International Center for Cultural Studies

Report｜China-Nepal New Found Friendship and Repercussion on Tibetan Refugees in Nepal: The complex interplay between geopolitics and refugee protection

2024-03-22

Topic｜China-Nepal New Found Friendship and Repercussion on Tibetan Refugees in Nepal: The complex interplay between geopolitics and refugee protection
Speaker｜Vijay Kant Karna（Executive Chairperson of the Centre for Social Innovation and Foreign Policy (CESIF) Nepal）、Tenzin Dawa（director of the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD)）
Discussant｜Pan Mei-Lin（Director and Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, NYCU）
Moderator｜Dolma Tsering（Postdoctoral Researcher, International Center for Culture Studies, NYCU）

Time｜March 22, 2024 (Fri.) 14:00 - 16:30 (Taipei, GMT+8)
Venue｜Online Forum
Organizer｜Dolma Tsering
Info Link｜https://iccs.chss.nycu.edu.tw/zh/activity.php?USN=1437
Sub-project｜Migration, Unequal Citizens, and Critical Legal Studies
Principal Investigator｜Prof. Joyce C.H. Liu（劉紀蕙）、Yu-Fan Chiu（邱羽凡）

On 22 March 2024, the International Center for Cultural Studies invited Professor Vijay Kant Karna, the Executive Chairperson of the Centre for Social Innovation and Foreign Policy (CESIF) Nepal, and Tenzin Dawa, the Director of the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) to give talks on “the China-Nepal New Found Friendship and Repercussion on Tibetan Refugees in Nepal”. The organiser and moderator of this event is the ICCS postdoctoral researcher Dolma Tsering, and the invited discussant is Professor Mei-Lin Pan from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the National Yang-Ming Chiao Tung University.

The relationship between Nepal and China is complex and multifaceted, with both countries sharing a long history of cultural, economic and diplomatic ties. Nepal’s strategic location between India and China has made it an important player in regional geopolitics. This relationship has strengthened in the last few years with China’s massive investment and infrastructure development projects in Nepal. China is the largest source of Foreign Direct Investment in Nepal. However, the foundation of the extant relations is anchored through three factors: Nepal recognises Tibet as an integral part of China, embraces the one-China policy concerning Taiwan, and does not and should not allow its territory to be used against China. The newfound friendships and China’s increased influence in Nepal have immediate repercussions for Tibetan refugees in Nepal.

Nepal hosts the second largest number of Tibetan refugees, in addition to India. With increased pressure from the Chinese government, the Nepalese government has not only tightened the border to control the movement of Tibetans from Tibet to Nepal, but also started repressing the freedom of Tibetans in Nepal. Nepal cancelled the celebration of the Dalai Lama’s birthday for the first time in 2005. Subsequently, the Dalai Lama’s representative office which looked after the welfare of Tibetan refugees in Nepal, was shut down. Nepal is also accused of increasing surveillance within Tibetan refugee settlements, thereby curtailing the freedom of movement, religion, and expression. The Chinese government's influence is also reflected in the Nepalese government’s blocking of the resettlement of Tibetan refugees to the third country. Since 1990, the Nepal government has stopped issuing refugee certificates to Tibetans; therefore, most Tibetans have been forced to become documentless.

In this context, this online discussion aimed to assess the geo-political aspects of China-Nepal relations and the implications it has on Tibetan refugees in Nepal.

Speakers Expertise
Professor Vijay Kant Karna is the Executive Chairperson of the Centre for Social Innovation and Foreign Policy (CESIF) in Nepal. He is credited with several publications on China-Nepal relations. He was Nepal’s former ambassador to Denmark.
Tenzin Dawa was the director of the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), which was founded in India in 1996. The TCHRD works on monitoring and documenting human rights issues inside Tibet and carrying out empowerment and advocacy campaigns in the Tibetan refugee community in exile by engaging with young Tibetans.

Professor Vijay Kant Karna speaks about the Geopolitical and Economic Roots of the China-Nepal Newfound Friendship
Professor Karna’s speech focuses on several important aspects of the China-Nepal relationship, including diplomacy, geopolitics, the economy, civil society, and the media.
China and Nepal have long-term relationships because of the close ties between the two ruling communist party regimes. The Chinese government has adopted several strategic engagements to secure the one-China policy within Nepali domestic politics and has tried to influence major players in the geopolitical field, including civil society and media. In September 2023, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the Prime Minister of Nepal, visited Beijing and signed a joint agreement on the BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) with the Chinese government, which remarked a shift from the one-China policy to the one-China principle. This shift has brought about new changes in the connection between Nepal and Tibet. After Chinese President Xi visited Nepal in 2019, the Chinese-Nepal relationship transformed from a comprehensive partnership to a strategic partnership to enhance the strategic security management of several territorial issues in the region. In this regard, the Chinese ambassador maintained a good relationship with Nepal’s Security Agency.

The China-Nepal BRI project has not progressed much since both parties signed an agreement in 2017. There are several possible reasons for this stagnation. First, the Nepalese government expected grants from the Chinese government instead of loans. The government has never taken commercial loans. Second, the BRI project, which was exclusively open to Chinese companies and labourers, is not acceptable to the Nepalese government.

One significant point to mention is the mutual relationship between communist parties in the two countries, which went beyond diplomatic relationships between the two governments. In the last decade, China has been trying to train Nepalese communist leaders in ideology, party-state relationships, and many other spheres. Party leaders from top to bottom visited China to implement the training programs. Thus, instead of dealing with government agencies, the Chinese government has used party leaders to influence policies in Nepal. This is a new development in the Nepali context.

At present, many Nepali infrastructure projects, including roads, hydropower, and drinking water, are in the hands of Chinese companies. When they ended the project, they spent much more money than the project’s expenditure.

