Sri Lankan poll upset a blow to China’s Indian Ocean plans
Saturday, 10 January 2015 03:12
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Bloomberg: Life just got tougher for China’s diplomats in Sri Lanka.
Mahinda Rajapaksa, who tightened ties with China during his decade-long rule, conceded defeat today in Sri Lanka’s closely-fought presidential election. His successor Maithripala Sirisena used his campaign to criticise the island nation’s increasing economic dependence on China.
“In public, Beijing will likely express willingness to establish good relations with the new Government,” said Zhang Guihong, a professor at the Institute of International Studies at the Shanghai-based Fudan University. “Privately, its diplomatic missions and officials in Colombo will get busy and start mingling with new people.”
The result, considered improbable just two months ago, risks disrupting President Xi Jinping’s moves to increase China’s presence in the Indian Ocean. China has invested heavily in Sri Lanka over the past decade and supported Rajapaksa in the face of US-led inquiries into human rights abuses allegedly committed during the end of a 26-year civil war.
Sirisena, who deserted Rajapaksa in November to lead the opposition bloc, has promised to establish “equal relations” between China, India, Pakistan and Japan.
“China certainly will not have the uncritical support of the Sri Lankan Government that it had under Rajapaksa,” said National Peace Council of Sri Lanka Executive Director Jehan Perera a group that promotes ethnic reconciliation.
Biggest investor
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei congratulated Sirisena on his win, according to Xinhua News Agency. Beijing is willing to work with Colombo to take their partnership “to a new height,” it reported.
Under Rajapaksa, China became the island’s top investor, biggest government lender and second-biggest trading partner. Xi visited Sri Lanka last year to promote his so-called Silk Road trade route rejuvenation project, which is backed by a $ 40 billion infrastructure fund and includes a maritime route encompassing the island.
Chinese government lending to Sri Lanka increased 50-fold over the past decade to $ 490 million in 2012, more than double the combined amount from the US as well as allied governments and lending agencies. Growing economic ties have spurred military cooperation: China last year sent submarines twice to dock in the capital Colombo, triggering protests from India.
On the campaign trail, Sirisena lambasted projects built with credit from foreign countries, saying they were ensnaring Sri Lanka in a “debt trap”. He threatened to scrap a Chinese-backed $ 1.4 billion plan to build a city roughly the size of Monaco on reclaimed land off Colombo, which would be Sri Lanka’s largest foreign investment to date.
China strength
Even so, it remains to be seen how strongly Sirisena will move against China, an economy more than 100 times bigger.
“Sirisena is promising to put the relationship on a more balanced footing,” said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Colombo-based Centre for Policy Alternatives. “But no one’s really going to kick them out.”
