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.

中國的柵欄在喜馬拉雅山上劃出一道溝壑，用鐵絲網和水泥牆將西藏和尼泊爾隔開。在這個地球上最偏僻的地方之一，中國的安保攝像頭與守衛塔上的武裝哨兵一起進行著持續監視。

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.

在青藏高原之巔，中國人在一處山坡上刻了一條180米長的標語：「中國共產黨萬歲」，這些文字從太空都可以看到。

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.

邊界另一側是尼泊爾的胡姆拉區，那裡的居民們認為，沿著這條偏僻的邊境線，中國正在幾處蠶食尼泊爾的領土。

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.

尼泊爾人還有其他的不滿。他們說，中國安全部隊向尼泊爾藏人施壓，禁止他們在邊境附近的尼泊爾村莊展示流亡藏人精神領袖達賴喇嘛的形象。隨著最近中國壁壘和其他防禦措施的增加，一個民族也被分裂。數以千計的藏人曾經為了躲避中國政府的鎮壓而逃往尼泊爾，但現在這種現象幾乎全部消失了。

Yet Nepal’s leaders have refused to acknowledge China’s imprints on their country. Ideologically and economically tied to China, successive Nepali governments have ignored a 2021 fact-finding report that detailed various border abuses in Humla.

然而，尼泊爾領導人拒絕承認中國對他們的影響。尼泊爾歷屆政府在意識型態和經濟上都與中國有千絲萬縷的聯繫，它無視2021年的一份實況調查報告，該報告詳細描述了在胡姆拉發生的各種邊境侵權行為。

“This is the new Great Wall of China,” said Jeevan Bahadur Shahi, the former provincial chief minister of the area. “But they don’t want us to see it.”

「這是中國的新長城，」該地區前首席部長吉萬·巴哈杜爾·沙希說。「但他們不想讓我們看到。」

China’s fencing along the edge of Nepal’s Humla District is just one segment of a fortification network thousands of miles long that Xi Jinping’s government has built to reinforce remote reaches, control rebellious populations and, in some cases, push into territory that other nations consider their own.

中國在尼泊爾胡姆拉地區邊緣修建的柵欄只是數千公里防禦工事網路的一部分。習近平政府修建這一網路目的是加強偏遠地區的防禦，控制叛亂人口，在有些地方還會向其他國家認為屬於自己的領土推進。

The fortification building spree, accelerated during Covid and backed by dozens of new border settlements, is imposing Beijing’s Panopticon security state on far-flung areas. It is also placing intense pressure on China’s poorer, weaker neighbors.

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.

中國與14個國家接壤。在發展成為世界第二大經濟體的過程中，中國廣闊的陸地和海上邊界基本上保持了和平。但在習近平任內，北京正在重新劃定其領土界限，導致一些摩擦和直接的衝突。

“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.

華盛頓戰略與國際研究中心中國實力項目研究員賀博然(Brian Hart)說，「在習近平領導下，中國在周邊爭議地區加大了領土主張的力度。」

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.

單獨來看，中國在邊界上的每一次行動——修築邊境工事、爭奪領土、進入爭議地區——似乎幅度都不大。但累積的結果令人吃驚。

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.

在其東部海域附近國際公認的菲律賓水域，中國把一座珊瑚礁變成了軍事基地。在遙遠的西部陸地邊界，中國人民解放軍已經推進到與南亞鄰國交界的山區。

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名印度和中國士兵在高原地區的肉搏戰中喪生，這兩個國家都是持核國。兩年後，另一場邊境衝突造成更多士兵受傷。

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.”

之所以美國國防部在《2023年中國軍力報告》中稱中國「在印太地區採取了更加危險、強制性和挑釁性的行動」， 中國的邊境建設是一個重要原因。

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.

