Kuala Lampur, Sept. 10 -- When Nepal's Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli of the Communist Party tendered his resignation under the weight of social upheaval and political infighting, the tremors were not just confined to Kathmandu.

They resonated across the Himalayan arc and deep into Beijing's corridors of power. For Nepal, the resignation was a familiar dance of fragile coalitions unravelling. For China, however, it was a sobering reminder that political instability in the Himalaya is not a distant curiosity - it is an existential concern.

The Himalaya, often romanticised as the "roof of the world," is more than a natural barrier separating South Asia from Tibet.

It is a geopolitical hinge that links China's security, India's r...