ABSTRACT
China has gained stature as a trade partner with Nepal at the cost of states in the European Union such as Germany, Italy, and France. As with other aspects of Sino-Nepalese economic relations, China gains structural power through its influence over Nepal's structure of finance. More pertinent to discussion of structural power is the linkage between Chinese pressure for Kathmandu to secure its Tibetan population and the growing severity of the Nepalese state's internal security measures toward the marginalised community. Political instability and illegitimacy in Nepal together with Chinese structural power as described above result in structural violence across the state's economic, environmental, and social sectors and contribute to structural violence between the state and Nepalese society. Structural violence is consistent with other manifestations in that it contains the seeds of contention that could complicate or undermine China's relations with Nepal either at the state-to-state or state-to-society levels, or both.