安全形勢的變化正在引起全球大國的注意，並導致新的聯盟。像尼泊爾這樣與中國有聯繫的小國是脆弱的，即使它們因為擔心失去北京的經濟支持而淡化或否認邊界爭端。

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

「像尼泊爾這樣的弱國，」賀博然說，「由於與中國的實力懸殊面臨著巨大的壓力。」

“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.

「如果中國不為侵犯其最弱小的鄰國而付出代價，北京就會更加有恃無恐地威脅該地區的國家，」他還說

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.

尼泊爾外交部長阿爾祖·拉納·德烏巴在接受《紐約時報》採訪時表示，她沒有收到關於與西藏接壤邊界問題的投訴，政府的重點更多地放在與印度接壤的南部邊界，那裡有更多尼泊爾人居住。

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

 「我們並沒有認真考慮過關注北部邊境，至少我沒有，」她說。

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.

從胡姆拉地區的首府西米科特到邊境村莊希爾薩的距離是48公里。但開車前往這個與西藏接壤的邊境地區需要在崎嶇坎��的岩石地形上顛簸10多個小時。胡姆拉與尼泊爾的國家公路網並不相連。汽車和重型機械必須空運過來。

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.

胡姆拉的喜馬拉雅山口海拔近4800米。致命的高原反應有可能會突然出現。三年前，一個由尼泊爾內政部官員、政府測量員和警察組成的實況調查團的成員來到了這個尼泊爾最貧窮、最不發達的地區。

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.

他們拿著一張上世紀60年代尼泊爾和中國正式達成邊界協議時的地圖，著手調查官方地圖是否與實際情況有出入。調查團成員長途跋涉到偏遠的界碑。他們與氂牛牧民和藏傳佛教僧侶聊天。

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.

最終，他們向尼泊爾內閣提交了報告。然後報告就消失了。公眾無法看到這份報告。幾名知情人士說，就連高級官員和政界人士也被拒絕翻閱。

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.

保密的面紗延伸到了調查團攜帶的那份歷史地圖上。調查部門的員工說，他們被警告，分享這幅地圖可能構成洩密——對於一幅在美國檔案中可以找到的地圖來說，這樣的警告顯得很奇怪。

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.

時報獲得的一份報告副本顯示，政府代表團記錄了中國的一系列小規模邊境侵權行為。報告中還貫穿著對中國更宏大的地緣政治意圖的擔憂，以及對惹惱尼泊爾的這個強大鄰國的恐懼。

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.

尼泊爾地處內陸，是一個人口3000萬的欠發達小國。該國政府由一名共產黨人領導，他在今年取代前毛派反叛分子出任總理。在意識型態和經濟上，尼泊爾嚴重傾向於中國，儘管它仍在鄰國印度的影響範圍內。

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.

報告稱，中國在希爾薩及其周圍的幾個地方修建了防禦工事和其他基礎設施，包括監控攝像頭，這些設施要麼在尼泊爾境內，要麼在兩國之間的緩衝區內，根據雙方的協議，兩國不得在緩衝區內進行建設。報導指出，中國的邊防人員佔領了一條從卡爾納利河引水的尼泊爾灌溉渠，但在尼泊爾的檢查團到訪時，中國人撤退了。

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.

報告稱，中國軍隊非法阻止居住在尼泊爾境內靠近兩國邊界的藏民放牧以及參加宗教活動。這些限制活動將習近平在西藏的鎮壓運動延伸到了其統轄範圍之外。

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.

該報告指出，尼泊爾和中國迫切需要解決各種邊界爭端，但自2006年以來，包括聯合檢查在內的解決邊界問題的雙邊機制一直停滯不前。

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

擔任尼泊爾外長至今年3月的N·P·薩烏德在接受《紐約時報》採訪時表示，雙邊「經常舉行邊境會議」。

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.

但薩烏德的一名副手告訴時報，邊境檢查已經有17年多沒有進行過了。當被問及此事時，薩烏德修改了他的說法。

“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.”

