Nepal - People's Republic of China Relations
Bilateral Relations

The history of Nepal-China relations could be traced back to the 5th century when sages and saints engaged themselves in visiting far and wide in the pursuit of knowledge and peace. The marriage of Bhrikuti to the Tibetan King, Song Sang Gampo, in the 7th century and the White Pagoda in Beijing constructed under the guidance of Nepalese architect Araniko are testimony to the historical relations between Nepal and China.
 
These centuries old traditional relations were formalized with the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries in 1 August 1955. Nepal has established Consulate General's Offices in Hong Kong and Lhasa and an honorary consul has been appointed in Shanghai. Our bilateral relations have always been marked by friendliness, mutual support, understanding and appreciation of each other's aspirations and sensitivities. Both China and Nepal abide by the ideals of the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence. Nepal and China are supporting each other in many regional and international forums, including the United Nations. Nepal has always been upholding 'One China' policy and is committed not to allow Nepalese territory to be used against our friendly neighbor China's core interests.
 
Nepal and China share a long border of about 1414 km. There is no significant dispute on boundary line. The two Governments have resolved border issue amicably in 1961, and have been conducting joint inspection of the border at regular intervals.
 
Exchange of Visits
There have been significant exchanges of high-level visits between the two countries. These exchanges of visits have helped to further promote and consolidate our friendly and cooperative relationships. Important among the high-level visits between the two countries so far are:

Exchange of Visits from Nepal

 Heads/ Dy. Heads of the State

S. N.	Name	Date	Type	Remarks
1.	Right Honorable Vice President Mr. Parmanand Jha	June 4 –9 , 2013	Official	In connection with the participation in the inauguration ceremony of the 1st China South Asia Exposition, Kunming,China.
2.	Right Honorable President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav	October 26 – November 1, 2010	Goodwill	In connection with attending the closing ceremony of the Shanghai World Expo 2010
3.	The then King Gyanendra and the then Queen Komal	April 23-26 ,2005	Official	In connection with participating in the 2005 Annual Conference of Boao Forum for Asia
4.	The then King Gyanendra and the then Queen Komal	July 09-18 2002	State	Beijing, Dalian (Liaoning Province), Yichang (Hubei Province), Shanghai, Hong Kong.
5.	Late King Birendra and Late Queen Aishwarya	Feb 26-Mar 4, 2001	State	Beijing, Hainan, Shanghai.
6.	Late King Birendra and Late Queen Aishwarya	Aug. 23-30, 1996	Private	Beijing, Lhasa, Chongqing and Hongkong
7.	Late King Birendra and Late Queen Aishwarya	Sept 20-27, 1993	State	Beijing, Xian, Guilin, Shenzhen
8.	Late King Birendra and Late Queen Aishwarya	Sept. 14-17, 1987	Official	Lanzhou, Beijing
9.	Late King Birendra and Late Queen Aishwarya	July 27-Aug3, 1982	Friendly	Gansu Province and Tibet AR
10.	Late King Birendra and Late Queen Aishwarya	Aug 26-29, 1979	Private	En route to Havana
11.	Late King Birendra and Late Queen Aishwarya	May 14-15, 1978	Private	En route to Japan
12.	Late King Birendra	June 2-9, 1976	Goodwill	Sichuan Province and TAR
13.	Late King Birendra and Late Queen Aishwarya	Dec. 7-13, 1973	State
14.	Late King  Mahendra	Sept. 28-Oct 15,1961	State

 
Heads of the Government
Prime Ministers

1.	Mr. Sushil Koirala	June 5 – 6, 2014	Official	Inauguration of 2nd China South Asia Exposition and 22nd China Kunming Import and Export Commodities in Kunming, China
2.	Mr. Madhav Kumar Nepal	Dec 26 – 31, 2009	Official
3.	Mr. Puspa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’	Aug 23-27, 2008	Official	Closing Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics
4.	Mr. Sher Bahadur Deuba	Sept 5-12, 1998		At the Invitation of China Association for International Friendly Contact
5.	Mr. Sher Bahadur Deuba	April 21-28, 1996	Official
6.	Mr. Man Mohan Adhikari	April 17-21, 1995 and	Official
7.	Mr. Girija Prasad Koirala	1993		Tibet AR
8.	Mr. Girija Prasad Koirala	Mar 16-22, 1992	Official
9.	Mr. Kirtinidhi Bista	Sept 27-Oct 4, 1978	Official
10.	Mr. Kirti Nidhi Bista	Nov. 15-25, 1972	Official
11.	Dr. Tulsi Giri as Vice Chairman/CM	1963	Official
12.	Mr. Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala	Mar 11-21, 1960	Official
13.	Mr. Tanka Prasad Acharya	Sept. 25-Oct. 7, 1956	Official

 

DPM/ Foreign Minister Level visit

S. N.	Name	Date	Type	Remarks
1	Hon.  Narayan Kaji Shrestha ‘Prakash’, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister	Sept. 14-19, 2012	Official	To Participate in Nepal Cultural Festival 2012 organized by Embassy of Nepal in Beijing.
2	Hon.  Narayan Kaji Shrestha ‘Prakash’, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister	Nov. 22-29, 2011	Official	At the invitation of Minister for Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China H.E. Yang Jiechi
3	Ms. Sujata Koirala, Foreign Minister	Dec. 26-29, 2010		At the Invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister
4	Ms. Sujata Koirala, Foreign Minister	Sept. 8-13, 2010	Official	To attend the activities of Nepal National Pavilion Day
5	Mr. Upendra Yadav, Foreign Minister	Apr. 05-18, 2009	Official	Including TAR, Hong Kong and Macau
6	Mr. Ramesh Nath Pandey, the then Foreign Minister	Aug. 13-23, 2005	Official	at the invitation of hinese Foreign Minister, H. E. Mr. Li Zhaoxing
7	Mr. Chakra Prasad Bastola, the then Minister for Foreign Affairs	Aug. 20-25, 2000		At the invitation of the Chinese Foreign Minister Mr. Tang Jiaxuan

