<figure><img width="1350" height="720" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191116/636bee8d4b0ad905ca02ef52jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>(Left): CCTV1 TV segment in July interviewing Chinese survey team member Li Guopeng who climbed Mt Everest for the height measurement. (Right): The documentary Zui mei Zhongguo Di Wu Ji signals 5G covering the summit of Everest on Youku.</figcaption></figure>Chinese netizens have greeted positively the joint announcement by the foreign ministers of Nepal and China on 8 December of the new height of Mt Everest, with some light-hearted reflections and token appreciation.On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Nepali counterpart Pradeep Gyawali pressed a crystal ball simultaneously in Beijing and Kathmandu in a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mt-everest-grows-by-86cm/">virtual joint announcement</a> that Sagarmatha-Zhumulangma was 0.86 metre higher than the previous calculation.The official elevation of the world’s highest mountain on the Himalayan border between the two countries is now 8848.86m. The Chinese expedition to Mt Everest this year, and the joint measurement project has been covered in the Chinese mainstream media and anticipation was building up here about the final height.The reaction in Nepal’s cybersphere has also been largely positive, there has been some ridicule about Prime Minister Oli’s government touting Mt Everest’s ‘growth’ as another of its ‘achievements’. In China, the reaction has been largely positive, and pride about the state-of-the-art technology that made the exact height measurement possible. While Twitter and Facebook are not readily available in China, there was a buzz on the most popular Chinese social media platform Weibo, which has 516 million users.   For some, 8,848.86m evoked nostalgia of school days when the height of Zhumulangma had to be memorised for the annual gaokao exam, China’s toughest university entrance exam for 10 million high school students. Some poked fun about having to memorise the new height all over again for the upcoming exam.The Everest height announcement prompted many to re-watch the once popular 2013 Chinese movie Up in the Wind which was shot on location amidst Nepal’s mountains. The film is credited with sending many young Chinese tourists flocking to visit Nepal.After Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Nepal in October 2019, both countries <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/mount-everest-height-intl-hnk-scli/index.html">agreed to jointly announce</a> the new height. Since then, Chinese state-media had already begun building up the excitement about the new height measurement through social media platforms. <a href="https://m.weibo.cn/status/4532047567653876?">Late in July</a> 2020, CCTV1 invited the Chinese team online to share their experience of the installation of a 5G base station on the north side of Mt Everest. This was followed by a trending challenge on Weibo with prizes for winners who guess the true height of Mt Everest. Three netizens whose answers were the closest to the actual height were announced with a gift from CCTV1. Even four days after the announcement, there is still excitement reverberating on Chinese social media about Everest. The discussion seems to have shifted from Mt Everest being symbolic of the close bonds between Nepal and China to the technical aspects of how the measurements were made, highlighting China’s cutting edge satellite based measuring equipment. The discussion on Weibo has continued on also thanks to <a href="https://v.qq.com/detail/s/sdp0010051zqo0d.html">China’s latest documentary on Everest</a>, The Most Beautiful China Season 5 (最美中国第五季).  In October 2020, the film was aired on Youku, China’s version of YouTube and presented China’s progress in technology and environmental protection, while profiling inspirational scientists. What has caught most attention on Weibo is the installation of 5G on the northern slopes of Mt Everest, which was done as part of the height measurement expedition in May. One <a href="https://m.weibo.cn/status/4562784995783472?">netizen</a> casually posted that they were more interested in learning about when and how 5G will cover the entire mountain than the height change of Mt. Everest.  <figure><img width="630" height="565" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191116/636bee904b0ad905ca02ef53jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>News of the new height of Everest has helped give Nepal enormous publicity within China, and could help further attract Chinese tourists to Nepal when pandemic restrictions are lifted.Chinese social media users have been actively posting and sharing information about Mt Everest and Nepal all this week, even though the news faced stiff competition from China’s Chang’e 5 rocket that is bringing back soil samples from the Moon.Nepal’s tourism planners now need to cash in on this goodwill and free promotion to build an appropriate tourism package. There will be interest among the Chinese to also visit the Khumbu on the south side of Mt Everest which, unlike the north, does not have an asphalt highway to base Camp, and is a National Park.Aneka Rebecca Rajbhandari is an undergraduate student in politics at Peking University. Raunab Singh Khatri is a graduate student in Economics at Yenching Academy of Peking University.