「我可以告訴你的是，聯合檢查小組很快就會開展工作，」他說。「在最終敲定之前，我無法告訴你確切的時間。」

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

薩烏德表示，他不知道為什麼胡姆拉報告沒有公開。

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

「一個國家的邊界並不屬於祕密問題，」他說。

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

薩烏德說，在聯合檢查重新開始之前，尼泊爾無法對這份報告的真實性做出任何判斷。

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

「除非我們對報告內容進行了確認，」他說，「不然我們怎麼能在國際上向另一個國家提出這個問題呢？

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

接替薩烏德擔任外長的德烏帕表示，她不清楚該報告的內容，以及中方在邊界附近設置柵欄的情況。

The Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu declined to comment.

中國駐加德滿都大使館拒絕置評。

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.”

中國政府表示，它是維護該地區和平的力量。去年，國家民委主任潘岳在黨報《人民日報》上發文，稱中國「從沒有向外征服擴張，從沒有殖民統治周邊國家」。

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.

歷史與這種國家神話的編造存在衝突。1979年，中國軍隊短暫入侵了一度被中國控制了千年的越南。自1949年中華人民共和國成立以來，中國和印度打了兩次邊境戰爭。

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長的沙希說，他宣傳中國邊境侵犯的努力一直面臨很大阻力。

“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?”

「中國人，他們對我們的政府說，然後政府對我說，『如果你公開談論這個邊境問題，那麼他們就會叫停貿易，他們會叫停一切，』」他說。「誰有膽這樣跟我說我們的領土問題呢？」

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.

將希爾薩與中國控制的西藏隔開的邊界圍欄所分割的不僅是國家，還有時間。在中國一側是有玻璃中庭的現代建築，裝甲車在鋪裝路面上行駛，泛光燈照亮夜空。相比之下，尼泊爾似乎停滯在過去的時代。破舊的棚屋蜷縮在寒冷中。見不到一寸瀝青，也沒有可靠的電力供應。

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.

中國一側過去也幾乎同樣偏遠，只有前往岡仁波齊峰的朝聖者才會打破這種與世隔絕的狀態。岡仁波齊峰是四門宗教的聖地。但作為向少數民族地區推進的一部分，中國政府在西藏和鄰近的新疆地區修建了新的基礎設施。

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.

漢族移民紛紛湧入，來到包括靠近希爾薩邊境的藏族城市普蘭。漢族是中國的主要民族。普蘭新建的高海拔機場是一項工程壯舉，這是一個軍民兩用機場，屬於一個方便中國人民解放軍前往邊境地區的交通網路的一部分。僅30公里外，就是中國、尼泊爾和印度的邊境。

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.

北京將印藏邊界沿線的大片印控領土視為自己的領土，稱之為「藏南」。在與小國不丹的邊界上，中國聲稱擁有更多有爭議的土地，並在那裡建立了定居點。

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.

中國對西藏的關注不僅僅反映出地緣政治野心。習近平政府實施了一場殘酷的平定少數民族的努力。運用高科技手段加強對藏人的監視，以及邊境防禦的強化，幾乎切斷了他們逃往尼泊爾的路線，而那裡也是藏人的聚居地。

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.

生活在希爾薩的民眾表示，中國的警察和邊防人員經常不經過正常程序就越境進入尼泊爾一側。他們恐嚇尼泊爾藏人，還抓捕了少數成功逃往尼泊爾的藏人，胡姆拉區某村的村長拉姆·拉瑪說。

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.

希爾薩的一名尼泊爾准軍警說，去年，他的指揮官要求中國從上世紀60年代的官方地圖顯示不是中國領土的地區撤退。這名警官說，中國人從未對此作出回應。由於未被授權接受媒體採訪，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?”

「中國又大又強，所以它可以為所欲為，」出生在西藏、現居尼泊爾的萬瑪旺木·拉瑪說。「即使有一天希爾薩被吞掉了，誰又會知道或關心這裡發生了什麼？」