News Analysis On March 26, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced a new study to link Nepal’s electricity grid to China. This, despite Nepal’s closer economic proximity to India and the Himalayan mountains separating Nepal’s economic areas from China. China’s study is a thin mimicry of $500 million in U.S. funding through the Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Nepal Compact, “designed to improve availability of electricity and increase road maintenance to advance connectivity, drive growth, and lay a strong foundation for new investments.” Beijing is also dangling a proposed railway between China and Nepal that would traverse snowy plateaus and burrow under mountain ranges. The plan is unviable, except for Beijing, which would profit financially from the massive construction contracts and diplomatically from tying Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, ever closer to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) through debt and trade. But Nepal is not falling for this latest iteration of Beijing’s debt trap. …