Beyond the BRI: the volumetric presence of China in Nepal

ABSTRACT

This paper conceptualizes ‘presence’ to analyse the volumetric growth of Chinese investment and development in Nepal from 2014 to 2021 in material, territorial and discursive terms. From physical experiences with earthquake disaster to the symbolic potency of Chinese infrastructure, this paper offers presence as a heuristic to evaluate China’s rising prominence in Nepal and multidirectional projections of geopolitical power. The analysis is framed by three key periods: material interactions in 2014–15, including significant increases at scale of Chinese foreign direct investment and Nepal’s invitation and acceptance of Chinese humanitarian aid in pre- and post-disaster contexts; territorial transformations in 2016–19, indexed by diplomatic negotiations and bilateral security commitments over Tibetan and Himalayan populations codified in policy agreements on China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) programme in Nepal; and new discursive depths reached in 2020–21, demonstrated by the paradox that while very little BRI development work has been accomplished to date, China’s growing presence in Nepal is routinely articulated through the BRI. Arguing that volumetric sovereignty over subjects and spaces operates materially, territorially and discursively, I transect a multitude of Himalayan spaces to contribute to more critical understandings of Global China and move the analytical bar not only across Nepal but also, more importantly, well beyond the BRI.

KEYWORDS:

• presence
• volume
• territory
• infrastructure
• China
• Nepal

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I thank Mia Moy Bennett and Klaus Dodds, guest editors of the special issue ‘Earthly volumes, voluminous materialities: working with apprehension’, for excellent feedback and guidance on early iterations of this article. I also thank all my fellow participants at the 2021 AAG Annual Meeting panel sessions, and the lively discussions we had online, from which this paper was spun. Additionally, my gratitude to Md. Tayyab Safdar and Brantly Womack at the University of Virginia ‘Assessment of the Belt and Road Initiative’ for constructive comments on previous drafts, and talks, of this project. Lastly, I thank Chih Yuan Woon, Jenny Case, Virginia Mamadouh and two anonymous reviewers for critical and incisive comments and provocations that substantially improved the paper along the way. All errors are mine alone and the usual standard disclaimers apply.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Qualitative research methods included multi-sited interviews and mobile forms of participant observation between centrally urban and northern borderland regions of the country; this generated grounded data that form the empirical basis of my analysis.

2 Across Nepal’s northern borderlands, earthquake aid was delivered through a combination of community-based responders, modest government support and myriad international actors. Largely left off the international non-governmental organization (NGO) relief map and with a central government severely underprepared to manage a crisis at the national scale, communities in northern districts such as Mustang, Gorkha, Rasuwa, Dolakha and elsewhere launched grassroots efforts to solicit and deliver aid from relatives, friends and donors in Kathmandu and abroad.

3 Frustrated by inexplicable prohibitions on flight space to Kathmandu and the use of open tarmac at Tribhuvan International Airport, at OCHA meetings at the Nepal Army Club in May 2015, I witnessed intense arguments between ranking leadership of the UK, US and Japanese militaries regarding the deployment of relief units to particular districts in need.

4 Efforts to reinforce state legitimacy and thereby improve the relationship between the Nepali state and its citizens are often predicated on the Nepali notion of bikas, or development. ‘Coalescing over several decades and numerous political struggles, this rhetoric [of development] has come to equate the legitimacy of the government with national unity, progress, and patriotism itself. A particular arrangement for control over resources and political alliances thus became inextricably linked to the unassailable cause of national development’ (Pigg, 1992, p. 49).

5 Nepal’s BRI framework includes the following nine projects: upgrades to the Rasuwagadhi–Kathmandu road; construction of the Kimathanka–Hile road; construction of a new road from Dipayal to the Chinese southern border; improvement to the Tokha–Bidur road; construction of the Galchhi–Rasuwagadhi–Kerung 400 kV transmission line; building of the Kyirong–Kathmandu railroad; construction of the 762 MW Tamor hydroelectricity project; building the 426 MW Phukot Karnali hydroelectric project; and construction of the Madan Bhandari Technical Institute, named after Madan Bhandari, a previous communist leader (Murton & Plactha, 2021).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by European Commission Marie S Curie Individual Action Fellowship: [Grant Number # 751131 (Road Diplomacy)].