Success eludes China in its bid to patch up Nepal crisis

New Delhi, Dec 28: A high-level team of the Communist Party officials are in Nepal to broker peace within the Nepal Communist Party, which is heading for a split.

Chinese President, Xi Jinping sent a team to Nepal to broker peace after Ambassador Hou Yanqi failed to stop the split in the NCP.

The team being sent by Chinese president, Xi Jinping is led by Guo Yechau, vice minister of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The team has been meeting with key players in Nepal and is attempting to patch up matters between the warring factions.

players in Nepal and will try to patch matters between the warring factions.

China is looking to make one last attempt to keep the warring Nepal Communist Party leaders together.

On Sunday, Guo Yechau met with President Bidya Devi Bhandari and Prime Minister, K P Sharma Oli. On Monday, Guo Yechau met with former prime minister, Pushpa Kumar Dahal aka Prachanda, who is leading the rival faction against Oli. Guo will also meet with Madhav Nepal, the former prime minister who is aligned with Prachanda.

The primary agenda of the Chinese is to ensure that the government rescinds the presidential order that dissolved parliament. During the talks, China has offered to use its influence with Prachanda and Madhav. The delegation also assured that Oli would be able to complete his five year term. Oli on the other hand, according to officials has not budged and wants the Supreme Court to take the final call on the dissolution of Parliament.

The split is something that China has been trying to avert. The Nepal Communist Party was formed around 3 years back with the merger of Oli's Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) and his rival Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda's Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Centre.

On an earlier occasion, Hou was successful in convincing both sides to patch up. However over the last few months the Chinese envoy has been less successful especially after Beijing indicated that it was not averse to a change of prime minister if the communist party intact.

The Chinese Embassy spokesperson, Zhang Si had told the Kathmandu Post that China did not want the Nepal Communist Party to be in trouble. He wished that the leaders would resolve differences and stay united. "The embassy keeps good relationships with Nepali leaders and is ready to exchange views on issues of common interest at any convenient time," he also said.

Meanwhile Oli's rivals moved the Supreme Court challenging the dissolution of Parliament. They have termed the decision taken by Oli as a constitutional coup. The Supreme Court's constitutional bench has issued show cause notice on the issue.

Last week Oli announced that he would be dissolving the Parliament. The decision taken by Nepal's Prime Minister, K P Oli to dissolve Parliament would give him a free hand to run the government also split the party formed in 2018 by the merger of his Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) with the Prachanda's Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Centre.