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NepalChina
Nepal's security relations with China dated at least as
far
back as the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century,
Nepal
gained the upper hand over Tibet, then a semiautonomous
vassal
state of China. In the latter part of the twentieth
century,
however, Nepal's dealings with China generally had been
kept on an
even keel, except when India expressed strong disapproval,
as in
the aftermath of China's 1988 sale of air defense weapons
to Nepal.
The earliest defense pact with China was the
Sino-Nepalese
Treaty of 1792, signed after the Chinese had defeated the
forces of
the Gorkha kingdom at Nawakot, some seven kilometers
northwest of
modern Kathmandu. Under this treaty, the signatories
agreed that
they would regard China as a "father" to them and affirmed
their
understanding that China would come to the aid of Nepal
should it
ever be invaded by a foreign power--although no such
assistance
occurred during the Anglo-Nepalese War of 1814-16
(see The Enclosing of Nepal
, ch. 1). In the mid-nineteenth century,
however,
forces from the kingdom of Gorkha were on the move
northward. The
Nepalese-Tibetan Treaty of Thapathali, signed in 1856 at
the
conclusion of a successful two-year campaign in Tibet,
stipulated
that Tibet pay annual tribute to Nepal and grant certain
extraterritorial rights to Nepalese traders. It also
pledged a
mutual policy of nonaggression, and China agreed to come
to Nepal's
assistance should Nepal be invaded by the forces of "any
other
prince." A century later, in September 1956, the agreement
was
replaced by a treaty of amity and commerce with China's
new
communist regime, ending Nepal's tributary income and
extraterritorial privileges.
Although China offered to sign nonaggression or mutual
defense
pacts with Nepal, the kingdom always turned down the
offers in
deference to Indian sensitivities. In the 1950s, Nepal's
anticommunist rulers, spurred on by Indian advisers,
regarded China
as a potential threat and enacted various military reforms
and laws
to combat Chinese propaganda and subversion. In 1961 King
Mahendra
visited Beijing and signed an agreement to construct a
highway,
named the Arniko Highway, from Kathmandu to Kodari on the
Tibetan
border. As of 1991, this highway remained the only major
artery
linking the two countries. Nepal generally preferred to
keep
relations with China low-key to avoid offending India. The
1988
decision to purchase Chinese air defense weapons was a
glaring
exception to this rule.
Data as of September 1991
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