PM Oli to visit China in December
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is scheduled to visit China from Dec 2 to 5 at the official invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to high-level sources. This visit comes after discussions between Prime Minister Oli and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where Foreign Minister Yi suggested that Oli keep his schedule clear for early December.
Upon his return to Nepal, Prime Minister Oli held informal discussions with senior CPN-UML officials about his upcoming visit to China, which they encouraged. Following these discussions, Chinese Foreign Minister Yi reportedly briefed President Xi on Oli's planned visit. The Chinese Foreign Ministry then sent a formal letter to the Chinese Embassy in Nepal, which Ambassador Chen Song delivered to Oli as an official invitation from President Xi.
In preparation for Oli’s visit, Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba is coordinating with the Prime Minister’s Office. A senior official indicated that Foreign Minister Rana may travel to Beijing in advance for essential discussions and logistical coordination.
Prime Minister Oli, who was appointed on July 15, met with Ambassador Chen shortly after assuming office, where they had an informal exchange about his potential visit to China. The final dates were coordinated with the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing.
While there has been speculation about a potential visit to India, no formal decision has been reached. Prime Minister Oli did, however, have a brief meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York. Additionally, Oli’s planned visit to Bangkok for the BIMSTEC summit was postponed after Thailand delayed the meeting.
Nepal and China set to resume military drill
Nepal and China are set to resume their joint military drill, which had been stalled since 2019 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The fourth edition of the drill will be held in China later this month. According to sources at the Nepali Army headquarters, the exercise will begin on Sept 21 and last for 10 days. Although China had been hesitant to restart the drill in the early years following the pandemic due to strict health restrictions, it has now agreed to move forward.
Outgoing Army chief Prabhu Ram Sharma played a key role in reviving the joint drill between the Nepal Army and China’s People’s Liberation Army, according to officials. Army spokesperson Brig Gen Gaurav Kumar KC confirmed that discussions are ongoing to finalize the details, although he did not provide further specifics.
Sharma has reportedly proposed to the Chinese side that the dates for the exercise be confirmed before his retirement. Sharma officially retired on Monday, passing the leadership of the Nepali Army to Ashok Raj Sigdel. In preparation for the exercise, Sharma had earlier dispatched senior official Prem Dhoj Adhikari to Beijing for discussions. The final dates were set shortly after Adhikari’s return.
The drill, known as the Sagarmatha Friendship exercise, first began in 2017, drawing attention from both New Delhi and Beijing. This year’s edition will take place in Chengdu, China. Prior to 2017, while Nepal and China had engaged in training and exchanges, no joint military drills had been held between the two countries.
India, the US, and other nations have expressed concerns about the growing military cooperation between Nepal and China, viewing it through the lens of rising geopolitical tensions. Recently, China has introduced new global initiatives in both the development and security sectors, such as the Global Security Initiative (GSI), which has raised further apprehension in India and Western nations. Nepal, however, has informed China that it cannot be part of the GSI.
The Nepali Army maintains that these joint drills are routine, similar to the military exercises it conducts with other nations, including India and the US. For example, Nepal and India hold the Surya Kiran military drill annually, rotating the location between the two countries.
A special team from the Nepal Army, including an observer group led by senior official Pradeep Jung KC, will visit China to participate in the drill, which will focus on counterterrorism and disaster management. Each country will send a delegation of 18 members. The previous three editions of the drill were held in 2017, 2018, and 2019.
458 foreign nationals deported in 2023
Authorities in Nepal deported a total of 458 foreign nationals, including 209 Chinese nationals, in 2023 for offenses, ranging from visa overstay and drug trafficking to possession of fake passports and illegal transactions of foreign currency.
The majority of deported individuals (412) were found to have overstayed their visas, with Chinese nationals topping the list. As per the records of the Immigration Department, 190 Chinese citizens were deported for overstaying their visas.
Ten foreigners were expelled for drug-related crimes, five for possession of fake passports, 10 for illegal transactions of foreign currency and four for fraud charges. One foreign individual was deported in relation to a kidnapping case, six for organized crime, one for polygamy and five for sexual crime.
Immigration officials say while the number of deportees have been fluctuating in a more or less predictable fashion over the years, it is a matter of concern and investigation that an increasing number of Chinese citizens are getting deported.
Out of the total deported foreign citizens last year, 46 percent were Chinese. One hundred ninety Chinese nationals faced expulsion for overstaying their visas, eight for illegal transactions of foreign currency, four for drug related crimes, three for involvement in organized crimes, two for financial crime, one for kidnapping and one for fraud.