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China social media erupts on Everest news

<figure><img width="1350" height="720" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181144/636be78b9c7e80680e087809jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>(Left): CCTV1 TV segment in July interviewing Chinese survey team member Li Guopeng who climbed Mt Everest for the height measurement. (Right): The documentary Zui mei Zhongguo Di Wu Ji signals 5G covering the summit of Everest on Youku.</figcaption></figure>Chinese netizens have greeted positively the joint announcement by the foreign ministers of Nepal and China on 8 December of the new height of Mt Everest, with some light-hearted reflections and token appreciation.On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Nepali counterpart Pradeep Gyawali pressed a crystal ball simultaneously in Beijing and Kathmandu in a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mt-everest-grows-by-86cm/">virtual joint announcement</a> that Sagarmatha-Zhumulangma was 0.86 metre higher than the previous calculation.The official elevation of the world’s highest mountain on the Himalayan border between the two countries is now 8848.86m. The Chinese expedition to Mt Everest this year, and the joint measurement project has been covered in the Chinese mainstream media and anticipation was building up here about the final height.The reaction in Nepal’s cybersphere has also been largely positive, there has been some ridicule about Prime Minister Oli’s government touting Mt Everest’s ‘growth’ as another of its ‘achievements’. In China, the reaction has been largely positive, and pride about the state-of-the-art technology that made the exact height measurement possible. While Twitter and Facebook are not readily available in China, there was a buzz on the most popular Chinese social media platform Weibo, which has 516 million users.   For some, 8,848.86m evoked nostalgia of school days when the height of Zhumulangma had to be memorised for the annual gaokao exam, China’s toughest university entrance exam for 10 million high school students. Some poked fun about having to memorise the new height all over again for the upcoming exam.The Everest height announcement prompted many to re-watch the once popular 2013 Chinese movie Up in the Wind which was shot on location amidst Nepal’s mountains. The film is credited with sending many young Chinese tourists flocking to visit Nepal.After Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Nepal in October 2019, both countries <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/mount-everest-height-intl-hnk-scli/index.html">agreed to jointly announce</a> the new height. Since then, Chinese state-media had already begun building up the excitement about the new height measurement through social media platforms. <a href="https://m.weibo.cn/status/4532047567653876?">Late in July</a> 2020, CCTV1 invited the Chinese team online to share their experience of the installation of a 5G base station on the north side of Mt Everest. This was followed by a trending challenge on Weibo with prizes for winners who guess the true height of Mt Everest. Three netizens whose answers were the closest to the actual height were announced with a gift from CCTV1. Even four days after the announcement, there is still excitement reverberating on Chinese social media about Everest. The discussion seems to have shifted from Mt Everest being symbolic of the close bonds between Nepal and China to the technical aspects of how the measurements were made, highlighting China’s cutting edge satellite based measuring equipment. The discussion on Weibo has continued on also thanks to <a href="https://v.qq.com/detail/s/sdp0010051zqo0d.html">China’s latest documentary on Everest</a>, The Most Beautiful China Season 5 (最美中国第五季).  In October 2020, the film was aired on Youku, China’s version of YouTube and presented China’s progress in technology and environmental protection, while profiling inspirational scientists. What has caught most attention on Weibo is the installation of 5G on the northern slopes of Mt Everest, which was done as part of the height measurement expedition in May. One <a href="https://m.weibo.cn/status/4562784995783472?">netizen</a> casually posted that they were more interested in learning about when and how 5G will cover the entire mountain than the height change of Mt. Everest.  <figure><img width="630" height="565" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181144/636be78e9c7e80680e08780ajpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>News of the new height of Everest has helped give Nepal enormous publicity within China, and could help further attract Chinese tourists to Nepal when pandemic restrictions are lifted.Chinese social media users have been actively posting and sharing information about Mt Everest and Nepal all this week, even though the news faced stiff competition from China’s Chang’e 5 rocket that is bringing back soil samples from the Moon.Nepal’s tourism planners now need to cash in on this goodwill and free promotion to build an appropriate tourism package. There will be interest among the Chinese to also visit the Khumbu on the south side of Mt Everest which, unlike the north, does not have an asphalt highway to base Camp, and is a National Park.Aneka Rebecca Rajbhandari is an undergraduate student in politics at Peking University. Raunab Singh Khatri is a graduate student in Economics at Yenching Academy of Peking University.

