Nepal, June 17 -- Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal's first official visit to China since the formation of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP)-led government was never going to be a routine diplomatic engagement. The visit came at a sensitive moment in Nepal-China relations, marked by Beijing's lingering unease over last year's Gen Z movement, the emergence of a new political force in Kathmandu and Nepal's increasingly active engagement with Western partners.

Against this backdrop, Khanal's Beijing mission appears to have been driven by three interconnected objectives: rebuilding Chinese confidence in Nepal's strategic commitments, strengthening ties between the ruling RSP and the Communist Party of China (CPC), and convincing Chinese busi...