Law / China / Diplomacy / India / Nepal
Border conflict rarely begins with soldiers. It begins with passports, currency, maps, and iconography that harden claims before diplomacy can unwind them. From a woman stopped in Shanghai over her passport to Nepali Banknote with disputed borders, South Asia shows how nationalism now advances through paperwork long before blood is shed.
Here is the Chinese Ambassador to Nepal, Hou Yanqi, singing with her colleagues the Nepali folk song Resham Firiri as a Dashain greeting to the people of Nepal. Hou Yanqi served as ambassador from 2018 to 2022 and became known for her cultural diplomacy during a period when Nepal’s ties with China grew markedly closer. […]
Nepal’s streets have forced a reckoning. In the space of a week, the country has gone from a government certain of its control to a caretaker administration scrambling to contain anger and restore a sense of direction. Youth-led protests—known in shorthand as the “Gen Z” movement—broke out after the state imposed a sudden social media […]
It began, oddly enough, with a visit most Nepalis barely registered: Victoria Nuland, then U.S. Under Secretary of State, touched down in Kathmandu in 2024 after a swing through Wellington. On paper, it was a routine regional stop — democracy, civil society, and the familiar rhetoric of “partnership.” In hindsight, it reads like reconnaissance. Within […]