Nepal, Oct. 23 -- Reverberations of the 20-hour visit of China's 'chairman of everything' Xi Jinping will continue to affect the geopolitics of the region for quite a while. The trip was so successful that the visiting dignitary could easily have exclaimed 'veni, vidi, vici' and made his hosts speculate about the true implication of the phrase. He did the next best thing and declared that the China-Nepal relationship had entered the 'strategic partnership' phase.

The terminology is indeed somewhat ambiguous in the field of international relations. Operational collaborations have immediate targets in mind. Tactical relationships are established to achieve short-term objectives. A strategic partnership may have long-term goals that are not...