Mr.Talha Posted February 8, 2022 Posted February 8, 2022 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-60288007 A Nepalese government report leaked to the BBC accuses China of encroaching into Nepal along the two countries' shared border. It is the first time there have been official claims from Nepal of Chinese interference in its territory. The report was commissioned last September following claims that China has been trespassing in the district of Humla, in the far west of Nepal. China's embassy in Kathmandu denies there has been any encroachment. Following the publication of the leaked report, Nepalese Communications Minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki said any border issues with its neighbours would be dealt with diplomatically. "Either with India or with China, if there are any issues at our border we will resolve them through diplomatic means. "Such problems should not arise and the Nepal government will always make efforts to prevent such situations," he told a regular news briefing in Kathmandu. It is unclear why the report has not yet been published by the Nepalese government. But it has over recent years improved ties with China to counterbalance its long-standing relationship with India, its giant neighbour to the south. A long-standing boundary dispute between Nepal and India has hampered relations between the two for years. The report's findings are likely to put pressure on the growing links Nepal has with China. Their common border runs for nearly 1,400km (870 miles) along the Himalayan mountains. It was laid out in a series of treaties signed between the two countries in the early 1960s. Much of it is in remote, hard-to-reach areas. On the ground, the boundary is demarcated by a chain of pillars, set kilometres apart. This sometimes makes it hard to know exactly where the border is located. The Nepalese government decided to send a taskforce to Humla after reports about possible Chinese encroachment. Some claimed China had built a series of buildings on the Nepalese side of the border. The team consisted of representatives from the police and the government. In its report, passed to the BBC, the group found that surveillance activities by Chinese security forces had restricted religious activities on the Nepalese side of the border in a place called Lalungjong. The area has traditionally been a draw for pilgrims because of its proximity to Mount Kailash, just over the border in China, which is a sacred site for both Hindus and Buddhists. The report also concluded that China had been limiting grazing by Nepalese farmers. In the same area, it found China was building a fence around a border pillar, and attempting to construct a canal and a road on the Nepalese side of the border. But the taskforce did find that Chinese buildings originally thought to have been constructed inside Nepal had, in fact, been built on the Chinese side of the border.
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