Sino-Nepalese War

The Xiannese China-Nepalese War (AMW)

The short but brutal and costly war between China and Maoist-controlled Nepal (Kanendru) was one of the very few times in A Modern World history when the terrible amount of political and racial tension between China's various states and Leftist India boiled over into full-blown conflict. Though fought for the benefit of the Nepalese and at the request of Nepal's sitting government, Nepal, without much in the way of public services to begin with, was devastated.

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Background

Nepal as it was while Prince Nyanendra ruled as absolute monarch was hardly a nice place to be. The maoist insurgency begun in the mid-1990s had repeatedly dodged government efforts aimed at its eradication and was arguably stronger than ever before. The Prince's ministers, furthermore, did not follow the most enlightened course in dealing with the maoist insurgency and attempted to crush the CPK (communist party of Kanendru) by any means necessary, with minimal regard for the rights of noncombatants as they are usually accepted. And despite ever-growing maoist power and consecutive military successes, the Monarchy staunchly refused to negotiate, refusing demands for any form of self-government by the Nepalese people which would surely remove Prince Nyanendra from power.

(The CPK has blood on its hands as well, as far as civilian lives are concerned. Both parties refused to allow humanitarian aid and the associated staff full and free access to their respective areas of control and threatened violent reprisals should such humanitarian aid find its way to either of the opposed parties.)

China Intervenes

As a Maoist offensive gained more and more momentum against government forces and caused the Monarchist forces to face the possibility of military defeat, China came out in support of the Nyanendra government. Very strongly anti-communist, the sitting Chinese authority deployed a considerable force of troops to Nepal in support of the monarchy.

However, the CPK soon found itself the beneficiary of Igovian, Marimaian, and Drapoel support and it became apparent that the force of Chinese troops deployed to Nepal was simply insufficient to stem the Maoist advance. With CPK forces poised to achieve a decisive victory, Nyanendra's government gave in. A Parliament was established and it wasted no time in opening negotiations with the CPK. Chinese forces were asked to leave while Igovian (Bedgellen) security forces were brought in.

The CPK, already with much of Nepal under its direct control, won control of government and wasted no time in establishing a grass-roots military. Numerous public works projects were also initiated.

China Invades

With the withdrawl of major Igovian military units, the CPK was left to more or less manage things on its own. But percieving this new Maoist state as a considerable threat, and still, according to Beijing, obliged to restore the monarchy, China began military operations from Tibet. Pre-empting the actual ground invasion, Chinese bombers conducted numerous raids all along the border areas, causing mass devastation, but none the less effectively paving the way for the coming Chinese ground troops.

It was at this time that the CPK appealed to the world for help. While the CPK was not wonderfully well-liked by other leftist nations, the Chinese attack was fraught with an acute lack of respect for the rights of noncombatants as they are commonly accepted, and moreover a Chinese puppet state would amount to a very serious threat to Progressive India. Days before the Chinese ground invasion took place, a spearhead force of about 20,000 Hindustani paras and regulars, reinforced by heavy artillery, mortars, and SAMs, was rushed into Nepal and managed to establish itself sufficiently well.

Facing the combined Hindustani and Nepalese People's Liberation Army defenders were around 600,000 Chinese soldiers. On first impressions, the odds seemed impossible, but the terrain was by no means facilitating towards the movement of large numbers of soldiers, equipment, and vehicles. At the border itself, fairly small units of Hindustani Paras and East Islandian Commandos were able to hold up the Chinese columns for vital hours with long-range ATGWs and mortars before being forced to withdraw under increasingly accurate Chinese artillery and airstrikes.

Initially, attempts at reinforcing the 20,000-strong contingent already in Nepal met with difficulty under what was at that time rarely-contested Chinese airstrikes. But thanks to the commitment on the part of Beth Gellert of its air force, Chinese air operations were severely curtailed. As only Beth Gellert had a very long range SAM at that time, Chinese planes could often be targeted soon after they became airborne from well within Igovian territory. While the bulk of air operations fell on the shoulders of the Igovian Air Force, the Hindustani Air Defense Force also made a showing. Its MiG-21s performed rather poorly against the J-10 and J-11 aircraft employed to oppose them, but with the commitment of newer and more capable types to the region the balance of air power became much more even.

Robbed of consistant air support, the invaders turned to artillery in order to supply fire support. Fierce counterbattery engagements were commonplace, and largely inconclusive. The most effective fire support in the campaign was that carried at a lower level, such as mortars, ATGWs, and (in the case of Hindustani and Nepalese troops) highly portable short-range rocket artillery.

Thanks to the efforts of Nepalese, East Islandian, and Hindustani ground troops, the Chinese advance ground to a halt soon after entering the extremely mountainous terrain of northern Nepal. Another 100,000 Hindustani regulars, Pashtun militiamen, and paras were rushed up and into the front lines, further strengthening an already very strong Indo-Nepalese defensive line. In many cases these troops were equipped only with their service rifles and belt kit, but the terrain advantage held by the defending forces proved insurmountable, even by such a vastly numerically superior invasion force.

China attempted a number of inventive tactics, such as employing paratroops in conjunction with a ground spearhead operation and in very close proximity to one another. Helicopter-borne assaults also played a major role. However, the sheer volume of small-caliber fire directed at these measures, especially at descending paratroops, meant that countless Chinese soldiers were lost before getting a chance to fire back. There was also such a density of SAMs along the front line areas that helicopter assaults from both sides were often badly beaten and forced to withdraw before deploying any significant number of troops.

The Withdrawl

While the actual figures for Chinese losses are unknown, they must have been massive, since the advance fizzled out after the first few days and units were moving back across the border by a week's time. During the withdrawl, Chinese troops attempted to render as much Nepalese infrastructure useless as possible, a goal generally achieved with reasonable uniformity across the Chinese-occupied zones. Roads were wrecked, some by Hindustani heavy artillery in an effort to cut off Chinese advance units, and others dynamited by sappers to give the retreating forces extra time.

No official peace treaty was ever signed. Rather, Chinese attention was diverted to considerable domestic problems and an invasion by Hudecia, which accomplished little besides wrecking much of China's coastal infrastructure and acutely depopulating many formerly large and prosperous cities.

The Sino-Nepalese War cost over 10,000 Hindustani lives, and as of now uncounted Nepalese were killed, maimed, and displaced by the fighting as well. The process of reconstruction was quite costly, a bill footed mainly by Hindustan, and even now roads near the Chinese border are impassable and formerly popular tourist destinations scarred by shell holes and trenches. Among the unrecorded pieces of wreckage scattered across Nepal is the HADF MiG-21 Z4410, which is now part of the scenery on Mount Everest.