Parallel military diplomacy

Nepal should seek to retain the status quo with India and promote technical cooperation with China.

Successive presidents Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao sought profound changes in China’s military owing to international, regional and domestic developments. Moving beyond the conventional military structure and guerrilla positioning to win land battles, the leadership impelled deterrence to prepare the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) for regional wars. Nevertheless, this required a dramatic development of naval and air forces, expansion of conventional missile forces and indoctrination of the PLA. However, the limited authority of the Chinese Communist Party over the PLA prevented the desired outcome.