Outgoing Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi.
Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi left Kathmandu for Beijing on Tuesday after completing her four-year tenure in Nepal. When she came to Nepal to take up her diplomatic assignment four years ago, people from all walks of life praised her beauty and smile.
Before her departure to China on Tuesday, the Chinese ambassador took to Twitter to share her feelings towards nepal and the Nepali people.
"Completed my tenure, I’m going to leave friendly and beautiful neighboring Nepal. I would like to extend my most sincere thanks to all Nepali friends! I will always cherish the profound friendship I forged with friends from all walks of life during my stay in Nepal," she tweeeted along with her beautiful photograph.
Hou has become the longest serving Chinese ambassador to Nepal in recent years. She spent four years in Nepal. Most of the previous Chinese ambassadors stayed in Nepal not more than three years.
Hou was the second lady ambassador from China. Her predecessor Yu Hong, who is presently China's ambassador to Brunei, was the first lady ambassador that the northern neighbor sent to Nepal since the two countries established official diplomatic relations back in 1955.
Here is a brief review on Ambassador Hou's tenure in Nepal:
Chinese President Xi's historic visit
The most significant development that the two countries witnessed during Ambassador Hou's tenure was Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Nepal in October 2019. Experts on Nepal-China relations say Ambassador Hou is also credited for President Xi's successful trip. The visit was described as a watershed moment in the annals of diplomatic relations. During Xi's visit, the two countries signed and exchanged 20 cooperation agreements. The visit grabbed huge international attention because it was the first visit by a Chinese president to Nepal in 23 years since Jiang Zemin visited in 1996. The two friendly neighboring countries elevated their bilateral ties to 'strategic partnership'.
The visit generated optimism among Nepalis over the prospects of bilateral ties. However, the enthusiasm didn't last long as most of the agreements that the two countries signed during the visit remained unimplemented, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, political instability in Nepal, bureaucratic hurdles and tricky geopolitics.
Despite that some agreements have gone into implementation during Ambassador Hou's tenure. One of the major bilateral agreements was to announce the revised height of Mount Everest. In December 2020, the two countries announced the revised height of Mount Everest as 8,848.86 meters. Similarly, Nepal opened its consulate office in China's Sichuan Province which was also one of the understandings that the two countries had reached in the course of Xi's visit.
Although Nepal signed up to Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China's signature foreign policy project of President Xi, in 2017, not a single project under the BRI has gone into implementation. Ambassador Hou, however, tried to persuade Nepali leaders to execute projects under the BRI.
Even as the Deuba-led government continued to remain indifferent towards executing mega railroad connectivity under the BRI, two projects from Nepal have been selected under Global Development Initiative (GDI) of China recently, for which Ambassador Hou deserves a credit. The first project under the GDI is Nepal Smiling Children Project where China Foundation for Rural Development will provide food for 3,600 children from poor communities in Kathmandu and the second project is related to supporting another school.
Miffed at the Nepal government's apathy towards receiving loans from China for building connectivity projects, Ambassador Hou time and again reminded the Nepali leadership that BRI is not about grants, but commercial and soft loans.
During Ambassador Hou's tenure, however, some China-assisted national pride projects including Pokhara Regional International Airport, picked up pace despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
China watchers mostly give Hou high marks for how she represented her country during her four-year tenure in Nepal. “Ambassador Hou did an outstanding job in my view," Sundar Nath Bhattarai, chairman of the Kathmandu-based China Study Center told Nepalkhabar. He termed Hou's tenure highly successful.
"President Xi's visit to Nepal is the most significant development that happened during Ambassador Hou's tenure in Kathmandu. She also deserves a huge credit for the grand success of the visit. She is a highly effective diplomat," Bhattarai added.
Hou has been proposed as China's next ambassador to ASEAN which holds a huge geopolitical significance in her country's foreign policy. Actually, it is a kind of reward for her because of her good performance in Kathmandu, observers said.
Courted controversies
In her stay, Ambassador Hou also courted controversies on some occasions. Once in 2020, China was accused of interfering in interfering in international matters of Nepal when Ambassdor Hou met with the then ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) leaders as the internal rift of the party was at its peak. Many speculated that the ambassador tried to mediate the NCP's rival faction leaders and prevent the party from splitting. Some leaders of the then opposition Nepali Congress also termed her engagements with NCP leaders undiplomatic. Her meetings with NCP leaders also created suspicion among Nepali people, too.
