China rejects report it had seized territory from Nepal as ‘unfounded, rumour’

China on Tuesday dismissed a media report which said it had seized territory from Nepal as “completely unfounded” and “pure rumour”.

The foreign ministry’s spokesperson Wang Wenbin was reacting to a report in the Daily Telegraph published on Tuesday that quoted Nepalese politicians as saying that Beijing had surreptitiously annexed more than 150 hectares on the Nepal-Tibet border, on the Nepalese side.

“I want to point out that the report is completely unfounded rumour,” Wang said when asked to comment on the news report.

The report “is not based on fact. It is a pure rumour,” Wang repeated when he was pressed further for a response.

In October, Chinese state media had denied similar reports that said China had encroached Nepalese land in the Humla district.

“The buildings that some in Nepal have accused China of encroaching on its land in Humla district falls within Chinese territory and is actually a newly-built village in Burang county in Ali, southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region,” the nationalist tabloid Global Times had said in a report on October 16.

The report had blamed India for “hyping” the incident and accused the Nepalese opposition of making the allegations at the behest of New Delhi.

“The main opposition Nepalese Congress, which has been hyping the incident, is considered as a pro-India force,” the Global Times report said.

It then went to refer to the issue of India-Nepal territorial dispute.

“India actually has a long-running territorial dispute with Nepal. The Indian government included a disputed area with Nepal to its new territory map in 2019, triggering conflicts between the two countries. In response, Nepal published a new map, which included Kalapani and other areas into its territory,” the report added.