Junyu Lu and Ziwei Chen

At present, the world is at a critical moment to fight against the COVID-19 epidemic. Pandemic has worsened poverty situation in many countries. As a least developed country, Nepal is no exception to the impact of the pandemic, especially on poverty alleviation efforts. In this regard, ways to use China's experience in solving absolute poverty to help neighboring countries is an issue worth thinking about.

This year marks the 66th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Nepal. China and Nepal also have a history of Buddhist exchanges spanning thousands of years, and the history of friendly exchanges goes back to ancient times. China and Nepal are good neighbors who learn from each other and help each other. The Zhonghua Temple built by China in Lumbini is a symbol of Sino-Nepalese religious and cultural exchanges. Actively launching poverty alleviation assistance to Nepal is not only the requirement for the two countries to achieve common development and lasting prosperity, but also the requirement for practicing the "Community of Shared Future for Mankind" concept.

Nepal is a landlocked country in South Asia with a population of about 28.5 million. In 2008, after a long conflict, the first Constituent Assembly of Nepal ruled in favour of abolishing the monarchy. Since then, Nepal has become a federal multi-party representative democratic federal republic. Nepal was once one of the poorest countries in the world and one of the poorest countries in South Asia. Over the years, Nepal has made great achievements in poverty reduction. According to a report the population living below the poverty line in Nepal is only about 18% in 2020, compared with nearly 45% in 1990s. Although Nepal has made great progress in lifting people out of poverty, the devastating earthquake in 2015 killed nearly 9,000 people and left nearly one million homeless. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic and the protracted economic crisis have pushed many people into poverty, and the poverty in Nepal has been affected and challenged. In the process of fighting against the pandemic and poverty amidst COVID-19, Nepal needs to introduce different measures to improve people's livelihood, and also needs support and help from China for poverty alleviation in Nepal.

The spread of COVID-19 has had a very negative impact on Nepal's economy and led to a large-scale unemployment. The restrictions imposed to control the epidemic caused factories, enterprises and industries to be in a tense state of shutdown, and it was not until late July 2021 that the government relaxed the restrictions. During these difficult months, Nepal's past poverty reduction has been greatly impacted. Many people estimate that the persistent pandemic may raise the poverty rate in Nepal to the same level as that in 2006. Therefore, this is a crucial time when Nepal needs China's assistance.

At the most difficult time for China to fight against the epidemic, Nepal gave valuable support and wishes to the Chinese people. And when the epidemic spread in Nepal, the Chinese government always adhered to the concept of "Community of Shared Future for Mankind" and provided vaccines against COVID-19 and also actively cooperated with the World Health Organization to share its experience in fighting the epidemic. In April this year, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi proposed, on behalf of the Chinese government, the establishment of a China-South Asia Center for Poverty Alleviation and Cooperation and Development at the Foreign Ministers' Meeting of China, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The center aims to pool strength, integrate resources, exchange wisdom, support and help the economic development and improvement of people's livelihood of South Asian countries, and jointly promote poverty reduction. Therefore, in the future, China will have more reasons to help Nepal's poverty problem, and contribute its strength to getting human beings rid of poverty.

The spread of the COVID-19 epidemic will not distinguish between ethnic groups, abide by the norms of national boundaries and civilizations, and will not care about the socio-economic development level of a country or region. In the past years, the wanton spread of the epidemic has sent us a signal that no one is an isolated island in the face of a global pandemic, and no one can be immune to it. In the face of virus, the common enemy of mankind, the epidemic prevention in various countries reflects the essence of international relations among countries-the international community can only establish the Community of Shared Future for Mankind concept by uniting and cooperating, helping each other in the same boat, sharing weal and woe, coping with it hand in hand, and jointly protecting the people's well-being and building a beautiful earth home. China should share China's development opportunities with Nepal, and strengthen poverty alleviation assistance to Nepal through strategic measures such as accelerating the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road Initiative" and steadily promoting the construction of a Cross-Himalayan three-dimensional interconnection network, so as to push the strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries facing development and prosperity for generations to a new level.

(Junyu Lu and Ziwei Chen are scholars associated with Yunnan University, P.R. China)