In 2022, authorities had deported a total of 570 foreign nationals; 191 of them were Chinese nationals.
In 2023, authorities deported 37 Americans, 19 Uzbekistanis, 19 Bangladeshis, 18 British, 11 Sri Lankans, 10 Swedish nationals and 10 Pakistani for various offenses.
Nine Afghanistanis, eight Germans, seven South Koreans and seven Canadians were also expelled from Nepal.
The Department of Immigration also deported six French nationals, five Italians, five Nigerians, five Russians, five Yemenis, four Australians, four Iranians and four Japanese citizens.
The other foreign nationalities who faced deportation are from Bhutan, Cameroon, the Philippines, Portugal, Thailand, Belgium, Denmark, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, the Netherlands, Romania, Sudan, Ukraine, Vietnam, Cambodia, Comoros, Czech Republic, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Myanmar, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Swaziland, Tajikistan and Uganda.
North Korea shuts Nepal mission
North Korea has decided to shut down its embassy in Kathmandu in the wake of heightened geopolitical tensions, realignment of its priorities and a crunch of resources.
North Korean Ambassador to Nepal Jo Yong Man has informed Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal about his government’s decision to close the embassy. After the establishment of diplomatic relations on 15 May 1974, North Korea opened its residential embassy in Kathmandu but Nepal did not reciprocate. Before establishing formal diplomatic ties, the two countries had signed a Bilateral Trade Agreement in 1970.
Rupak Sapkota, Prime Minister’s Foreign Policy Advisor, confirmed that the North Korean ambassador has informed Dahal about the decision. On Monday, the diplomat held a farewell meeting with PM Dahal. The embassy has started its exit process after informing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to Sapkota, PM Dahal expressed sadness over the decision and expressed hope that North Korea will reopen its embassy in Nepal soon. According to sources, geopolitical factors and economic recession have caused North Korea to decrease the numbers of embassies abroad.
Before 2019, North Korea had been operating its businesses, including some restaurants in Kathmandu, to generate income for the operation of embassies. The country started shutting down its businesses in Nepal after the UN imposed economic sanctions against it in 2018.
Last week, the North Korean Foreign Ministry informed Nepal that it was closing down several embassies. “We are carrying out operations to withdraw and establish diplomatic missions in accordance with a changing global environment and national foreign policy,” a North Korean foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement on Friday, adding that while some embassies would close, others would open. The changes are “part of the regular affairs to promote national interest through external relations,” the spokesperson added.
Korean national deported for visa misuse
The government of Nepal has deported a Korean national for misusing his tourist visa. The Ministry of Home expelled Yeon He Lee after the Department of Immigration, in the course of an investigation launched on the basis of a complaint, found the Korean national’s involvement in propagating Christianity in Nepal, according to Jhalak Ram Adhikari, the department’s director-general. The secretary-level decision of the ministry has also barred the Korean national from returning to Nepal for a year. The immigration department deported him to Seoul on a Korean Air flight on Monday evening. Acting on the complaint regarding the Korean national’s alleged involvement in spreading Christianity, the department had directed the Tourist Police to produce him in person. Subsequently, tourist police produced the foreign national at the department on March 20. In the course of questioning at the department on March 21, the foreigner reportedly failed to come clean on the charge of misusing his visa for propagating the faith. The Korean national had obtained his tourist visa on February 13, 2023, which was to expire on May 23. Before that, he had been staying in Nepal on a business visa and running a business, which has been closed.
Nepal struggles to charge suspicious Chinese nationals
Thousands of foreigners are believed to be living and working in Nepal illegally. These include undocumented refugees (from the Middle East, Myanmar and Bangladesh) as well as those who enter the country on valid visas only to stay on well past their expiry and engage in dubious dealings. As China has looked to tighten the screws on its nationals involved in illegal activities in Southeast Asia, many of them have upped sticks and shifted to countries like Nepal with relatively laxer law-enforcement.
In the past, the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu has itself requested for Nepal’s help in rounding up and deporting its nationals back to the homeland. For instance, in 2019, Nepal arrested and deported 122 Chinese nationals who were involved in various fraudulent activities online.
Most recently, on April 22, Nepali law-enforcement authorities nabbed another 22 suspicious Chinese nationals. Thirty-five laptops, 675 mobile-phone sets and 760 Nepali SIM cards were confiscated from them. Investigation continues. But those arrested have already been let go as the police are confused about the crime they should be charged with. (Their passports have been confiscated though.) Nepal currently does not have the manpower or the technology to investigate complex cross-border online transactions.
