In September 2023, the Centre for Social Innovation and Foreign Policy (CESIF) published a research report on “China’s Emergence in Nepal’s Infrastructure: Status, Issues, and Challenges.” In the first-of-its-kind research, Mulmi et. al. laid a foundation on how China’s engagement in Nepal’s infrastructure sector began and what it has evolved to over the years. Investigating several infrastructure projects with China’s involvement, the report uncovered a number of key patterns in China’s expanding infrastructure engagement in Nepal since 2008. The report highlighted that large infrastructure projects with China’s involvement, such as the Pokhara International Airport (PIA), Gautam Buddha International Airport (GBIA), and Kathmandu Ring Road expansion phase I, feature procurement irregularities, opaque conditionalities, controversies, and diplomatic meddling and politicization. The report also made a comparative analysis of China’s infrastructure engagement in Nepal vis-à-vis Japan and India as well as that of China in South Asia.