Beyond the fence: China's ‘New Great Wall’ redefines Nepal's borders?

A Chinese fence stretches across the Himalayas, its barbed wire and concrete structures starkly divide Tibet from Nepal. In this remote region, Chinese security cameras and armed sentries in guard towers maintain constant surveillance. On the Tibetan Plateau, a 600-foot-long message reading “Long live the Chinese Communist Party” is etched into a hillside, visible even from space.

However, tensions simmer along this border. Residents in Nepal’s Humla District claim China has encroached upon their territory at multiple points. They also said that Chinese security forces are pressuring ethnic Tibetan Nepalis to refrain from displaying images of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader in villages near the border, according to the report of he New York Times.

A large number of Chinese barriers and fortifications have led to further separation among the communities. The once-thriving flow of thousands of Tibetans fleeing Chinese repression into Nepal has nearly ceased.

Despite these issues, Nepal’s leaders have chosen not to address China’s growing influence in their country. Tied to China both ideologically and economically, successive Nepali governments have overlooked a 2022 report that highlighted various border violations in Humla.

“This is the new Great Wall of China,” Jeevan Bahadur Shahi, the former provincial chief minister of the area told he New York Times. “But they don’t want us to see it.”

Multiple reports indicate that restrictions on livestock grazing are not only affecting Nepalese farmers but that China has also imposed a ban on ‘Hindu and Buddhist shrines’ in the border region. This move affects not only locals but also around 20,000 Tibetan refugees residing in Nepal, who have been using the country as a transit point to escape to India and beyond.

In recent years, China has sought to sever this escape route. Reports of Chinese encroachment into Nepal have emerged over the past two years, prompting sporadic protests across the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.

China shares land borders with 14 other countries, and while its extensive frontiers—both on land and at sea—have remained mostly peaceful during its economic rise to become the world’s second-largest economy but expanding territorial ambitions under President Xi’s leadership have led to increased border disputes.

“Under Xi Jinping, China has doubled down on efforts to assert its territorial claims in disputed areas along its periphery,” Brian Hart, a fellow at the China Power Project of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington told the New York Times.