Protest held in front of Chinese mission in Nepal against Envoy's political intervention

People here on Tuesday demonstrated in front of the Chinese embassy to protest against Chinese Ambassador Hou Yanqi's interference in the political matters of Nepal.

People here on Tuesday demonstrated in front of the Chinese embassy to protest against Chinese Ambassador Hou Yanqi's interference in the political matters of Nepal. Demonstrators from the civic society held placards and raised slogans protesting against Hou's increased meeting with ruling politicos of the Himalayan Nation.

"All the foreign interventions in our country, we stand against it... We are turning a blind eye on what were are doing to stop the Chinese intervention and less concerned. Amidst that, Yanqi who is on run to manage our internal issue, solve the ongoing problem inside the ruling Nepal Communist Party, we have stood against it" Aliza Dhakal, a protestor told ANI. As rift inside Nepal's ruling party, Nepal Communist Party (NCP), intensified the Chinese Ambassador has been holding meetings with leaders of the ruling party as well as the President Bidya Bhandari.

On Sunday, Hou met the senior leader of the NCP, Madhav Kumar Nepal as well as President Bhandari and discussed various issues pertaining to the rift inside the party. She also met another NCP senior leader, Jhalnath Khanal, on Tuesday morning and discussed various issues. The meeting of Central Standing Committee of the ruling party has deferred till Wednesday 11 am with the potential of being postponed further as the duo chair- Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal-are yet to agree to a point for a solution to the ongoing problem.

Speaking on the recent Hou's meetings, Chinese Embassy spokesperson Zhang Si said, "The embassy keeps good relationships with Nepali leaders and is ready to exchange views on issues of common interest at any convenient time." Though Nepal and China call their meetings as just for maintaining a good relationship, it is speculated that Beijing might be intending to expand its political doctrine to Nepal.

The Kathmandu Post reported that some officials in the Foreign Ministry have stated that the President's Office has been repeatedly violating the diplomatic code of conduct. It was further reported that the under-secretary from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted at the President's Office, whose duty is to brief the President on potential meetings with foreign dignitaries and ambassadors, was not informed about the meeting between Bhandari and Hou.

"As per the diplomatic code of conduct, Foreign Ministry officials should be present at such meetings, but we were not informed...So there is no institutional record of the meetings and we don't know what the talking points were," the ministry official was quoted by the Post. (ANI)

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