China Intensifies Tug of War With India on Nepal

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (L, front) and Nepali Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal (R, front)

Jim Yardley wrote last week in the New York Times about the shifting foreign relations power structure in Nepal. The article discusses China's growing importance in the world and in South Asia, a region traditionally dominated by India. Nepal is situated between China and India, the two most populous countries in the world. The Himalayas have always been a solid physical barrier between China and Nepal, while the many cultural and economic ties to India have created a historical connection between India and Nepal. However, with the growing presence of China in the global sphere, it is very important for small nations like Nepal to keep good relations with the Chinese government. From the other side, Nepal appeared on China's radar during Tibetan protests erupted in March 2008, just months before the Beijing Olympic Games. While the Chinese government was able to block the international media from the protests in Tibet itself, the Nepali protests attracted much international attention. Ashok Gurung, director of the India China Institute at The New School, says that "the Chinese realized that Nepal is going to be an important site where they could potentially be embarrassed on Tibetan issues." Nepal is an important place in Tibetan issues because it has historically been a tacit transit for Tibetans to cross over to India for pilgrimages or higher education. For India's part, the country is not worried about economic competition so much as the threat of “political agitation on the Nepalese side of their shared border, as well as the possibility that terrorists trained in Pakistan could transit through Nepal."


This is an important illustration of China's growing strength in the world. Not only has China been strengthening ties with Nepal, with which it has the Tibet issue, it has been rapidly signing agreements with even the tiniest of South Asian countries like the Maldives. This signifies China's growing awareness of the importance of preemptively beneficial international treaties. Furthermore, the China-Nepal situation is evidence of China's continued antagonism of their Tibetan population. Tenzin Taklha, the secretary for the Dalai Lama, says that the China-Nepal agreements -- which include the stationing of Nepali armed police officers in isolated regions like Mustang and Manang on the border with Tibet and more security and vigilance on both sides of the border -- makes things "more difficult for Tibetans."


 

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Photo Source: Xinhua/Li Tao via

China tackles conflict in Tibet through development

After the increase of Tibetan dissent in 2008, the Chinese government has turned to economic development to decrease conflict in not only the Tibetan Autonomous Region, but other heavily concentrated Tibetan communities in eastern China as well. Chinese president Hu Jintao called a Tibet planning conference to discuss the efforts that are to be made in the area. It seems clear that Beijing's tactic of economic development in Tibet is to enrich the lives of uprising Tibetans through material wealth. In the past, Tibet has resented the increasing presence of Han Chinese in Western China, and although the Chinese government has already allocated over $45 billion in Tibet since 2001, resentment seems to continue in the Tibetan region. The Tibet issue remains a bone of contention between the United States and China, as President Obama plans to meet with the Dalai Lama this year. To read more, click here.

This development in the conflict between Tibet demonstrates the relationship between political and economic change. China sees economic development as the key to smoothing over Tibet relations. It is easy to see how building up Tibetan wealth would reduce tensions with Beijing, however, the social cleavage between the Tibetans and the Han Chinese seem too deep to be solved through purely economic means. The cleavage that exists between the Tibetans and Han Chinese is ethnic, religious, and regional. As the Tibetans are one of the 57 ethnic groups living in China besides the Han Chinese, the case of Tibet shows the wide array of ethnic cleavages that exist in China even today. Religion also plays a big factor in this divide, as the Tibetans feel that their unique form of Buddhism is jeopardized by communist China's relative atheism. The Tibetans can be considered an independent nation as they have a unique cultural identity from that of the Han Chinese. Although Tibet is relatively independent in comparison with other regions in China, the country still desires greater autonomy. Many Americans see the issue in Tibet as a civil rights breach due to the influx of Han Chinese migrants in the region. Lastly, the case demonstrates domestic and international factors influencing policy-making and implementation, as American and other countries' sympathy for the Tibetans have influenced the Chinese government to take a path of economic development to stabilize the region.

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