The Chinese fence traces a furrow in the Himalayas, its barbed wire and concrete ramparts separating Tibet from Nepal. Here, in one of the more isolated places on earth, China’s security cameras keep watch alongside armed sentries in guard towers.

中国的栅栏在喜马拉雅山上划出一道沟壑，用铁丝网和水泥墙将西藏和尼泊尔隔开。在这个地球上最偏僻的地方之一，中国的安保摄像头与守卫塔上的武装哨兵一起进行着持续监视。

High on the Tibetan Plateau, the Chinese have carved a 600-feet-long message on a hillside: “Long live the Chinese Communist Party,” inscribed in characters that can be read from orbit.

在青藏高原之巅，中国人在一处山坡上刻了一条180米长的标语：“中国共产党万岁”，这些文字从太空都可以看到。

Just across the border, in Nepal’s Humla District, residents contend that along several points of this distant frontier, China is encroaching on Nepali territory.

边界另一侧是尼泊尔的胡姆拉区，那里的居民们认为，沿着这条偏僻的边境线，中国正在几处蚕食尼泊尔的领土。

Source: OpenStreetMap, ESRI • By Agnes Chang

The Nepalis have other complaints, too. Chinese security forces are pressuring ethnic Tibetan Nepalis not to display images of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, in Nepali villages near the border, they say. And with the recent proliferation of Chinese barriers and other defenses, a people have also been divided. The stream of thousands of Tibetans who once escaped Chinese government repression by fleeing to Nepal has almost entirely vanished.

中国在新冠时期加快了防御工事建设的步伐，并新建了数十个边境定居点，将北京的全景监狱式安全状态强加给偏远地区，也给中国较贫穷、较弱的邻国带来了巨大压力。由于缺少像样的道路，牧羊人从本村出发，需要走三天才能抵达胡姆拉首府西米科特。China borders 14 other countries by land. Its vast frontier, on land and at sea, remained largely peaceful as China’s economy grew to become the world’s second-largest. But amid Mr. Xi’s tenure, Beijing is redefining its territorial limits, leading to small skirmishes and outright conflict.

中国与14个国家接壤。在发展成为世界第二大经济体的过程中，中国广阔的陆地和海上边界基本上保持了和平。但在习近平任内，北京正在重新划定其领土界限，导致一些摩擦和直接的冲突。

“Under Xi Jinping, China has doubled down on efforts to assert its territorial claims in disputed areas along its periphery,” said Brian Hart, a fellow at the China Power Project of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

华盛顿战略与国际研究中心中国实力项目研究员贺博然(Brian Hart)说，“在习近平领导下，中国在周边争议地区加大了领土主张的力度。”

Viewed individually, each action along China’s borders — fortifying boundaries, contesting territory and pushing into disputed zones — might seem only incremental. But the aggregated result is startling.

单独来看，中国在边界上的每一次行动——修筑边境工事、争夺领土、进入争议地区——似乎幅度都不大。但累积的结果令人吃惊。

Near its eastern maritime reaches, in what are internationally recognized as Philippine waters, China has turned a coral reef into a military base. On its far western land border, China’s People’s Liberation Army has pushed into disputed mountain territory shared with South Asian neighbors.

在其东部海域附近国际公认的菲律宾水域，中国把一座珊瑚礁变成了军事基地。在遥远的西部陆地边界，中国人民解放军已经推进到与南亚邻国交界的山区。

Two dozen soldiers from India and China, both nuclear powers, died in high-altitude, hand-to-hand combat in 2020. Another border clash two years later injured more soldiers.

2020年，24名印度和中国士兵在高原地区的肉搏战中丧生，这两个国家都是持核国。两年后，另一场边境冲突造成更多士兵受伤。

China’s border buildup is a major reason that the U.S. Department of Defense, in its 2023 China Military Power Report, declared that China has “adopted more dangerous, coercive, and provocative actions in the Indo-Pacific region.”

之所以美国国防部在《2023年中国军力报告》中称中国“在印太地区采取了更加危险、强制性和挑衅性的行动”， 中国的边境建设是一个重要原因。

The shifting security landscape is drawing the attention of global powers and leading to new alliances. Small nations with ties to China, like Nepal, are vulnerable, even as they downplay or deny border disputes for fear of losing Beijing’s economic favor.

安全形势的变化正在引起全球大国的注意，并导致新的联盟。像尼泊尔这样与中国有联系的小国是脆弱的，即使它们因为担心失去北京的经济支持而淡化或否认边界争端。

胡姆拉区村庄希尔萨的一间小吃部。胡姆拉是尼泊尔最贫困、最欠发达的地区。希尔萨的尼泊尔准军事警官。由于担心失去北京的经济优待，尼泊尔官员往往会淡化或否认边境纠纷。

oh“Weaker states like Nepal,” Mr. Hart said, “face immense pressures because of the overwhelming power differential with China.”

