Jealousy over a deadly Islamic State (ISIS) bombing last year helped pave the way for a return to power for Sri Lanka’s influential Rajapaksa brothers, two men who have forged a close relationship with China despite attempts by the United States to include the People’s Republic in the region.
For a decade, President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defense Minister Gotabaya Rajapaksa dominated Sri Lankan politics, gaining popularity with a decisive victory over the rebel group Tamil Tigers. The brothers were fired after elections in 2015 brought a change in government. But the Easter Sundays of 2019, which killed more than 260, diminished the South Asian island nation, which lies at the southern tip of India in the strategically important Indian Ocean.
Shame over the perceived negligence on the part of the standing government caused a nationalist wave that put Gotabaya Rajapaksa to a victory in the elections in November last year. He took office earlier this month.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa moved quickly to appoint his brother as prime minister, reinstating his family’s grip on Sri Lanka. That consolidation of power seems to lead to an acceleration and expansion of the country’s growing relationship with China, which has thrown billions of dollars in infrastructural aspirations, from a theater for the performing arts to a strategic port in the strategically located island. Sri Lanka is an important part of Beijing’s Global Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), one of its “String of Pearls” that connects Chinese projects across the Indian Ocean from Asia to Africa.
Get your unlimited Newsweek trial>
But Washington has shouted fiercely, considering these movements as those of a geopolitical competitor gaining influence in a very important maritime corridor at the expense of host nations.
“We have consistently expressed our concern about the predatory lending practices of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in many countries, which threaten to cripple developing countries already suffering from heavy debt and the impact of the pandemic on their economies. , “said a State Department spokesman Newsweek.
“Beijing is issuing loans through opaque, state-sponsored schemes that meet international standards of transparency and debt sustainability, often to pay for projects of dubious economic value built by Chinese companies,” the spokesman said. “In doing so, the PRC undermines the competitiveness of the local private sector and promotes sustainable development in the places where it is most needed.”
The spokesman said Newsweek that the state departments instead have encouraged countries such as Sri Lanka “to prioritize an alternative approach – a transparent, driven business, subsidy and business model of the private sector – with a proven track record of delivering sustainable growth, reducing poverty, and promoting technological innovation. “
Get your unlimited Newsweek trial>
ISHARA S. KODIKARA / AFP / Getty Images
When confronted with criticism of the BRI during his first trip to India in February, Mahinda Rajapaksa told the Hindustan Times that Sri Lanka had benefited from the BRI.
“In fact, let me remind you,” Rajapaksa said, “our external debt to China is only 12 percent of our total external debt, and we are not defaulting. We have the money we use from their names to build infrastructure.”
Reached for comment, the Chinese embassy in Washington referred Newsweek to the response of spokesman Zhao Lijian at the moment.
“China and Sri Lanka share a strategic cooperative partnership based on sincere mutual assistance and lasting friendship,” Zhao told a news conference in a statement sent to Newsweek. “Based on the needs of Sri Lanka, China is offering loans to build its infrastructure and other major domestic projects concerning the existence of people.”
Zhao claimed that Beijing was concerned about the sustainability of debt of recipient countries as the will of its governments. He said Chinese funding has helped governments overcome obstacles in building new infrastructure and fostering independent development.
The Colombo Embassy in Washington refused Newsweekhis request for comment. As far as the people of Sri Lanka are concerned, both important benefits and substantial concerns have arisen.
“Sri Lanka is seen as one of the vital hubs along China’s Belt and Road Initiative,” said Yasiru Ranaraja, a PhD student at the University of Kelaniya, University of Kelaniya, of the non-governmental Belt & Road Initiative Sri Lanka organization Newsweek. “Because of that fact, China loves investing in Sri Lanka. Chinese technology, talents, rich experience, knowledge will have a great opportunity to profit if Sri Lanka cooperates for a shared vision.
“However, some of the BRI projects in Sri Lanka are being criticized for a lack of transparency and economic sustainability,” he added, noting the case of insufficient revenue generated by the Hambantota port which is the source of controversy in the land remains.
While Ranaraja noted that the motive for Chinese investment was “largely to improve connectivity to increase global economic shifts,” he acknowledged that “it could serve to strengthen China’s economic and security interests as well.” He specifically referred to Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s appointment of former Navy Commander Admiral Jayanath Colombage as a senior diplomat as to how “the Rajapaksa regime is targeting the growing geopolitical grip of the Indian Ocean.”
LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI / AFP / Getty Images
The US objections to the BRI link with Sri Lanka are part of its strategic effort to counteract the growing regional influence of China in South Asia, which it is taking over through its economic empire and the potential for projection of the military power that has already established it further east in the South China Sea. The American approach, called a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” encompasses most central Australia and Japan. India completes the triumvirate while playing an increasingly important part in the coalition. The leadership has a long history with Sri Lanka under the Rajapaksas, and it is currently engaged in a deadly border election with China that has highlighted the conflicting spheres of influence in Asia.
While Ranaraja predicted that Sri Lanka would continue to exert all major forces of the region, including the US and India, he also expected that “China’s engagement with Sri Lanka will increase [the Rajapaksa government] is considered a favorable regime for China. “
Newsweek recently reported on how the growing alliance between US and India is straining relations with Pakistan, another close partner of China in South Asia. Now Washington and its regional partners have to contend with the prospect of closer ties between Beijing and Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital.
“Our policy is to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific Ocean in which all the diversity of the regions and their people can live and flourish in peace,” the State Department spokesman said. Newsweek. “Our policy defends a free and open Indo-Pacific in which countries are secure in their sovereignty and equal in their shared use of the global commons. No hegemonic power dominates others in a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
