Some of the works accomplished by the then Chinese ambassador Hou Yanqi on the eve of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s two-day visit to Nepal on October 12, 2019 were noteworthy.
Ambassador Yanqi had some amazing gifts to welcome President Xi, who was visiting Nepal via India after 23 years of the visit of then Chinese President Jiang Zemin in 1996. She worked round the clock and played a decisive role in bringing the CPN-UML and Maoists together to form the Nepal Communist Party (NCP).
Yanqi not only brought the two major communist parties together, but also introduced the Xi ideology by enrolling their leaders in a school to indoctrinate them in the Chinese model of politics. She had been doing this work even before the merger of the two parties. Even before the unification, leaders of CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center) participated in such an exercise, which was conducted under the plan of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.
After her success to facilitate the establishment of NCP, she had also made necessary preparations to give momentum to President Xi’s ambitious BRI projects in Nepal. With the same preparation, Ambassador Yanqi stood in the forefront to welcome President Xi upon his arrival in Kathmandu.
On the eve of Xi’s visit, it was with the active initiation of Ambassador Yanqi that the Foreign Department of the CPN organized a training workshop on September 23, 2019 in the presence of the head of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party for teaching the Xi ideology in Kathmandu to NCP’s central leaders. This exercise was previously held only through virtual means between the Communist parties of the two countries. It is worth noting that the administrators, academics, intellectuals, media workers and leaders who miss out trainings in such schools organized within the country are taken to China under the leadership of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party and are oriented on Chinese model of politics and governance.
Hiranyalal Shrestha’s book, Sixty Years of Dynamics Partnership mentions that Nepal established diplomatic relations with China on August 1, 1955. From Nepal’s side, the then royal advisor Sardar Gunjman Singh, and Ambassador Yuan Zhongxian from the Chinese side signed an agreement in Kathmandu to establish diplomatic relations between the two countries. Then an economic aid agreement was signed with China in 1956 and China opened its residential embassy in Kathmandu in 1960. In the following year, Nepal also established a Nepali embassy in Peking (Beijing). Zhang Siji was the first Chinese ambassador to Nepal and Keshar Bahadur KC was the first Nepalese ambassador to Beijing. According to Dr TR Ghoble’s book China Nepal Relations and India, two Chinese Presidents (President Xi was added in 2019), five Prime Ministers and five Deputy Prime Ministers have visited Nepal since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
The number of Nepali dignitaries visiting China from Nepal is much more than that. Since China was expanding its relations with the Royal Palace in Nepal by establishing diplomatic relations, it saw the monarchy as a permanent and trusted friend. After the abolition of the monarchy, which was considered the most reliable for China until the Royal Palace played an active role in governance, it seems that China has started to define its relations in a new way. The state-to-state relations have now been transformed at the party-to-party level. The training school run by the NCP with the support of CPC can be seen as a result of this transformation. It was natural to see changes in the behavior of Chinese when the state level transactions are intentionally changed to party-to-party level. Ambassador Yanqi successfully carried out the work of expanding relations of NCP with China under the direction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
There was no point for the Chinese Head of State, who was on a state visit, to be unhappy with such a new political gift from Ambassador Yanqi, who was able to maintain the centuries-old tradition of welcoming the emperor with valuable gifts. On top of that, the President’s happiness knew no bounds after seeing the President, Prime Minister, Vice President, Heads of Constitutional Bodies and the highest officials of the country all bowing down and lining up to welcome him.
Why did Yanqi do all this? It has intense geo-political meaning. Apart from that, there are also other reasons. For example, cooperation and dealings between states are transparent. But they have their own limitations. It has to go through legal and administrative hassles. Therefore, it is believed that the Chinese side started dealing on the issues of national interests within the party level. Since dealings with individuals can be settled in a secret and non-transparent manner, the Chinese side may be carrying out their plans of vested interests evading the eyes of the state.
The top leadership of political parties in Nepal knows it very well that Nepal is a Democratic Republic state with a federal system, and China is a one-party unitary state where democratic character cannot even be imagined. However, the episodes of training the top leaders ad cadres on Xi Jinping thought has left the intention of the leaders questionable.
Further, Ambassador Yanqi tried to avoid obstacles seen in the implementation of her strategy by attacking them through her media network. China had been adopting peaceful diplomacy in most of the diplomatic history, however, sent Hou Yanqi, who has an aggressive nature, to Kathmandu as ambassador in 2018. Either through a letter written directly threatening journalists or a letter written to the old Democratic Party of the country with personal objections to former ministers and MPs, Yanqi’s aggressiveness crossed the limit of diplomatic decorum. All these were not the natural practices of Yanqi, but a chapter of the Chinese government’s new strategy implemented in Nepal.
China seems to have adopted the aggressive policy on Nepal based on the analysis that the US with the support of India is trying to encircle China by using the land of Nepal. As a part of this aggressive policy, China has spent huge amounts in the media system to establish its agenda in Nepal. Additionally, China is working hard again to forge unity among the leftist parties that have the highest number of votes who formulate new laws of the country.
Although the NCP, which was formed after the unity between the UML and Maoist Center at the initiation of Yanqi, did not last long, China has succeeded in getting Nepal to sign ambitious and strategic project like BRI. Nepali media in general have been facilitator to these accomplishments of China. In fact, Ambassador Yanqi was active throughout her tenure in managing Nepal’s internal politics, uniting the leftist parties and settling disputes arising after the split of the NCP, and openly publicizing the works done by China in Nepal.
Yanqi was transferred from Nepal and posted to Indonesia in early 2023 to oversee ASEAN countries. She was succeeded by a new ambassador Chen Song. However, Yanqi’s tenure in Nepal was more special than all previous Chinese ambassadors in view of the day-to-day conduct of diplomacy to media management.
In recent years, China’s Nepal policy has been strategically presented in a new style and Yanqi played the main role for this. She started direct communication between the Chinese embassy and Nepali journalists and media. Yanqi herself wrote articles in Nepali and English language newspapers including Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post advocating for China. Addressing a virtual press conference organized on April 21, 2022; she presented a detail of the works done by China in Nepal. Yanqi’s written statement posted on the website of the Chinese embassy not only provided the details of China’s support to Nepal during the earthquake and COVID-19 pandemic, but also promoted China’s support in building Darbar High School, Civil Hospital and schools at Dolakha. Yanqi mentioned in her speech that China is the country that provided the most COVID-19 vaccines to Nepal.
During Yanqi’s tenure, UML and Maoists united to form NCP. It was also during her tenure that the NCP was split, and the leftist government led by KP Sharma Oli, which was more inclined towards China, was forced to step down. Yanqi was active in the management of all these things.
Keeping the security sensitivity of her country at the center, she succeeded in forging an agreement between the CPN and the Chinese Communist Party at the party level to further the Nepal policy set by the Chinese government by organizing training for the NCP leaders on the Xi ideology and facilitating the President of Nepal Bidya Devi Bhandari’s visit China and bringing President Xi to Nepal.
Yanqi’s working style was more political than diplomatic as she appeared aggressive in expanding China’s propaganda. She made the most use of pro-Chinese media and journalists’ networks to achieve this. She followed the instructions given by her President Xi to strengthen the Chinese media and propaganda system around the world. Commenting on the media strategy adopted by China, geopolitical affairs journalist Anil Giri says, “China has adopted an aggressive policy of using media as soft power to expand its influence in Nepal. Its effect has been seen in geopolitics.”