A student organization in Nepal on Saturday (February 22) burnt bicycles provided with Chinese assistance saying they were substandard. The incident took place in the country’s Parsa District. The bicycles were distributed last month. The students’ organization alleged that the bicycles were of low quality and had been used previously.
The National Students’ Council- Parsa burnt the bicycles and held demonstrations at Laxmanawa Chowk in Parsa District.
There were also slogans that said “China’s cunning no longer works”, “Madhesh needs respect’ and “old bicycles, deception”. The slogan also demanded that China stop its attempts of fooling Nepal.
“China sent substandard materials as an aid to humiliate Madhesh students. Providing substandard materials to Madhesh in the name of grants is unacceptable. If this continues, it would be the humiliation of Madheshi and we will resort to it with strong protest,” Binod Yadav, president of the student council. He was quoted by news agency ANI.
The China Foundation distributed these bicycles last month to students of Shri Narsingh Secondary School in Pipara in Birgunj city. The bicycles were distributed in an event organized by the International Love Cycle Nepal Campaign.
China has been making overtures to Nepal, a country traditionally seen to be part of Indian sphere of influence. China has also been able to drag Nepal in its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). But lately, the two countries have developed some friction over few aspects of the BRI project.
Arzu Rana Deuba, Nepal’s foreign minister, recently reaffirmed that the recent agreement under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) does not involve any loan-related provisions.
Kathmandu Post quoted her as saying that the word ‘aid’ in the Sino-Nepal agreement doesn’t mean loans. She was addressing the Nepali parliament.
“There is no mention of loans in the BRI agreement. The projects signed under BRI are cooperation-based, and any decision to take loans would depend on necessity. We are under no obligation to accept loans unless required,” the Kathmandu Post quoted Deuba as saying.
China has for long been criticized for saddling smaller countries with overwhelming debt and then demanding geopolitically important assets for concessions in repayments.