“像尼泊尔这样的弱国，”贺博然说，“由于与中国的实力悬殊面临着巨大的压力。”

“If China does not face costs for encroaching on its weakest neighbors, Beijing will be further emboldened to threaten countries in the region,” he added.

“如果中国不为侵犯其最弱小的邻国而付出代价，北京就会更加有恃无恐地威胁该地区的国家，”他还说

Nepal’s foreign minister, Arzu Rana Deuba, said in an interview with The New York Times that she had not received complaints about problems on the border with Tibet and that the government’s focus was more on the southern boundary with India, where more Nepalis live.

尼泊尔外交部长阿尔祖·拉纳·德乌巴在接受《纽约时报》采访时表示，她没有收到关于与西藏接壤边界问题的投诉，政府的重点更多地放在与印度接壤的南部边界，那里有更多尼泊尔人居住。

“We have not really thought much of looking at the northern border, at least I haven’t,” she said.

 “我们并没有认真考虑过关注北部边境，至少我没有，”她说。

A Top Secret Report

绝密报告

The distance from Simikot, the capital of Humla District, to the frontier village of Hilsa is 30 miles. But the drive to the border with Tibet takes more than 10 bone-jarring hours through rough, rocky terrain. Humla is unconnected to Nepal’s national road network. Cars and heavy machinery must be flown in.

从胡姆拉地区的首府西米科特到边境村庄希尔萨的距离是48公里。但开车前往这个与西藏接壤的边境地区需要在崎岖坎坷的岩石地形上颠簸10多个小时。胡姆拉与尼泊尔的国家公路网并不相连。汽车和重型机械必须空运过来。

Himalayan passes in Humla reach nearly 16,400 feet. Deadly altitude sickness can set in fast. It was to this district, Nepal’s poorest and least developed, that members of a fact-finding mission — composed of Nepali Home Ministry officials, government surveyors and police personnel — traveled three years ago.

胡姆拉的喜马拉雅山口海拔近4800米。致命的高原反应有可能会突然出现。三年前，一个由尼泊尔内政部官员、政府测量员和警察组成的实况调查团的成员来到了这个尼泊尔最贫穷、最不发达的地区。

Armed with a 1960s map from when Nepal and China formally agreed upon their boundary, they set out to discover whether the official cartography diverged from the reality on the ground. The mission members trekked to remote border pillars. They chatted with yak herders and Tibetan Buddhist monks.

他们拿着一张上世纪60年代尼泊尔和中国正式达成边界协议时的地图，着手调查官方地图是否与实际情况有出入。调查团成员长途跋涉到偏远的界碑。他们与牦牛牧民和藏传佛教僧侣聊天。

Eventually, they produced their report to Nepal’s cabinet. And then the report disappeared. The public was not allowed to see it. Even high-ranking officials and politicians were refused access, several people involved said.

最终，他们向尼泊尔内阁提交了报告。然后报告就消失了。公众无法看到这份报告。几名知情人士说，就连高级官员和政界人士也被拒绝翻阅。

The veil of secrecy extended to the historical map that the mission brought with it. Survey department employees said they have been cautioned that sharing it could be a security breach — a strange warning for a map accessible in American archives.

保密的面纱延伸到了调查团携带的那份历史地图上。调查部门的员工说，他们被警告，分享这幅地图可能构成泄密——对于一幅在美国档案中可以找到的地图来说，这样的警告显得很奇怪。

A copy of the report obtained by The Times shows that the government mission documented a series of small border infringements by China. Also coursing through the report are worries about China’s grander geopolitical intentions and fears about upsetting Nepal’s powerful neighbor.

时报获得的一份报告副本显示，政府代表团记录了中国的一系列小规模边境侵权行为。报告中还贯穿着对中国更宏大的地缘政治意图的担忧，以及对惹恼尼泊尔的这个强大邻国的恐惧。

A nation of 30 million people, Nepal is small, landlocked and underdeveloped. Its government is headed by a Communist, who this year replaced a former Maoist rebel as prime minister. In ideology and in economics, Nepal leans heavily toward China, even as it remains in the orbit of nearby India.

尼泊尔地处内陆，是一个人口3000万的欠发达小国。该国政府由一名共产党人领导，他在今年取代前毛派反叛分子出任总理。在意识形态和经济上，尼泊尔严重倾向于中国，尽管它仍在邻国印度的影响范围内。

The report says that in several places in and around Hilsa, China constructed fortifications and other infrastructure, including closed-circuit TV cameras, that are either in Nepal or in a buffer zone between the two countries where building is prohibited by bilateral agreement. Chinese border personnel took over a Nepali irrigation canal fed by the Karnali River, the report said, although the Chinese retreated when the Nepali mission visited.