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108131140/636a4ecf9c7e80680e04fcd6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="933"/><figcaption>Pic: BIKRAM RAI</figcaption></figure>When Nepal’s politicians were asked to list their assets, many disclosed property, bank balances and jewelry. Among his possessions, Nepal’s well-read Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali declared that he owned 2,500 books. The soft-spoken Gyawali now has the responsibility of steering the country’s foreign policy at a time of heightened geopolitical polarisation in the region. Sound bites from an interview this week:<ul><li>Nepal used to be a back-bencher in international fora. Now we are being seen and heard. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/to-davos-with-hammer-and-sickle/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Prime Minister’s participation at Davos</a> and hosting the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/bimstec-facelift/">BIMSTEC Summit</a> in Kathmandu has raised Nepal’s international profile.</li> <li>It could be that some cannot digest Nepal’s higher international engagement and are uneasy about it. But there is no question of Nepal ever joining any strategic alliance.</li> <li>We look at our own national interest, and we also try to make sure that our decisions and involvement do not hurt the interests of our neighbours, development partners or other friendly countries.</li> <li>Our long-term foreign policy goals have not changed, but we are trying to adapt to new geopolitical realities by analysing them and formulating new policies of engagement.</li> <li>We want to benefit from the economic growth and development of our two neighbours.</li> <li>We are conveying to China and India that a prosperous and stable Nepal is also in their interest.</li> <li>We are telling our development partners that Nepal is a safe country for foreign investment, from where it is easy to export to other countries.</li> <li>We are very sensitive to the fact that 4 million of our young men and women are working abroad and through diplomacy we want to ensure their security, rights and respect.</li> <li>In the 1990s and 2000s many Latin American countries went nearly bankrupt and had to be bailed out. It was not called a ‘debt trap’, none of them had loans from China.</li> <li>If it is in the national interest, we can take not just aid, but also loans. But if it is against our interest, we will not even take assistance.</li> <li>The suspicions about the Indo-Pacific is a storm in a tea cup. Our Chinese friends are not really worried, they are sure that Nepal will not allow anti-Chinese activities.</li> <li>We do not lean more or less on any one side. We don’t try to compare the relationship we have with our two neighbours.</li></ul>"Nepal has spread its wings"Full Interview with Minister of Foreign Affairs Pradeep GyawaliNepali Times: There have been transformative changes in international diplomacy and geopolitics. But Nepal seems to be stuck.Pradeep Gyawali: Every country has a set of long-term goals, and some flexible policies that change with the times. Nation states have permanent values like sovereignty, territorial integrity, dignity and independence. These beliefs do not change with changes in governments, they do not even change with a change in governance systems. Our adherence to the concept of panchashila, or the United Nations declaration does not change. That is why we also look into our fixed goals and immediate policies based on changes in international and regional relations. We have adapted to new realities from the standpoint of our national interest.Will this be enough for Nepal to reach its goal of being a middle-income country in the next ten years?We have to keep in mind global changes, and specifically the geopolitical, economic, demographic changes in Asia. We have to adapt to the fact that our two neighbours are moving forward rapidly. For this, we do not play favourites, or let our relations with one country be at the expense of another. We want to benefit from the economic growth and development of our two neighbours. We are conveying to China and India that a prosperous and stable Nepal is also in their interest. We are telling our development partners that Nepal is a safe country for foreign investment, from where it is easy to export to other countries. We are very sensitive to the fact that 4 million of our young men and women are working abroad and through diplomacy, we want to ensure their security, rights and dignity. And we will extend our involvement and cooperation with multilateral agencies.