What police know for sure thus far is that the 22 suspects conducted their business using various apps with servers in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. Yet without the right technology or manpower, Nepal Police have found it devilishly difficult to properly trace these transactions.
The Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu chose not to respond to a request for comment.
Full story here: Probe into 22 Chinese nationals gets knotty
Probe into 22 Chinese nationals gets knotty
On April 22, a joint team from the Department of Immigration and Nepal Police raided a house in Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, and arrested 22 Chinese nationals. Strangely, at the time this news was largely ignored by Nepal’s major news outlets and details about the incident remain obscure to this day.
ApEx learns that authorities had been tipped about suspicious activities in the house and the suspects had been caught with 35 laptops, 675 mobile phones, and 760 SIM cards issued by Nepal Telecom and NCell.
The Chinese nationals are suspected to be part of a syndicate involved in cross-border online betting. However, neither the immigration agency nor the police have the right technology and manpower to confirm their suspicion.
With no firm ground to charge the suspects, all 22 were released a day later on the condition of helping the authorities with investigation. The immigration department has confiscated their passports to prevent them from leaving the country.
The suspects, who were released under the custody of one Manjil Shrestha, are currently staying at a hotel in Thamel.
Narayan Prasad Bhattarai, director-general at the Department of Immigration, says investigation is being pursued with the assistance of police.
“The suspects had entered Nepal on business visas. We also found that one of them had overstayed his visa,” Bhattarai says. “We are still trying to find out the nature of their activities here in Nepal.”
The laptops and mobile phones seized from the Chinese nationals have been sent to the Central Police Forensic Science Laboratory. The digital forensic report of these devices will be crucial in investigation.
Increasing involvement of Chinese nationals in illegal activities has become a serious cause for concern for the authorities in Nepal. Among other things, they are suspected of running Ponzi schemes online and scamming foreign nationals with lures of easy loans. The immigration department is responsible for investigating crimes perpetrated by foreigners. But the department has been unable to fulfill this responsibility due to manpower crunch. While it has shown some willingness to investigate foreign citizens involved in suspicious acts, its investigations seldom conclude satisfactorily.
Even the police seem to lack expertise in effectively investigating foreigner’s suspicious illegal activities. And when it comes to crimes committed through the misuse of technology, they are woefully incompetent.
This was evident when the authorities arrested 122 Chinese nationals, also with similar equipment, in December 2019 for their alleged involvement in criminal activities. These arrests were made with the aid of the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu, which was worried that the suspects were tarnishing China’s image.
They were eventually extradited to China. The Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China had chartered two planes to take them back. A senior official of China’s Criminal Investigation Department had himself come to Kathmandu to negotiate the extradition with Nepali authorities.
The decision of Nepali authorities on the latest group of 22 Chinese nationals arrested in Kathmandu is unknown. They seem to be struggling to figure out what kind of activities the suspects were into. Investigation and evidence-study thus far have offered little clue. (The Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu didn’t respond to our queries on the arrested Chinese nationals.)
What police know so far is that the suspects conducted their businesses and transactions using various apps with their servers in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. The problem is, these transaction records cannot be accessed to know the extent of their daily dealings.
Nevertheless, police and immigration department officials insist the investigation is still in progress with what little technical resources they have at their disposal.
Police have also been using translators to interrogate the suspects.
Meanwhile, the immigration agency has decided to deport and impose a yearlong travel ban on one of the suspects who was found overstaying his visa.
Bhattarai, the director-general at the Department of Immigration, confirmed the decision taken by a secretary-level meeting of the Ministry of Home Affairs to deport and ban one Liancheng Wang with passport number E64817354 (see photo, alongside).
“It will take some time to deport him since Nepal-China flights are suspended at the moment,” says Bhattarai. “As per the decision of the Home Ministry, he will be banned from traveling to Nepal for a year.”
Local election security: Close eye on refugees and migrants, 75,000 army personnel to be deployed
On May 13, Nepali voters will head to the polling stations to elect their representatives in what will be the second local elections after Nepal became a federal republic in 2015. The previous three-phase elections for 753 local units were held in 2017.
With the D-Day just a month away, preparations are in full swing to ensure voters get to exercise their franchise freely and fearlessly.
Election security is always a concern in Nepal. In the run-up to the 2017 elections, five people were killed and several others injured in Maleth village of Saptari district when security forces opened fire on Madhesi demonstrators rallying against the CPN-UML’s ‘Mechi-Mahakali Campaign’.