报告称，中国在希尔萨及其周围的几个地方修建了防御工事和其他基础设施，包括监控摄像头，这些设施要么在尼泊尔境内，要么在两国之间的缓冲区内，根据双方的协议，两国不得在缓冲区内进行建设。报道指出，中国的边防人员占领了一条从卡尔纳利河引水的尼泊尔灌溉渠，但在尼泊尔的检查团到访时，中国人撤退了。

Chinese forces have illegally prevented ethnic Tibetans living in Nepali areas near the border from grazing their livestock and participating in religious activities, the report said. Such constraints bring extraterritorial menace to Mr. Xi’s campaign of repression in Tibet.

报告称，中国军队非法阻止居住在尼泊尔境内靠近两国边界的藏民放牧以及参加宗教活动。这些限制活动将习近平在西藏的镇压运动延伸到了其统辖范围之外。

The report advised that Nepal and China urgently needed to address various border disputes, but a bilateral mechanism for resolving border problems, which includes joint inspections, has been stalled since 2006.

该报告指出，尼泊尔和中国迫切需要解决各种边界争端，但自2006年以来，包括联合检查在内的解决边界问题的双边机制一直停滞不前。

N.P. Saud, Nepal’s foreign minister until March, said in an interview with The Times that bilateral “border meetings are held frequently.”

担任尼泊尔外长至今年3月的N·P·萨乌德在接受《纽约时报》采访时表示，双边“经常举行边境会议”。

But one of Mr. Saud’s deputies told The Times that no border inspections had occurred in more than 17 years. Asked about this, Mr. Saud amended his statement.

但萨乌德的一名副手告诉时报，边境检查已经有17年多没有进行过了。当被问及此事时，萨乌德修改了他的说法。

“I can share with you that the joint inspection team will work soon,” he said. “I can’t tell you the exact time until it is finalized.”

“我可以告诉你的是，联合检查小组很快就会开展工作，”他说。“在最终敲定之前，我无法告诉你确切的时间。”

Mr. Saud said that he did not know why the Humla report had not been made public.

萨乌德表示，他不知道为什么胡姆拉报告没有公开。

“The border of a country,” he said, “is not a matter of secrecy.”

“一个国家的边界并不属于秘密问题，”他说。

Mr. Saud said Nepal could not make any determination on the report’s validity until the joint inspections restart.

萨乌德说，在联合检查重新开始之前，尼泊尔无法对这份报告的真实性做出任何判断。

“Until and unless we confirm the report,” he said, “how we can raise the issue internationally with another country?”

“除非我们对报告内容进行了确认，”他说，“不然我们怎么能在国际上向另一个国家提出这个问题呢？

在未接入国家公路网的尼泊尔胡姆拉区修路。尼泊尔工人在打包中国商品，身后是中国修建的边境栅栏。

Ms. Deuba, who replaced Mr. Saud as foreign minister, said she was not aware of the report or of Chinese fencing on the border.

接替萨乌德担任外长的德乌帕表示，她不清楚该报告的内容，以及中方在边界附近设置栅栏的情况。

The Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu declined to comment.

中国驻加德满都大使馆拒绝置评。

The Chinese government says that it is a force for peace in the region. In an article in the party-run People’s Daily, Pan Yue, the head of the National Ethnic Affairs Commission, wrote last year that China “never sought to conquer or expand territorially, never colonized neighboring countries.”

中国政府表示，它是维护该地区和平的力量。去年，国家民委主任潘岳在党报《人民日报》上发文，称中国“从没有向外征服扩张，从没有殖民统治周边国家”。

History collides with such national mythmaking. In 1979, Chinese forces briefly invaded Vietnam, which China had once controlled for a millennium. Since the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, China and India have fought two border wars.

历史与这种国家神话的编造存在冲突。1979年，中国军队短暂入侵了一度被中国控制了千年的越南。自1949年中华人民共和国成立以来，中国和印度打了两次边境战争。

Mr. Shahi, the former provincial chief minister from Humla, said that his efforts to publicize Chinese border intrusions have been actively discouraged.

曾任胡姆拉省首席部长的沙希说，他宣传中国边境侵犯的努力一直面临很大阻力。

“The Chinese, they say to our government, and then the government says to me, ‘If you talk about this border issue, then they will stop trade, they will stop everything,” he said. “Who the hell can say this to me about our land?”

