Nepal protesters burn Xi Jinping effigies over China’s alleged border encroachment

Kathmandu recently released a report showing that four districts were at risk of losing hundreds of hectares to Beijing as it expanded its road projects

The map was actually published in response to New Delhi, which earlier this month claimed a Nepalese border region in its updated country map

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, with Nepali President Bidya Devi Bhandari, reviews a guard of honour during a welcome ceremony in Kathmandu on October 12, 2019. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 10:49pm, 12 Nov 2019Updated: 8:50pm, 13 Nov 2019

Protesters in Nepal this week burnt the effigies of Chinese President Xi Jinping after a recent government report indicated Beijing had encroached on 36 hectares of Nepalese land, roughly the size of 26 football fields.

Kathmandu’s document showing the alleged Chinese encroachment was ironically a response to a map released on November 2 by New Delhi, which claimed a 372-square-kilometre (144-square-mile) border region, known as Kalapani in Nepal, as part of the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand.

According to the document released by Nepal’s Survey Department in early November, four districts sharing a border with China – Sankhuwasabha, Rasuwa, Sindhupalchowk and Humla – were seen losing territories as Beijing expanded its road projects.

The government data suggested Nepal stood to lose a further several hundred hectares of land to Beijing.

Local media said protesters shouted slogans and held placards reading “Go back to China!” and “Return Nepali land” in multiple districts across the country on November 11. But Anil Sigdel, director of the Washington-based think tank Nepal Matters for America, said he did not find the report “important as far as Nepal’s border issues with China are concerned”.

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