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Chinese of Neplai origin likely to operate Katmandu-Lhasa bus ServiceThursday - 24th February 2005 |
| Chinese of Neplai origin likely to operate Katmandu-Lhasa bus Service The government is likely to appoint the Tibet Gurkha Trade Company to operate the first regular direct trans-Himalayan 950-km passenger bus service between Katmandu and Lhasa, the capital of Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. According to a Nepal government source, a company based in Tibet belonging to a Chinese citizen of Nepali origin is being considered for this purpose. Dr. Upendra Gautam, Genereal Secretary of the China Study Center, finds significance in the timing of the bus service and proprietorship of the bus operating company. He explains, ?The bus service is being operated in a year that commemorates the 50th golden jubilee year of the establishment of diplomatic relations between two geo-politically contiguous immediate neighbors-the people?s Republic of China and the Kingdom of Nepal. Besides this, the Bus service is being operated by a Chinese citizen of Nepali (Gurkha) origin, which not only duly recognizes the ancient and positive historical role of the Nepali people in the socio-economic development of Tibet, but also points out at the international role that the Chinese of Nepali origin can play in modernizing China-Nepal people-to-people relations in the decades of the 21st century?. An article, printed in the Rising Nepal Daily of 9 November 2004, quoted Hu Jintao, the then Vice-president and now the President of China, saying this in his speech delivered on 19 July 2001. ?Tibet is in the southwestern frontier of the motherland, with a vast stretch of Land and most important strategic position. The development, stability and security of Tibet have a direct bearing on the fundamental interests of people of all ethnic groups in Tibet as well as ethnic solidarity, national unity and state security. It is the common aspiration and mission of people of all ethnic groups in China, the Tibetan people included, to build on the prosperity and progress and maintain stability and solidarity in Tibet?. The article noted how the Nepali ethnic group has been contributing in the cultural, industrial and commercial upliftments of Tibet. The same article, as observers have duly noted, had meaningfully asked the Chinese government to recognize the Chinese citizens of Nepali origin as a Chinese ethnic group and provide it with preferential transit, educational and trade facilities on a regular basis. |
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