China's high-profile envoy to Nepal Hou Yanqi completes her controversial tenure

China's high-profile envoy to Nepal Hou Yanqi, who courted controversy for her open attempts to shore up support for the pro-Beijing then prime minister K P Sharma Oli during the 2020 political crisis, has completed her tenure and returned home.

China has proposed Chen Song, one of its senior diplomats, as the new ambassador for Nepal to replace Hou who has already returned to Beijing after completing her four-year-long tenure in October, Nepali ambassador to China Bishnu Pukar Shrestha was quoted as saying by Nepal's Kathmandu Post newspaper on Wednesday.

Chen is currently deputy director general at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and looking after Nepal affairs in the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Pukar said.

Hou's replacement comes at a time when Nepal is on the cusp of the formation of a new government after the national elections where Oli's Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) is locked in an electoral battle with the Nepali Congress headed by Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba.

Oli, who served three terms as Prime Minister with varied tenures, sought to build closer ties with China while maintaining fractious relations with India.

When his government ran into a political crisis with differences between him and his arch-rival Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" of the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist), Hou made a failed bid to bring about a rapprochement and drew flack both at home and abroad.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)