By Jayadeva Ranade
India’s strategic and
foreign policy planners need to be alert as China steadily expands its
influence in Nepal. Beijing’s focus is particularly on Lumbini, Buddha’s
birthplace, which lies inside Nepal and barely 25 km across the border from
India. The focus has sharpened since October, when China enunciated its new
strategy of ‘Peripheral Diplomacy’, or zhoubian, which outlines a definite role
for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). At least three Chinese front organisations,
or so-called NGOs, affiliated to the CCP Central Committee’s (CC’s) United
Front Work Department are active in Nepal.
The Asia Pacific
Exchange and Cooperation Foundation (APECF), a Chinese-sponsored NGO, was the
first to unveil a $3-billion redevelopment plan for Lumbini in June 2011. Its
executive vice-president, Xiao Wunan, is a provincial-level official of the
CC’s United Front who claims access to Chinese President Xi Jinping. UCPN
(Maoist) chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal is vice-president of the APECF’s Nepal
chapter. Nepal’s Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai is also associated with the
APECF.
The APECF’s plans for
the redevelopment of Lumbini include an international airport, direct rail link
between Tibet and Lumbini and a monastery-cum-seminary complex. The publicised
justification for the international airport and rail link is to promote and
facilitate Buddhist tourism. The APECF’s plans have failed to get off the
ground so far due to various reasons.
Xiao Wunan, on May 10,
gave an interview to the Nepalese newspaper Republica in Hong Kong, and
announced that the APECF remains ready to launch the project and is awaiting
approval of the new government in Nepal. He acknowledged that the “geopolitics
of Nepal, which stands between India and China, is so sensitive that it has
complicated Lumbini´s development.”
In late 2013, the China
Buddhist Association, of which the Beijing-selected the 11th Panchen Lama
Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu is vice-president, announced it had plans for the
development of Lumbini. The association’s presence represents more direct
involvement by the CCP in matters regarding Lumbini and would be an attempt to
provide a degree of legitimacy to the monastery and seminary.
The latest outfit being
used by China is the little-known, Beijing-based International Ecological
Safety Collaborative Organisation (IESCO). Significantly, the IESCO lists
Madhav Kumar Nepal, chairman of the CPN (UML), as an executive chairman. The
IESCO also succeeded in co-opting Nepali Congress leader Sujata Koirala by
inviting her to a conference in Chengdu in July 2013, when it signed a
memorandum for ‘strategic partnership’ with her Girija Prasad Koirala
Foundation (GPKF). They discussed establishing an ‘international ecological
safety demonstration zone’ in Lumbini and the IESCO and GPKF have jointly
invited Aung San Suu Kyi to visit Lumbini this month.
Pertinent in the
context of China’s objective of undermining the Dalai Lama’s influence and
sowing division within the ecclesiastical hierarchy of Tibetan Buddhists is the
loose association of Amritsar-born and US-based 48-year-old Shyalpa Tenzin
Rimpoche with the IESCO. He is a close associate of Gangchen Rimpoche, who has
been critical of the Dalai Lama and is among the first two Tibetan Buddhist
clergymen to have been allotted a plot of land in Lumbini.
Constructing the
airport and railway line at Lumbini poses potential military threats to India,
especially as they will be constructed by Chinese military personnel and
operational control would remain with the PLA. More insidious is the challenge
projected by the plans for ‘educating’ Tibetan Buddhist monks, who
traditionally wield considerable influence in the Indo-Himalayan border belt.
Jayadeva Ranade is a
member of the National Security Advisory Board and former additional secretary,
Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India. He is also president of the Centre
for China Analysis and Strategy.
The views expressed by
the author are personal.
COMMENTS
---------- Forwarded
message ----------
From: Dr. Bishnu Nepal
<bhnfsr@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jun 16, 2014
at 10:06 PM
Subject: Re: LUMBINI IN
SPOTLIGHT AGAIN AS CHINA PROPOSES PLANS FOR REDEVELOPMENT
To: The Himalayan Voice
<himalayanvoice@gmail.com>
Construction of
International Airport in Lumbini also helps promote South Asian/Indian tourism.
On no ground it will be a military threat to India, because, Nepal doesn't
allow her soil to use to any power against another country. Please See: Nepal's
Foreign Policy, Article 6.18 page 38, Legislative Parliament, Published in
2013, Singha Durbar, Kathmandu.
Dr. Bishnu Nepal
Former Ambassador to
Japan.
---------- Forwarded
message ----------
From: Deo Dhakal
Date: Tue, Jun 17, 2014
at 9:25 AM
Subject: Re: LUMBINI IN
SPOTLIGHT AGAIN AS CHINA PROPOSES PLANS FOR REDEVELOPMENT
To: The Himalayan Voice
<himalayanvoice@gmail.com>
Nepal will stand
nowhere if one starts talking where China or India will be in the future.
Nepalese will have to build their country, polity and sort out their
differences.
The way we see the
problem in Nepal is the rallying force. Earlier the monarchy was there, and
that role is not assumed yet by other institution.
It will continue to
hunt Nepal for a long time as there are growing supporters for that
institution. Also, there will be an avenue for others to pay around.
Perhaps, it is time for
round table conference, sort out all the differences and move forward on
Nepal's terms and condition. After all, all stakeholders in Nepal are Nepalese,
their loyalty comes first to the country. Talking about other countries'
interest will not help, it only shows how vulnerable is Nepalese mind.
Dr. Deo Dhakal
---------- Forwarded
message ----------
From: Bihari Krishna
Shrestha
Date: Tue, Jun 17, 2014
at 2:31 PM
Subject: Re: LUMBINI IN
SPOTLIGHT AGAIN AS CHINA PROPOSES PLANS FOR REDEVELOPMENT
To: The Himalayan Voice
himalayanvoice@gmail.com
Indian establishment
seems to believe that their regional "super power" pretensions are
assured only when they create perpetual problems in their immediate
neighborhood. Had the Nepali Maoists not been given necessary benefits in
India, Dahal and Company would not have been able to inflict such enormous harm
on Nepal. So, if anti-Indian elements take advantage of Nepal's perpetually
fluid situation in recent years, the Indians alone are to be blamed. One only
hopes that they have also the capacity to learn from their folly.
Bihari Krishna Shrestha
Kathmandu, Nepal.
Kathmandu, Nepal.
