KATHMANDU – Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi has met Prime Minister and Nepal Communist Party (NCP) co-chair KP Sharma Oli amid growing internal disputes within the ruling party. According to a source close to the Prime Minister, Oli he held a meeting with the Chinese ambassador for nearly an hour at the Prime Minister’s residence in Baluwatar on Tuesday evening.
The Chinese Ambassador’s meeting with Prime Minister Oli has been interpreted as an initiative to facilitate a truce between the two rival factions of the ruling NCP. However, the Chinese embassy has not said anything about its ambassador’s meeting with Prime Minister Oli.
Some party insiders say that Chinese Ambassador Yanqi had also become active in the past when the internal infighting in the ruling NCP was escalating. Some leaders from the main opposition Nepali Congress have criticized the Chinese ambassador’s ‘proactive role’ in resolving intraparty disputes in the ruling NCP as ‘undiplomatic’.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Dhan Raj Gurung, a central working committee member of the NC, urged Ambassador Yanqi to remember diplomatic norms. Stating that internal disputes in any party are resolved on the basis of party procedures and statute, NC Leader Gurung said that any foreign ambassador’s unnecessary roles amounts to an intervention on a country’s sovereignty and independence.
