China tightens screws on Nepal for 60th anniversary

October 2nd, 2009 KATHMANDU - For the first time in its history, Nepal will form a Border Security Force to patrol its northernmost tip of the border it shares with Tibet in a bid to prevent anti-China activities by Tibetan dissidents, Nepal's Home Minister Bhim Rawal said. Accompanied by the heads of different security wings, the home minister Thursday paid a surprise visit to Mustang, Nepal's northernmost district that was once part of an ancient Tibetan kingdom which escaped the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950 and still retains its old culture.

October 1st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan issued a commemorative postage stamp Thursday to mark the 60th anniversary of Communist China, and Beijing's envoy described Sino-Pakistani relations as "higher than the Himalayas, deeper than the Arabian sea and sweeter than honey". Federal Minister for Postal Services Nawabzada Mir Israr Ullah Khan Zehri and China's ambassador Luo Zhaohui unveiled the stamp issued by the Pakistan Post at its headquarters here.

October 1st, 2009 BEIJING - A grand flag-raising ceremony, firing cannons and a march past down a red carpet in Beijing's Tiananmen Square marked the 60th anniversary of the founding of Communist China on Thursday. Amid 60 gun salutes and 200 national flag guards in olive green uniforms walked down the platform of the Monument to the People's Heroes in the center of Tian'anmen Square.

September 30th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday congratulated the Chinese government and people on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic and said that strategic and cooperative partnership between India and China had developed over the years. In a message to Premier Wen Jiabao, the prime minister said: "This is an important milestone in the life of China and an occasion for celebrations of your great nation's many achievements in the last 60 years.

September 29th, 2009 BEIJING - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will visit China Oct 12-14 to meet Chinese leaders and attend a Central Asian security summit, China's foreign ministry said Tuesday. Putin's visit was timed to coincide with the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Russia, and with a council of heads of government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu told reporters.

September 10th, 2009 KATHMANDU - New Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao will be arriving in Nepal Monday for consultations with the republic's leaders and senior officials. This will be Rao's first visit to Nepal after assuming office last month.

September 8th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Nepal's Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala left for China on Tuesday. Before embarking on her trip, she said the visit would focus on reducing the trade imbalance between the two countries and to seek support from Beijing on promoting regional peace and timely completion of the constitution-writing task.

July 23rd, 2009 China's leaders seek economic stabilityBEIJING — China's powerful Politburo said Thursday that economic stability and the success of a $586 billion stimulus package are top priorities ahead of the 60th anniversary of Communist rule in October. A partial transcript of a Politburo meeting was read on state-run China Central Television's evening news broadcast, declaring it "vitally important to have the economic work done well" in the second half of the year when the anniversary is celebrated.

July 1st, 2009 KATHMANDU - Fretting at the resumption of anti-China protests in Nepal by Tibetan refugees, Beijing has sent a delegation to Kathmandu to seek support from the new government of Nepal to quell them. Zhang Jiuhuan, a former ambassador to Nepal and current politburo member of the Communist Party of China, Wednesday met Nepal's new Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala to register his government's concern at the fresh eruption of protests calling for a 'Free Tibet'.

April 25th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal's visit to China has been cancelled due to soaring tensions between his government and the Nepal Army over the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) clarification episode. The Prime Minister was scheduled to commence his visit from May 2, nepalnews reports.

February 28th, 2009 KATHMANDU - With less than a fortnight left for the 50th anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising against China, Nepal, home to thousands of Tibetans, has declared a ban on protests by the diaspora. The district administration in Kathmandu, which last year witnessed continuous protests by Tibetans for almost eight months, has prohibited all protests near the Chinese embassy and its visa office from Saturday.

February 26th, 2009 KATHMANDU - While seeking to scrap a controversial peace and friendship treaty it signed with its southern neighbour India almost six decades ago, Nepal's ruling Maoist party is now planning to ink a new peace and friendship pact with its other giant neighbour China. Beijing has sent a 14-member delegation to Nepal, headed by Assistant Foreign Minister Hu Zhengyue, to propose the new pact to Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, the details of which are to be discussed during Prachanda's upcoming visit to China.

February 23rd, 2009 KATHMANDU - Cadres of Nepal's ruling Maoist party have caught five Tibetans and handed them over to local police for allegedly crossing into Nepal illegally in a bid to take part in the 'Free Tibet' campaign against the Chinese government. The group, including two Tibetan women, were caught by members of the Young Communist League (YCL), the controversial strong arm of the Maoists that has been frequently known to take the law into its own hands.

February 17th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Before returning to New Delhi at the end of his two-day whirlwind visit to Nepal, Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon Wednesday ruled out sharing Nepal issues with the Himalayan republic's other giant neighbour China. Reacting to the proposal mooted by opposition leader and former prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala that China and India should form a joint Nepal mechanism, the Indian envoy said the prime focus of his visit was to review New Delhi's bilateral relationship with Kathmandu and discuss how to strengthen it further.

January 20th, 2009 KATHMANDU - 'Chandni Chowk to China', India's first made-in-China film, has angered Nepal for its erroneous references about the Buddha. Enraged students Wednesday tore off the posters of the romantic comedy at Kathmandu's best-known Jai Nepal cinema and the furore caused authorities to shelve the screening of the film.