China has claimed that it has not encroached Nepali territory.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin addressing a press conference on Tuesday has slammed media reports claiming that China has annexed more than 150 hectares of Nepali land and called the reports fake news without any factual basis, and complete rumors.
The Daily Telegraph of Britain citing anonymous Nepali politicians on Monday reported that China has annexed more than 150 hectares of Nepal. China allegedly began seizing Nepali land in five frontier districts in May, sending members of its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) across undefended areas of the border, it reports.
In the north-western district of Humla, PLA troops crossed the border into the Limi Valley and Hilsa, moving stone pillars which had previously demarcated the boundary further into Nepali territory before constructing alleged military bases, The Daily Telegraph reported claiming it has seen images of the bases.
PLA soldiers also allegedly moved border pillars further into Nepali territory in the district of Gorkha. Further annexations occurred in Rasuwa, Sindhupalchowk and Sankuwasabha districts, after Chinese engineers in the Tibet Autonomous Region diverted the flow of rivers acting as a natural boundary and claimed the previously submerged Nepali territory, The Daily Telegraph added.
Wang slammed The Daily Telegraph reports as totally fake and pure rumors. "They are rumors, I am afraid it is the writer who should provide evidence," the Global Times, the English newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, quoted Wang as saying when asked by a Telegraph reporter for evidence to call the reports fake during the press conference on Tuesday.
"I suggest writers verify a source before reporting. I can tell you again that such reports are complete rumors," Wang stated adding the reports do not have any actual factual basis.
There were reports in some sections of media about encroachment of Nepali territory by China in Humla in September. Chief District Officer (CDO) of Humla Chiranjivi Giri then led a team for field inspection. The team located the pillar no 11 at the Nepal-China border which was missing for years, and CDO Giri said after the inspection that the area in Lapcha where the Chinese government has constructed buildings seems to fall in China.
"We observed the structures they have created," Giri had told Setopati over the phone on September 25 after returning to Humla headquarters Simikot. "It seems to fall in China on the basis of panidhalo."
Panidhalo (literally falling water) is the traditional method of demarcating borders in hilly areas wherein disputed territory is said to belong to the side toward which water poured there will fall down to.
He had added that the team, that found the missing border pillar number 11 September 23 evening, also monitored the pillar numbers 8, 9, 10 and 12, and collected their exact location including latitude and longitude.
The government had not waited for Giri's team and stated that there is no border dispute with China and CDO Giri's assertions supported that.
Government Spokesperson and Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali on September 23 had claimed that the place where China has built the buildings is one kilometer into the Chinese side even as locals insist that the territory belongs to Nepal and Nepal had even constructed a road through that area to the Tibetan town of Taklakot where the Chinese government allows Nepalis of the region once in a year for trade.
"Such news reports were published even four years back. The government had investigated forming a inter-ministries committee then. Investigation by the team showed that the place where China constructed the building is a kilometer inside China," Gyawali had said.
Gyawali had insisted that there is no border dispute with China, and assured there is cordial environment for dialogue to resolve any problem if it arises.
