Editorial | Measuring Everest helps to take relationship to new heights
- China and Nepal settling their row about the height of the world’s tallest mountain shows that diplomatic relations are on solid ground and comes as links between the neighbours continue to grow
The height of the world’s tallest mountain, Everest, is a matter of science and geography. But for China and Nepal, with the peak straddling their border, it is also about geopolitics. Both agreed during President Xi Jinping’s visit to Kathmandu in October last year to send separate teams to the top to end a dispute over how high it is.
China had said the mountain, which it refers to by the Tibetan name Qomolangma, was four metres shorter than that claimed by Nepal, which calls it Sagarmatha. The difference was due to the Nepali calculation including the peak’s snow cap, while that of the Chinese only went to the summit’s rock base.
After the results from the twin surveys using the latest technology were compared and a method for measurement agreed, a new figure that raises the previous estimate by 86 centimetres has been confirmed. The cooperation is reason for Xi to contend in his congratulatory message to his counterpart, Bidya Devi Bhandari, that what most of the world has named Everest should be known by the neighbours as the “China-Nepal Friendship Peak”.
There is much meaning in such a name. Xi spoke of the increasing extent of relations and that Beijing was eager to cooperate in conservation and research of the Himalayan region. But Nepal, although being geographically and culturally closer to Chinese rival India through being connected by a plain rather than a steep mountain range, is steadily moving into Beijing’s sphere of influence.
Unlike Delhi, Kathmandu has signed on to Xi’s belt and road infrastructure and development scheme and trade, transport links, official exchanges and military support are expanding.
