KATHMANDU: A high-level Chinese delegation led by a vice minister of the Communist Party of China asked Nepal’s President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Sunday before meeting with other top leaders to settle differences between the ruler’s two warring factions. Communist Party of Nepal, a week after the surprise dissolution of Parliament and the subsequent political upheaval.
CPC International Department Vice Minister Guo Yezhou, who arrived here Sunday morning in what is believed to be a desperate attempt by China to avoid a vertical split in the ruling Communist Party of Nepal (PNC), met with President Bhandari in Rastrapati Bhawan.
They discussed issues related to strengthening centuries-old bilateral ties, said an official from the president’s office.
Guo, who knows all the senior leaders of the PNC personally, is scheduled to meet Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday, according to sources.
He will also hold meetings with high-level political leaders, including PNC Executive Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda ”, Senior Leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, who replaced Oli as chairman of the Prachanda-led faction of the party, and Chairman of the Janata Samajwadi Party, Baburam Bhattarai. , according to sources.
The Chinese embassy here and the Foreign Ministry are silent on Guo’s visit.
His visit aims to “take stock of the evolution of the political situation in Nepal after the dissolution of the House of Representatives and the subsequent split in the ruling PNC amid an already deep intraparty rift,” reported the newspaper My Republica .
China is not happy with the split in Nepal’s largest communist party, according to sources.
Guo will endeavor to settle the differences between the two warring factions of the ruling party, one led by Oli and the other led by Prachanda, during his four-day stay in Nepal, according to the Kathmandu Post.
Previously, Gou traveled to Kathmandu in February 2018 when the Oli-led CPN-UML and the Prachanda-led NCP (Maoist Center) were ready to merge and form a unified communist party following the victory of their alliance in the general elections of 2017. Later, in May 2018, the two communist parties merged and formed a new party called the Communist Party of Nepal, the newspaper said.
Guo will assess the situation within the ruling party and encourage both factions of the CPN to seek some sort of common ground for party unity, the Post said, citing party leaders. It will convey the message of the Chinese leadership, including that of President Xi Jinping, to the leadership of the PNC, said a leader of the ruling party.
“In addition to this, the Chinese side has not communicated anything to us about the visit,” the leader told the Post on condition of anonymity.
“China has carefully chosen and dispatched Gou at a time when unity within our party is undermined,” said a member of the PNC Standing Committee.
Guo was received by the Chinese ambassador to Nepal, Hou Yanqui, at Tribhuvan International Airport.
No one from the Nepalese side was present to welcome the Chinese delegation that arrived on a scheduled flight from Beijing, sources at the airport said according to The Kathmandu Post.
“We couldn’t even recognize them because they were wearing personal protective equipment,” the source told the newspaper.
Nepal plunged into a political crisis last Sunday after Prime Minister Oli, known for his pro-Beijing leanings, recommended in a surprise move the dissolution of the 275-member House, amid a power struggle with Prachanda.
Acting on the recommendation of the prime minister, President Bhandari dissolved the House on the same day and announced new elections on April 30 and May 10, prompting protests from a large part of the CPN led by Prachanda, also a co-chair of the ruling party.
On Friday, the cabinet led by Oli recommended to the president to convene the winter session of the National Assembly.
This is not the first time that China has intervened in Nepal’s internal affairs.
In May and July, Hou held separate meetings with the president, prime minister and other senior leaders of the CPN, including Prachanda, when Oli faced mounting pressure to resign.
Several political party leaders had described the series of meetings of the Chinese envoy with the leaders of the ruling party as interference in the internal political affairs of Nepal.
China’s political profile in Nepal has been on the rise in recent years with billions of dollars in investments under its billion dollar Belt and Road Initiative, including the Transhimalayan Multidimensional Connectivity Network.
In addition to investments, China’s ambassador to Nepal, Hou, has gone to great lengths to gain support for Oli.
The CPC and the NCP regularly participated in training programs. In September last year, the PNC had even organized a symposium, inviting some CCP leaders to Kathmandu to train Nepalese leaders on Xi Jinping Thought ahead of the Chinese president’s visit, his first to Nepal, according to a report. from the Kathmandu Post. .
In a cautious reaction to rapid political developments in Nepal, India said on Thursday that it was an “internal matter” of the neighboring nation and that it was the country that should decide according to its democratic processes.
Meanwhile, President Bhandari has convened the winter session of the National Assembly, the upper house of Parliament, starting on January 1.
Assistant spokesman for the president’s office, Keshav Prasad Ghimire, in a statement on Sunday, said the president has called the National Assembly session at 4 p.m. on January 1.
.
