Chapter Overview
Nepal and China share centuries of civilizational and economic ties, yet the contemporary economic relationship is strikingly asymmetric. This introduction sets out the study’s central argument: that the gap between Nepal’s stated ambitions and its lived economic realities with China is not primarily a product of geopolitical constraint, but of institutional deficits on Nepal’s own side. It maps the three sectors examined, situates the study within the existing literature, and describes the research design.