Despite many human rights abuses in the Tibetan community in China and several waves of exile from Tibet to Nepal in the past decades, thousands of Tibetan refugees could not obtain an ID card from Nepal due to the pronounced pressure from the Chinese government. Since 2020, the China-Nepal border has been closed for three years. In mid-2023, borders were not fully opened. This has technically left big problems for people living on the border. The Chinese government tried to eliminate relations between communities on both sides of the border. As a result, even private businesses in Lhasa and other areas in China have been cut off.

There are other challenges faced by Tibetan refugees in Nepal. The first is a lack of support from the international community. It is urgent to propose a strategic international alignment to put pressure on the Nepali government and force it to respect the fundamental rights of the tibiet-origin population. Another challenge is to be aware of the dominant Chinese influence on Nepali mainstream media.

Tenzin Dawa Speaks about the Condition of Tibetan Refugees in Nepal
Tenzin Dawa’s speech was based on the human rights report by the TCHRD published in December 2023. The report highlighted alarming findings regarding the transnational repression of human rights. During the two visits to Nepal, Dawa and colleagues interviewed Tibetan youth refugees, NGO officers, and elected representatives.

Why is Nepal an important location for Tibetan refugees, in general? Following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the People’s Liberation Army invaded Tibet. The PLA’s successful repression of the Tibetan National Uprising in 1959 forced the Dalai Lama and thousands of Tibetans to escape into India and Nepal. Given the geographical, cultural, and ethnic proximity, thousands of Tibetan refugees have fled to Nepal. Subsequently, the Nepali government provided shelters and issued refugee cards for Tibetan refugees. The population of Tibetan refugees in Nepal is approximately 25, 000. However, today, this number has been reduced to less than 13,000. The living conditions of Tibetan refugee communities have worsened over the past few years. Presently, 35% of the Tibetan population in Nepal is under documented. In 1989, the Nepal government signed an informal agreement with the UNHCR, called the Gentlemen Agreement, to allow Tibetan refugees to stay in Nepal as a transit spot before moving to a third country. Driven by both geopolitical and economic objectives, the Chinese government has built closer relationships with Nepal. Consequently, Nepal gradually became “another Tibet” that repressed Tibetan refugees’ free speech and human rights. Both sides also began to tighten border security, which worsened the living conditions of the Tibetan refugees. Under the agreement on the One-China Policy, the Nepalese government started to prevent Tibetan refugees from practising free speech and organising various political activities. Some basic needs, such as a driving licence, business licence, or even a bank account, are extremely difficult for Tibetan refugees in Nepal due to a lack of legal documents. One of the major challenges for Tibetans in Nepal is the high unemployment rate, especially among younger generations. Moreover, since 2008, the situation has deteriorated further with the Nepalese government's intensified restrictions imposed on the Tibetan refugee community in Nepal. In addition to banning the commemoration of the Tibetan National Uprising Day and the celebration of the birthday of the Dalai Lama, the climate has been significantly difficult for the exile community to freely express their voice in the country. The Tibetan organisation could not register in Nepal by using the word “Tibetan”. They seek more international NGOs to step in and call for improving the human rights of Tibetan refugees.

Some Reflections on Taiwan and Nepal Relations: Professor Mei-Lin Pan
During the discussion session, Professor Mei-Lin Pan shared her experience of visiting Nepal in 2012. Due to the one-China Policy that the Nepal government had practised, when she entered Nepal, she could not apply for an ordinary visiting visa because she was a Taiwanese citizen. Rather, she had to stand in another line and ask for state permission (at that time, it was called “the state order”). That was her first impression, and experienced that Nepal had a strong pro-Chinese attitude. During her visit to Nepal, she had the opportunity to participate in the Dalai Lama’s birthday ceremony. She witnessed how Tibetan people were prohibited from wearing their own Chuba, a traditional Tibetan dress, and were not allowed to take the bus. By that time, she had also observed police arresting Tibetans during the ceremony. For her, this was a serious human rights abuse situation that she could not forget.
Pan further opined that South Asia is a remote area of Taiwan. Tibet has a special connection with Taiwan, which is derived from KMT’s historical ideology and the connection shared by Tibetan Buddhism. Taiwan and India have recently established close relationships. However, compared to these two regions, Nepal is the least common country in Taiwan. To Professor Pan, this kind of discussion had not been held before in Taiwan. As Taiwan, Nepal, and Tibet share a similar situation of being exposed to the great influence of China, whose ambition is to become the leader of the world, what happened in Nepal and Tibet demonstrates how China adopted military and political strategies to achieve this goal. China’s military threat to Taiwan is increasing. The talks by Professor Karna and Tenzin Dawa unveil China’s impact on Nepal through soft and sharp power, and are therefore very relevant, timely, and important. China’s increasing influence not only impacts the power structure geopolitically but also negatively impacts human rights issues. The border between China and Nepal has changed significantly. In addition to the growing number of buildings on the border, the landscape of border lives, culture, and social relationships has fundamentally changed. The thousand-year culture and traditions might have been demolished by the new border regulations.

Professor Mei-Lin Pan was curious about Nepal’s intellectual group perspective on the Nepal-China relationship and its impact on Nepali society. Such situations might indicate a weak nation’s strategy to deal with a strong power, where Tibetan refugees suffered a lot— considering the imbalance between the two countries, what kind of solution can be proposed? How do people address this situation?

In response to this question, Professor Karna explains how the One-China Policy works in the Nepali government and the limitations of the Nepal government and civil society in dealing with the sensitive political situation. In Tenzin Dawa’s opinion, Nepali society and the domestic community are willing to support Tibetan refugee issues; however, when the issue goes to the institutional and governmental levels, it faces great difficulties.