What is China’s five finger strategy?
The Five Fingers of Tibet is a Chinese foreign policy attributed to Mao Zedong that considers Tibet to be China’s right hand palm, with five fingers on its periphery: Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, and Arunachal Pradesh, and that it is China’s responsibility to “liberate” these regions(and secure the occupation of Tibet). Today, none of the fingers is under Chinese control.

But, till recently, Nepal was almost about to go to China, but with turn of events, Nepal is saved from being a Chinese colony.

How, lets understand:

With the Nepali Congress (NC) leader Sher Bahadur Deuba taking charge as Prime Minister, Nepal is likely to return to a period of relative peace after a prolonged gap of political instability. The 75-year-old Deuba won a vote of confidence in parliament on July 18 days after the Supreme Court reinstated the legislature that was dissolved in May.

Lets look back at the chronology of events in Nepal.

  1. The Royal Massacre happened on 1 June 2001, in which members of the royal family, including King, Queen Aishwarya, their children and many others were killed.
  2. The late King’s surviving brother Gyanendra was proclaimed as a king.
  3. On 1 February 2002 King Gyanendra suspended the Parliament, appointed a government led by himself, and enforced martial law.
  4. On 23 December 2007, an agreement was made for the monarchy to be abolished and the country to become a federal republic with the Prime Minister becoming head of state. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) became the largest party amidst a general atmosphere of fear and intimidation.
  5. In November 2017, Nepal had first general election since the civil war ended and the monarchy was abolished. The alliance of communists won the election, and UML leader Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli was sworn in February 2018 as the new Prime Minister.
  6. Since the inception of NCP (Nepal Communist Party), the struggle for power between the two leaders: Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) started.
  7. After some time, on facing the vote for confidence in parliament, Oli lost the vote for confidence.
  8. Oli dissolved the parliament on 22 May 2021 and president approved it.
  9. Oli was appointed as caretaker PM by President till the next elections.
  10. On 12 July 2021, the Supreme Court stated the decision of parliament dissolution was unlawful. It ordered the appointment Deuba as the next Prime Minister.
  11. On 18 July 2021, Deuba wins the vote of confidence.

Why is it a defeat for China?
The Nepal Communist Party is nothing but an agent of China. It was as-if China was ruling Nepal through NCP. The Chinese interference in Nepal politics had grown so much that the Chinese ambassador to Nepal(Hou Yanqi) used to openly interfere in Nepali politics. She used to conduct meetings with President, PM, party heads, MPs and leading political figures, which is unheard of any ambassador in the world.

Not only that, under NCP, Chinese Mandarin language was started to be taught in Nepali Govt schools. Nepal took loans from China for building infrastructure, and even let Chinese army enter in to Nepali territory.

And further, Oli had taken up an extreme anti-India stance.

What may be the after effect?
The Nepali Congress is a centrist party and hence wont toe an anti-India/pro-china line. We can hope the Nepal-India relations to improve. With Nepali Congress and Communists sharing a sour relation, we can expect Deuba crush the communists thereby annihilating Chinese goals of colonializing China.

What may be the long term effect?

With Communist party vanishing, the political vacuum will be most likely filled by Hindutva party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party. That party believes in a constitutional monarchy like say UK or Bhutan. And is expected to extremely anti-China/pro-India/pro-Hindu.

Summarizing, with Deuba becoming PM, the aspiration of Nepali Communists who work as nothing less than agents of Chinese communists has been dashed to ground. With this, Chinese “five finger” strategy(capturing Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh and subsequently control the entire Himalayan region) has been dealt a bloody blow from which China can never recover.

DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.