 

Exchange of visits from China

 
Heads of State  

1	President H.E.Mr. Jiang Zemin	Dec 4-5, 1996	State
2	President Li Xiannian	Mar 19-21, 1984	State

 
Heads of Government

1	Premier Wen Jiabao	January 14, 2012	Official
2	Premier Mr. Zhu Rongji	May 14-16, 2001	Official
3	Premier Li Peng	Nov 19-21,1989	Official
4	Premier Zhao Ziyang	June 4-7, 1981	Official
5	Premier Zhou Enlai	Apr 26-29,1960	Official
6	Premier Zhou Enlai	June 25-29, 1957	Official

Foreign Minister Level visit

1	H.E. Mr. Yang Jiechi,State Councilor	Dec. 24-25, 2013	Official
2	H.E. Mr. Yang Jiechi, Foreign Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs	Dec. 2-4, 2008
3	H. E. Mr. Li Zhaoxing, Minister for Foreign Affairs	31 Mar.-01 Apr. 2005	Official	At the invitation of the then Foreign Minister, Mr. Ramesh Nath Pandey
4	Vice Premier and Foreign Minister Mr Qian Qichen	July 19-20, 1994	Official
5	Foreign Minister HE Mr. Huang Hua	1981

 
Economic and Technical Cooperation
The Government of Peoples Republic of China has been providing assistance to the Government of Nepal under the bilateral Agreement of Economic and Technical Cooperative signed between the two countries. The first Agreement between China and Nepal on Economic Aid" signed in October 1956. Nepal and China have established Inter-Governmental Economic and Trade Committee in October 1982 as the main forum for discussion on Nepal-China bilateral economic and technical cooperation. Its regular meetings would be extremely helpful for coordinated overall interaction regarding development in Nepal.
 
Similarly, there are joint committees on different sectors. Regular meetings of these mechanisms help us take timely steps where necessary to mobilize our institutions to work in tandem for mutual benefit.
 
China has always been a steady and reliable partner in Nepal's development endeavour, more specifically in the areas of infrastructure and human resources development, education, health and food assistance, among others.
 
Nepal and China have signed the Agreement on Cultural Cooperation to enhance cultural exchanges and cooperation. The Year 2012 was announced as 'Nepal-China Year of Friendly Exchanges'. We also have Youth Exchange program which is instrumental in fostering utmost understanding between our peoples. Nepal has been receiving volunteer teachers for Chinese language training and also some volunteers in agriculture sector. The 100 scholarships China provides to the Nepalese students have been very useful. Nepal also extends few scholarships to Chinese nationals to learn Nepali language in Nepal.
 
Trade and Investment
The volume of Nepal-China trade is growing and so is the remarkably wide trade imbalance. This needs to be corrected to make our bilateral trade sustainable in the long run. Duty free access to the markets in China for Nepalese products could be one measure for narrowing this trade deficit. The following table shows the status of Nepal's trade with China in the last four years:
Value in '000 Rs

Year	Export	Import	Trade Balance
2010	996,989,850	41,057,900,250	-40,060,910,400
2011	761,983,271	51,466,423,069	-50,704,439,798
2012	2,507,993,748	69,910,833,822	-67,402,840,074
2013	2,042,253,520	68,778,185,554	-66,735,932,034

 
China is top most investor in Nepal and Chinese investment in Nepal is growing although it is presently lower in comparison to the need and potential. Greater Chinese involvement particularly in the fields of water resources and infrastructure building would be extremely helpful potentially leading to a win-win outcome. As of July 2012, 428 projects under Chinese investment came to operation in Nepal with investment of Rs 7860 million which helped create 26,651 jobs.
Tourism
Nepal and China have signed an agreement on Cultural Exchange in 1964 which was revised again in December 1999 to include Tourism as one of the components. We have agreed to the visa free regime for the bearers of diplomatic and official passports from each other's country. Nepal has made Chinese Yuan convertible for tourists and businessmen.
These existing agreements between Nepal and China on cultural exchanges and tourism, the Araniko Highway, and air connections from different cities of China to Kathmandu have contributed towards increasing the number of Chinese tourists coming to Nepal. Likewise, China has become an emerging tourism market for tourists coming to Nepal. In order to further promote bilateral tourism, there should be expansion of direct flights and increase in the frequency of flights between the two capitals. Cooperation between tourist authorities and travel agencies of both countries needs to be further promoted.
The following table shows the tourist arrival in Nepal from China in the past five years:
 

Year	Total Number of Tourists	Chinese Tourists	Percentage	Growth Rate
2009	5,09,956	32,272	6.3	-8.23
2010	6,02,667	46,360	7.7	43.65
2011	7,36,215	61,917	8.4	33.56
2012	494019	42518	8.6	21.8
2013	797,759	89,509	11.22	24.5