Chinese investment outweighs the risks. China will experience setbacks in projects, but the initiative as a whole will move forward”, so claims a finding of the Stratfor organization, June 22, 2018. (Twitter).
This means that the Chinese initiative may come across some troubles (perhaps the Stratfor hints at India for the setbacks) but ultimately it is this initiative that shall emerge with flying colors.
Indian annoyance is genuine in that apart from the debacles in the South Asian region that have been the destiny of the Indian regime of late then the Pakistani factor, the permanent bete noir of India too has added some substance to the already tensed India.
In an event that is apparently not of the Pakistan making, India concludes that the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad Mr. Ajaya Bisaria was not allowed to enter into a Gurudwara in Punja Sahab, Pakistan.
The fact is that the Sikh Trust Board refused to grant entry recently to the Indian High Commissioner Ajaya Bisaria and his wife from entering the Sikh Holy temple of Punja sahib in Hassanabadal. The board cited Indian atrocities and human rights abuses against the Sikhs in India as a reason for refusal. (Twitter).
Now again back to CPEC that troubles India.
The $60 billion CPEC passes through disputed territory between India and Pakistan. New Delhi opposes the project saying it challenges India’s sovereignty.
But India has ever challenged Nepal’s sovereignty and now talks of its sovereignty gifted by the British India Company in 1947.
Talking about another misconception being deliberately circulated in the Indian and its subordinate Nepali media, he says, is related to the debt and high loan interests to Chinese companies under the CPEC. He said the debt under CPEC was merely 10 per cent of the total debt of Pakistan. At present, the amount for the CPEC projects under construction or completed in $19 billion for which the financing arrangements are divided into four categories including investments, gratuitous aid provided by the Chinese side, interests free loan and preferential buyer credit. For investment, the main source of funds are commercial bank loans by investors, and not by the Pakistani government. The repayment method of such an investment is mainly based on the operating income after the completion of the projects and will not increase the debt burden.
Most of the energy projects under CPEC use this approach. The interest rate of the loans provided by the Chinese banks for energy projects under CPEC is around 6 per cent.
According to the ambassador, for gratuitous aid, there is no pressure on the Pakistani side to pay back. For preferential buyers’ credit, the total amount under CPEC is $6 billion, a 31.6 per cent of the total cost of the corridor project. According to the Export-Import Bank of China, the peak value of Pakistan’s repayment of will occur in 2024, with only $527 million whereas the total amount to be paid back is $7.4 billion.
Perhaps the Chinese envoys’ clarification will approach the nepali leaders too who have been in a hysteric manner telling the domestic population that Nepal is already fallen in the Chinese debt trap.
And here is a surprise for India itself:
Yet one thing remains to be guessed in advance. With all the setbacks and humiliation in place in the region and beyond, India may give it a try to impose yet another Economic Blockade on Nepal in order to console its burning heart. Much will also depends upon how China embraces Nepal in the days ahead? With what speed indeed?
India will not prevent funding for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) through a multilateral institution like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), despite being critical of the $50 billion transportation project that it believes infringes on India’s sovereignty. “Every multilateral bank has many dimensions and one cannot dictate which projects it must invest in, in other countries,” said Piyush Goyal, Union minister for finance, railways, coal and corporate affairs. “I think we should look at how we can benefit from such engagements rather than focusing our efforts on trying to see what they should not be doing,” he said.
To recall, CPEC is part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) being spearheaded by China to build transport infrastructure across Asia and Africa. It passes through Gilgit and Baltistan areas of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
India was isolated in its criticism of the project and was the only country at this month’s Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Qingdao city that refused to endorse BRI. Beijing has signed agreements with about 80 countries and international organizations before it started work on BRI.
India is the loser. Thanks Piyush Goyal for opening the eyes of PM Modi in Delhi who has already addressed the Mumbai meet of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
That’s all.