If all goes well, PM KP Oli will visit China in the third week of June. As is the tradition, he will seek China’s help in building infrastructure projects and repeat the pledge that Nepal will not allow its territory to be used against China. The Chinese side will thank him for Nepal’s unwav­ering support to the ‘one-Chi­na’ policy and promise us a new building or highway. Upon his return to Kathmandu, PM Oli will proudly announce that Nepal will host President Xi Jinping this year and most of us will go gaga over the visit (which, in all likelihood, won’t take place). Newspapers will be filled with articles by pro-China Nepali nationalist intellectuals telling us how lucky we are to have President Xi visit us and they will advise us on proper etiquettes to welcome him. For a few days, our foreign policy/China experts will be busy analyzing various “ground breaking” bilateral agree­ments that neither side will be keen on implementing any time soon. And PM Oli’s visit will soon be forgotten.

 

But how about making the visit a memorable one? And it can be done if PM Oli visits China with a new mindset and without the customary begging bowl.

 

Way to make it memorable

 

Truth be told, PM Oli’s visit doesn’t mean much for the Chi­nese government. Although we cannot make the Chinese take us seriously all of a sudden, we can make at least a segment of the Chinese population talk about us—not as another third-world beggar but as a friendly neighbor with historical ties that despite being poor today was at one point thought of highly, even by the mighty Chinese emperors.

 

As I have written elsewhere, there’s no better venue to high­light this than the Yonghegong temple in Beijing. The main attraction of the 18th-century temple is a giant statue of Mai­treya Buddha carved in Nepal. Similarly, six Nepali artists were involved in its renovation from 1744 to 1747. Since it is an import­ant monastery, a visit or a press conference there with his Chi­nese counterpart would highlight Nepal’s importance in Chinese culture to the Chinese public.

 

Rather than touring facto­ries or lecturing at universities/think-tanks or meeting with the self-declared know-nothing Nepal specialists of no importance what­soever, PM Oli needs to meet the family members of the Chinese workers who lost their lives while working on various construction projects in Nepal. It’s about time we appreciated and honored their sacrifice. It’s long overdue.

 

Prove me wrong, please

 

Most importantly though, we need to accept and learn to deal with the inherent contradiction in China’s Nepal policy. It expects us to view it independent of our relations—and problems—with India. But then it views us through the Indian lens. Its Nepal policy is intricately intertwined with its India policy, as was evident from its passivity during the var­ious political changes, and the ‘help’ rendered during the Indian economic blockade of 2015: 2.3 million liters of gasoline, 5,000 pieces of overpriced induction cookers deducted from the aid for that year and “moral support”. As of today, it wants to make its presence felt in Nepal, but not to the extent to make India uncom­fortable. It is not talking about tri­lateral cooperation for no reason. It wants to assure India that it is ready to work with it on/in Nepal. Given our weak economy and defense, it knows it can easily use our territory against India, if and when it has to, and so it has no reason to take us seriously.

 

Therefore, PM Oli, it’s quite unwise to expect China to build infrastructure projects that will miraculously “end” our depen­dence on India. To avoid losing face (diu lian), an important concept in China, don’t make a request for projects that have far-reaching geopolitical and eco­nomic consequences, or those we can build on our own, just to establish your nationalist cre­dentials. Because no help will be forthcoming, and it will make us appear stupid before the Chinese. Certainly, we can sign agreements linking us with the Pacific Ocean, Central Asia, East Asia and Russia and even with the moon and the space via China, but it’s not going to change anything in the present or in the future.

 

Just show your hosts the proud, wise and humane side of Nepalis to make this visit a success. But, given our bureaucratic submis­siveness, diplomatic appeasement and intellectual poverty, I remain a pessimist. PM Oli, please prove me wrong.