Ever since a prolonged blockade of Nepal’s border crossings with India back in 2015, which left the country short of fuel and medicine for several months, Kathmandu has sought access to chinese trading ports in order to increase their dependence on India. On September 1, 2018 the nepalese government announced that China is now allowing Nepal access to their ports in an effort to eliminate the Indian monopoly on transit by increasing connections with Beijing. There are large pockets of anti-Indian citizens in Nepal who are incredibly supportive about ending the dependency on India because of the hardships ordinary citizens had to overcome because of the blockade. China also has agreed to let Nepal have access to it’s land ports and the roads to them. Currently, overland trade is mainly routed through the east Indian port of Kolkata which takes a maximum of three months but according to Rabi Shankar Sainju, with the new trade ports, Nepali cargo coming from countries like Japan and South Korea could be routed through China, significantly decreasing the cost and time of shipping. Beijing and Kathmandu have also been exploring the idea of building a railway link into Nepal and are coordinating a study for a free trade agreement. However, traders have said that without the proper roads and infrastructure on the Nepalese side of the border, China could face many issues and the project could end up ineffective. Therefore, China is currently making fast inroads into Nepal with aid and investment, challenging India as the dominant outside power. India is still not in support of China’s Belt and Road infrastructure project, as it believes that it is all part of President Xi Jinping’s landmark scheme to connect China to all of Asia and beyond. India is in the process of constructing two railway lines and additional lines are supposedly being planned in order to set back Nepal’s options.