“中国人，他们对我们的政府说，然后政府对我说，‘如果你公开谈论这个边境问题，那么他们就会叫停贸易，他们会叫停一切，’”他说。“谁有胆这样跟我说我们的领土问题呢？”

A Holy Land, Divided

分裂的圣地

The border fence separating Hilsa from Chinese-controlled Tibet cleaves not only nations but centuries. On the Chinese side, modern buildings feature glass atriums, armored vehicles glide along paved roads and floodlights blaze in the night sky. Nepal, by contrast, seems stuck in a bygone era. Ramshackle shelters hunch in the cold. There is not an inch of asphalt or any reliable electricity.

将希尔萨与中国控制的西藏隔开的边界围栏所分割的不仅是国家，还有时间。在中国一侧是有玻璃中庭的现代建筑，装甲车在铺装路面上行驶，泛光灯照亮夜空。相比之下，尼泊尔似乎停滞在过去的时代。破旧的棚屋蜷缩在寒冷中。见不到一寸沥青，也没有可靠的电力供应。

The Chinese side used to be nearly as remote, the seclusion broken only by a flow of pilgrims to Mount Kailash, which is holy to four faiths. But as part of a push into lands populated by ethnic minorities, the Chinese government has seeded Tibet and the neighboring Xinjiang region with new infrastructure.

中国一侧过去也几乎同样偏远，只有前往冈仁波齐峰的朝圣者才会打破这种与世隔绝的状态。冈仁波齐峰是四门宗教的圣地。但作为向少数民族地区推进的一部分，中国政府在西藏和邻近的新疆地区修建了新的基础设施。

Migrants from China’s Han ethnic majority have poured in, including to the Tibetan town of Purang near the border with Hilsa. A new high-altitude airport in Purang, a feat of engineering, serves both civilian and military purposes, part of a transportation network that gives the People’s Liberation Army easy access to border areas. Just 20 miles away is the junction of China, Nepal and India.

汉族移民纷纷涌入，来到包括靠近希尔萨边境的藏族城市普兰。汉族是中国的主要民族。普兰新建的高海拔机场是一项工程壮举，这是一个军民两用机场，属于一个方便中国人民解放军前往边境地区的交通网络的一部分。仅30公里外，就是中国、尼泊尔和印度的边境。

边境尼泊尔一侧仿佛停留在过去，没有柏油路或任何可靠的电力供应。希尔萨一处藏传佛教祭坛。藏人为躲避中国的压迫而逃至尼泊尔，但这条逃难路线后来被中国政府切断。

Beijing considers a large swath of Indian-controlled territory along the Tibet-India boundary to be its own, calling it “South Tibet.” On the border with tiny Bhutan, China claims more disputed land and has built settlements there.

北京将印藏边界沿线的大片印控领土视为自己的领土，称之为“藏南”。在与小国不丹的边界上，中国声称拥有更多有争议的土地，并在那里建立了定居点。

The Chinese focus on Tibet reflects more than geopolitical ambitions. Mr. Xi’s government has overseen a brutal effort to pacify ethnic minorities. High-tech surveillance of Tibetans, and the fortification of the border, has all but severed their escape route into Nepal, where ethnic Tibetans also live.

中国对西藏的关注不仅仅反映出地缘政治野心。习近平政府实施了一场残酷的平定少数民族的努力。运用高科技手段加强对藏人的监视，以及边境防御的强化，几乎切断了他们逃往尼泊尔的路线，而那里也是藏人的聚居地。

Chinese police and border guards, Hilsa residents say, regularly cross over to Nepal without going through normal immigration procedures. They intimidate ethnic Tibetan Nepalis and have captured some of the few Tibetans who succeeded in fleeing to Nepal, said Lhamu Lama, a Humla District village administrator.

生活在希尔萨的民众表示，中国的警察和边防人员经常不经过正常程序就越境进入尼泊尔一侧。他们恐吓尼泊尔藏人，还抓捕了少数成功逃往尼泊尔的藏人，胡姆拉区某村的村长拉姆·拉玛说。

An officer with the Nepali paramilitary police in Hilsa said that last year his commander asked the Chinese to retreat from an area that the 1960s official map indicated was not Chinese land. The Chinese never responded, said the officer, who did not want his name used because he was not authorized to speak to the news media.

希尔萨的一名尼泊尔准军警说，去年，他的指挥官要求中国从上世纪60年代的官方地图显示不是中国领土的地区撤退。这名警官说，中国人从未对此作出回应。由于未被授权接受媒体采访，他要求匿名。

“China is big and powerful so it can do what it wants,” said Pema Wangmu Lama, who was born in Tibet but now lives in Nepal. “Even if Hilsa is swallowed up one day, who would know or care what’s happening here?”

“中国又大又强，所以它可以为所欲为，”出生在西藏、现居尼泊尔的万玛旺木·拉玛说。“即使有一天希尔萨被吞掉了，谁又会知道或关心这里发生了什么？”

在希尔萨卡尔纳利河，中国修建了栅栏以防止藏人进入尼泊尔。