Nepal’s inability to contain mounting pro-Dalai Lama protests has sparked concerns in China which is now lobbying for the closure of the Himalayan country’s open borders with India.
“China has cautiously expressed its concern over the existing 1,700 km open border between Nepal and India, accusing that Tibetans have been frequently crossing the border to launch free Tibet agitation in Nepal,” a Nepalese weekly reported. Beijing is regarding the open border as a major factor that is fuelling the nearly three-month long protests sparked after Bejing’s crackdown on anti-China protests in Lhasa, the weekly said. China, therefore, wants to either close down the Indo-Nepalese border or regulate it through certain mechanism. In order to control such pre-planned anti-China activities in the Nepalese land, it is essential to regulate or control the open international border between Nepal and India, officials from Beijng pointed out. Interestingly, the Maoists, who are set to lead the next Government in Nepal, have opposed the open border policy as one of their key demands is to abrogate the Nepal-India Peace and Friendship treaty of 1950.
There are over 20,000 Tibetans residing in Nepal at present. Annually some 200 Tibetans come to Nepal crossing the Chinese border on way to meet their spiritual leader Dalai Lama in Dharamshala.
The report was prepared after a team of Nepali journalists this month went to China at the invitation of theChinese government. It also quoted a Chinese think-tank member, who has been a frequent visitor to Nepal, as saying that China was aware of India’s wish to bring Nepal under its influence. “China knows very well that India wants to turn Nepal into a second Bhutan or Sikkim,” Wang Hong-Wei, a professor at the Beijing-based Institute of Asian-Pacific Studies, was quoted as saying.
