ABSTRACT
Anxious to preserve its position after the collapse of royal rule, China confronted the wariness displayed toward it by the new Nepalese political players. The mainstream parties had seen successive generations of the Chinese communist leadership maintain close ties with the palace during periods of both active royal rule and those when the kingdom had functioning elected governments. Fresh in the minds of the Maoist rebels was the fact that China had not only politically repudiated the Nepalese adherents of the Great Helmsman, but had also armed the royal regime against an insurgency they viewed as being in support of the poor and dispossessed.