There were also incidents of clashes between the parties contesting the polls. At least one death was reported on election-day in Dolakha while the cadres of the Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal stole and burned ballot papers from a polling station in Kalikot district.
To ensure that the upcoming local polls are free of untoward incidents, the Election Commission has sought the assurance of the political parties that they will strictly adhere to the election code of conduct. The election governing body has also urged the government and the security agencies to make all the necessary security arrangements.
Phanindra Mani Pokharel, spokesperson for the Ministry of Home Affairs, told ApEx that the ministry has come up with ‘Local Level Elections Joint Security Plan’, which will serve as a guideline for the security agencies to monitor election threats and take necessary steps.
A meeting of Home Minister Balkrishna Khand-headed central security committee approved the plan on March 24.
“The security plan will not only facilitate safe conduct of the May 13 elections but also the following provincial and parliamentary polls,” says Pokharel.
The plan was prepared based on a threat analysis conducted across the country, and the ministry has already instructed authorities in all 77 districts to make necessary arrangements.
As in previous elections, all the four security agencies—the Nepal Army (NA), the Nepal Police, the Armed Police Force (APF) and the National Investigation Department (NID)—will be mobilized for poll security. They will perform their duties as instructed by the central security committee. The committee under the home minister has home secretary, defense secretary, joint secretary of defense at the Ministry of Home Affairs, and heads of the security agencies as members. It will assess risk and instruct security agencies accordingly.
The home secretary will coordinate with the central command post to evaluate overall security arrangements. The chiefs of the four security agencies will be a part of the command post.
Likewise, the chief of Security and Coordination Division under the Home Ministry will lead the central election security cell, with high-ranking officers of the security agencies as members.
The Home Ministry has decided to deploy army personnel for election security a month ahead of the polling date. Nearly 75,000 soldiers are to be mobilized across the country.
According to the security plan, the army will set up its units within a 30-minute distance of every polling station. They will also be deployed at the voting centers deemed “sensitive” and “highly sensitive”.
The army will also be tasked with overseeing the security of ballot printing stations and escorting ballot boxes after voting. Besides, it will be required to mobilize bomb disposal squads and security backup as and when necessary.
A source at the Home Ministry says the ministry has also decided to use the army’s helicopters for aerial patrol and security support.
“As per the ministry’s request, the Nepal Army is preparing to station helicopters at three of its command headquarters outside Kathmandu Valley 10 days ahead of the election,” the source tells ApEx.
Moreover, the army will be deployed for additional security support of prisons and other important institutions throughout the election period.
The Nepal Police, the Armed Police Force and the National Investigation Department will largely oversee the security of voters and polling stations. They will also safeguard election materials and electoral officials.
Unlike in the past, officials expect the May 13 elections to go ahead with minimum disruption, as political groups like Chand’s Communist Party of Nepal and the CK Raut-led Janamat Party have joined mainstream politics. These two groups were considered the main security threats during the 2017 elections.
However, given the past conducts of these parties, the Home Ministry has instructed security agencies to closely monitor their activities. This warning also comes amid reports of the Chand’s cadres dividing into rival camps on the issue of local elections.
The ministry has directed the security agencies to monitor the activities of the Mohan Baidya-led Communist Party of Nepal (Revolutionary Maoist), which has announced a boycott of upcoming elections.
The security assessment has identified obscure outfits like Himal Surakshya Parishad and Mongol Nepal Organization as potential threats. Both these groups recently announced armed struggles against the state.
The Home Ministry has directed the security agencies to “deactivate” all anti-poll activities and elements.
“There are still some elements that could try to disrupt elections. But the security agencies are fully prepared to repel them,” says a senior police officer.
Security challenges could also be posed by the cadres of rival factions of parties contesting elections as well as by hired political goons.
As there had been some instances of inter-party clashes during the previous local level elections, the Home Ministry has directed security agencies to make necessary arrangements to prevent such incidents this time.
As part of the election security, Nepal-India border crossings will be sealed 72 hours ahead of voting. Security in bordering areas will also be beefed up.
Firearms—registered or not—is another concern. The Home Ministry has directed district administration offices across the country to ask all registered firearm owners to provisionally surrender their weapons to their local police stations and seize the unregistered ones.
It has also told the security agencies to monitor the activities of refugees and undocumented migrants who could be used to commit electoral fraud or disrupt elections.
“The Home Ministry and the security agencies will continually assess the security challenges and fine-tune its strategies as the election draws closer,” Pokharel, the ministry spokesperson, tells ApEx.