A noted Chinese scholar and expert on China’s foreign policy said that China expected to further deepen its relations with Nepal and will actively engage with Nepal’s new government in the changing political dimensions. He said that most of the issues of Nepal-China relations will remain unchanged.
At an academic session organized Monday by the Friends of Silk Road Club–Nepal on China’s New Thinking on Foreign Policies and China-Nepal Relations in New Era, Prof. Zhang Jiadong, the Director of the Center for South Asian Studies of China’s Fudan University said Nepal and China are very close and good neighbors and their meaningful bilateral cooperation will remain continued in the future as well.
Likewise, Prof. Zhang said China’s Belt and Road Initiative is an economic cooperation and has nothing to do with politics.
Saying that Chinese modernization process is not entirely defined by power and capital, Prof. Zhang stated that Nepal and China can share their ideas on development path given their similarities in multiple areas.
Economic development should be the top priority for a nation’s development, and Nepal, as a member of the global south, too should apply and understand this reality, according to Prof. Zhang.
Likewise, he said that reviving traditional trade routes along the Nepal-China borders should be the priority of both Nepal and China.
He said, “As Nepal has two big neighboring countries, it should take neutral, balanced and stable relations. People to people exchanges should be strengthened. China will also welcome more people from Nepal as part of the exchange.”
On the occasion, Prof. Zhang said that China has undergone a remarkable transformation, emerging as a major global economic force and has evolved through a unique modernization process.
During the session, Prof. Zhang also shared his thoughts on China’s political system, governance structure and economic, social and cultural development trajectories as well.
Unlike some other developed nations’ modernization of capital-powered development, China has embraced the modernization with people-centric development, he viewed.
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