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108131140/636a4ed29c7e80680e04fcd7jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1161">The Indian media and intelligentsia are accusing Nepal of tilting towards China.Both our neighbours are equally important for us. We are not tilting more or less in any direction. We don’t compare our relationship with either of them.  Neither of our neighbours should forget that Nepal has neighbours on both sides, and ask us to deal only with one of them.There is lot of talk about Nepal falling into the Chinese debt trap.I keep reminding people that in the 1990s and 2000s many Latin American countries nearly went bankrupt and had to be bailed out. It was not called a ‘debt trap’, none of them had loans from China. Greece still has not been able to come out of its economic crisis, and I don’t think they are in trouble because they had Chinese investments. These accusations are not based on an objective economic analysis, but a negative attitude towards the rise of China and its political system. Besides, Nepal has the ability to decide what is in its national interest and what is not.  If it is in the national interest we can take not just aid, but also loans. But if it is not in our interest, we will not even take assistance.And China seems to be suspicious of Nepal’s involvement in the Indo-Pacific Alliance. Can a Nepal that is already a member of the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/chinese-ambassador-addresses-bri-conference/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BRI</a> risk being involved in the Indo-Pacific?The suspicions about the Indo-Pacific is a storm in a tea cup. Our Chinese friends are not really worried, they are sure that Nepal will not allow anti-Chinese activities. The first official visit by a Nepali foreign minister to Washington recently, and the first American visit at the level of the foreign minister to Nepal have added a new milestone to Nepal-US relations. The Japanese foreign minister visited Nepal after many years, we have also deepened our relations with India, the EU and other development partners.  Nepal has increased its involvement in the international arena. The Prime Minister’s recent Europe visit has sent the message that Nepal is no longer what it used to be in South Asia, it has spread its wings. It could be that some cannot digest Nepal’s higher international engagement and are uneasy about it. There is no question of Nepal ever joining any strategic alliance. We look at our own national interest, and we also try to make sure that our decisions and involvement does not hurt the interests of our neighbours, development partners or other friendly countries.What are the main achievements during your tenure?During the conflict, Nepal’s economic development suffered a setback, it affected our foreign policy and we became an arena for proxies. Now, with the end of the political transition and political stability, we are fixing our mistakes and moving ahead.  Nepal used to be a back-bencher in the international fora. Now, we are being seen and heard. The Prime Minister’s participation at Davos, his one-on-one meeting with G-20 leaders sent the message that Nepal should now be heard on the world stage. Recently, the head of the IFC said that Nepal was a ‘rising star’, so that must carry some weight.We have also restored our relations with our neighbours, after overcoming difficult times. Others have now realised that they must take Nepal along. Despite obstacles, we hosted the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/connecting-Bangladesh-China-India-Nepal,2966" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BIMSTEC Summit</a> and the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/labour-pain/">Colombo Process Ministerial Conference</a> in Kathmandu. I would consider the past year quite successful.Interview by Hari Prakash Chand and Binu PokhrelRead Also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-has-more-self-respect/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Nepal has more self-respect”</a>, Nepali Times<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/yam-between-3-boulders/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">YAM BETWEEN 3 BOULDERS</a>, Editorial<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-now-has-to-balance-not-just-india-and-china-but-also-the-west/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepal now has to balance not just India and China, but also the West</a>, Bhairaja Pandey<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/eminently-beneficial-for-india-and-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Eminently beneficial for India and Nepal</a>, Ajit Baral

"Nepal is now seen and heard"

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China social media erupts on Everest news

China social media erupts on Everest news

"Nepal is now seen and heard"