Bhattarai, however, said that Ambassador Hou's engagements with NCP leaders were not against established diplomatic etiquette. "She might have met with NCP leaders because of fraternal ties and goodwill between the communist parties of China and Nepal," he argued.
In the past one year, however, China has taken slightly a different approach than what it did when KP Sharma Oli was the country's prime minister (2018 February-2021 June). Chinese Communist Party leaders including Li Zhansu, Wang Yi and Li Jianchao, who came to Nepal on separate visits, gave the message to Nepali leaders that CPC wants to have a good party-to-party relationship with all the major political forces of Nepal.
Ambassador Hou, unlike her predecessors, seemed to be assertive. Once in April 2022, she raised question on the policy consistency of the Nepal government. In her words, policy consistency of the Nepal government put Chinese investors into trouble. Her statement, at a press conference organized by the Chinese Embassy in Nepal, was an indirect reference to the government's decision to revoke the license issued to the Chinese state-owned China Gezhouba Group Corporation (CGGC) for the development of the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project.
Bhattarai said that traditionally an ambassador is tasked with reporting on developments in the host country and making policy recommendations. "Representing the home country and interests Ambassador Hou fulfilled her job successfully," he added.
Border trouble
Another issue that the Chinese ambassador encountered in her tenure was related to China's alleged encroachment into Nepali territory. The ambassador vehemently denied that there was border encroachment.
China earned goodwill for vaccines
China sent millions of doses of vaccines to Nepal during the COVID-19 pandemic at the latter's request. Ambassador Hou is said to have played crucial role in facilitating medical equipment and vaccines to Nepal throughout the pandemic.
Ram Bhakta Thakur, another former Nepali ambassador, also agreed that Ambassador Hou has been an effective diplomat.
"We can say that China has opened new chapter of diplomacy during her tenure or experimented a new formula and equation in the uncertain enigma of unstable political environment," he told Nepalkhabar.
Nepal continues to back China on its core interests
During Ambassador Hou's tenure, Nepal continued to support to issues related to China's core interests such as Tibet, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Xinjiang. Reiterating its One China policy and respecting China's territorial integrity, the country firmly stood in favor of China on these issues.
Just last monthly, Nepal was one of the 19 countries that rejected a debate on the draft resolution tabled in the UN Human Rights Council on situation of human rights in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. The rejection of the debate on human rights of Xinjiang has been widely described by western media as a great victory of China and the humiliating defeat of the United States and its allies.
Hou slammed US
When Hou took up her post, the ties between Washington and Beijing was at its lowest ebb as the then Trump Administration waged a trade war against China. Four years later, geo-strategic rivalry between the two big powers has grown further across the globe including Nepal.
In the past, the Chinese diplomats in Nepal mostly remained silent towards the US global strategies. They hardly spoke on Nepal's ties with the third country including the US. Unlike her predecessors, Hou lashed out at the United States several times for raising issues related to Tibet, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Xinjiang.
The US-China rivalry in Nepal further intensified in Hou's tenure. China and the US jostled for influence in Nepal through economic and strategic initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact.
In February this year, the MCC Nepal Compact, a $500 million infrastructure and economic development grant from the US government, was passed through parliament despite China's public displeasure. China and the US engaged in a war of words over the MCC Nepal Compact accusing each other of violating Nepal's sovereign decision.
In June, the government of Nepal decided to stay away from the State Partnership Program of the US military, fearing that the country could be part of an anti-China military alliance led by the United States. This time, China quickly welcomed Nepal's decision.
Won heart of Nepali people by dancing to Nepali song
Ambassador Hou won the heart of Nepali people by dancing in Nepal song at a function in Kathmandu in March 2019, just three months after her tenure. Her musical performance made big headlines in Nepali newspapers the next day. In yet another incident, Hou was highly praised. It was in December 2019, the then Oli-led government had announced Visit Nepal Year 2020. The Chinese envoy was quick to promote Nepal through her Twitter post. She posted pictures of herself on social media showcasing the beauty of Nepal as she encouraged people to visit the country.
"True beauty always deeply touches the deep heart. Beautiful Nepal with history, diversity and nature deserves a visit. Wish #VisitNepal2020 successful," Hou tweeted tagging then Tourism Minister Yogesh Bhattarai.
