Strategic Space NBR | Galen Murton
Chinese infrastructure investment and development in Nepal are critical to the People’s Republic of China’s territorial integrity and strategically extend the Chinese Communist Party’s power into sensitive South Asian spaces. A grounded geographic review reveals a historical link between border resolutions and Chinese-facilitated infrastructure, an ongoing "corridorization" of Nepal, and persistent border oscillations challenging local mobility while escaping PRC controls. Nepal established diplomatic relations with China in 1955, leading to border demarcation and early "infrastructural relations" like the 1961 China-Nepal Highway Construction Agreement. From 2000-2020, transborder infrastructure development and foreign direct investment rapidly scaled up under the Belt and Road Initiative, with Chinese FDI surpassing Indian FDI in 2014. Following the 2015 earthquakes, Beijing provided unprecedented humanitarian aid and financial commitments. A 2015–16 Indian-backed blockade at Nepal’s southern border prompted China to deliver emergency fuel, marking a significant geopolitical realignment for Nepal, India, and China.
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