Chand visits China third time in seven months

HONG KONG, Nov 30: As political parties are engaged in parleys for the formation of a new government in Kathmandu, CPN-Maoist leader Netra Bikram Chand ´Biplab´ is once again on a China visit.



This is Chand´s third China visit in the last seven months. According to sources, Chand, accompanied by CPN-Maoist politburo member Hitman Shakya and former vice commander of the now-dissolved People´s Liberation Army (PLA) Bibek, on November 23 left for China and is scheduled to return to Kathmandu on December 1.[break]



The latest China visit by Chand, who proposed CPN-Maoist General Secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa as the prime ministerial candidate, has been kept a secret. Chand is believed to have met Chinese political leaders while in Beijing.



Chand´s visit, arranged shortly after the Communist Party of China (CPC)´s national congress that picked Xi Jinping as China´s next president, is being viewed as a move to garner support for Thapa´s candidacy.



Chand´s China visit is meaningful also because he was on the forefront of CPN-Maoist´s anti-India agitation last month, in which vehicles bearing Indian number plates had been prevented from entering Nepal and Hindi movies were banned.



Within CPN-Maoist, Chand is known as a leader who strongly advocates for another armed struggle against the state. CPN-Maoist sources also inform that plans are afoot to militarize CPN-Maoist´s youth wing led by Chand.



Chand had played a key role in forming CPN-Maoist by splitting away from the UCPN (Maoist) some time ago. Chanda had labelled the Baburam Bhattarai-led government as anti-nationalist while forming the new party.



Four months ago, Chand had made an abrupt China visit when his party´s central committee meeting was underway in Kathmandu. Before that, just weeks before CPN-Maoist was formed, Chand had reached Beijing.



Prof Wang Hong-wei, of the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, whom Chand had met during his first China visit, says that Chinese political leaders and thinkers give suggestions to Nepali politicians but they never intend to be involved in Nepali affairs.



“As a friend and good neighbor, we would urge Nepali politicians to be united and maintain political stability,” said Prof Wang. “I had also given some suggestions to him (Chand). But, the results were not as expected.”

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