Today, the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka has long become a key project, and it is also the focus of international public opinion, but such an excellent port that closely connects the East and the West has different voices in international public opinion.
Western media continue to disparage the port as "China's debt trap for small countries", and many media, including Sri Lanka's own media, believe that this can promote Sri Lanka's economic development and maintain good relations between China and Sri Lanka.
Hambantota Port Rental Background
As for why Sri Lanka is considering leasing ports, it must be closely related to their own political and economic ecology, and in the context of international relations in the 21st century, it is impossible for any external country to obtain the right to use ports through coercive force.
Therefore, many Western politicians are determined to block China, without considering the cause and effect of this matter, but through one of these steps, speculating about China.
It started in 2015.
Earlier that year, Sri Lanka held a general election in which co-opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena was elected the country's new president.
For countless voters, they certainly hope that the new president will fulfill his campaign promises to put this small country on the fast track of economic development and achieve the goal of integrating with a modern country at an early date.
The new president naturally knows the country's predicament, which will have a meagre 4.8% economic growth rate and is stable all year round.
Not to mention other developed regions, even in Asia, Sri Lanka's economic growth rate is the bottom.
The economy is not growing, but Sri Lanka's debt borrowing to advance its undertakings is steadily rising, and when the new president took office, interest on debt service increased by $4.7 billion, and overall external debt remained a staggering $44.8 billion.
For this small country, such a situation is indeed not optimistic.
Under the dilemma, Sri Lanka also has to find ways to break through, but it seems that it is an impossible way to vigorously develop productive forces in a short period of time, and can only focus on natural resources.
In 2016, Sri Lanka launched the Kandy-Colombo-Hambantota Economic Corridor, a time-consuming and costly economic infrastructure construction project that can be divided into five separate projects, including the Hambantota Economic Development Project.
In other words, the development goals are set by Sri Lanka itself, and they use three major ports as the center, except for Hambantota Port, which is to build industrial parks, the other two are to build megacities and tourist resorts.
With such a huge project, it is obviously unrealistic for Sri Lanka to pay for construction out of its own pocket, so they have to attract investment.
In terms of the Hambantota economic development project, Sri Lanka is preparing to build industrial zones such as oil refineries and power plants, and in order to implement the project as soon as possible, the Sri Lankan government specially went to China for negotiations.
After close communication between the two sides, the China-Sri Lanka Industrial Park was established in this context, and the groundbreaking ceremony was also held in Hambantota.
After the project was made, Sri Lankan government officials were most pleased, and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe made a special trip to the groundbreaking ceremony to deliver a speech, highlighting China's investment and assistance to Hambantota.
At that time, the two sides also had a common vision: in the next 3 to 5 years, China will increase investment to help Sri Lanka become a shipping center and financial center in South Asia and even the world, and realize Sri Lanka's economic take-off.
With the infusion of Chinese funds, the changes in the Hambantota area can also be seen directly: a small fishing village that used to be desolate began to build an industrial zone in a very short time, and it will surely become a modern city in the future.
Combined with Sri Lanka's national dream, they want to become the new economic center of the entire Indian Ocean, after all, the 30-year turmoil in the country has just ended, it is the golden age to embrace change, they have seen the appearance of developed countries and rapidly developing countries, and they are not far behind.
If they think about the long-term future, they hope to create a "five-center" economy where aviation, shipping, energy, commerce and knowledge develop together.
However, the ideal is very full after all, but there are still a bunch of problems that have not been solved in reality, especially the problem of domestic people's perception and the remnants of civil unrest.
At the end of 2016, the Sri Lankan government and Chinese companies began to sign an agreement to lease 80% of the shares of Hambantota Port to China Merchants Port Holdings Co., Ltd. for 99 years, which caused some controversy in Hambantota Port.
On December 12, protesters formed by a group of port temporary workers began their own actions, and even some members of the Sri Lankan Navy participated.
Their demands are simpler: they fear that they will lose their jobs if the agreement is signed.
As the protests intensified, there were signs of escalation: some workers damaged the port administration building and there were arrests on the sea.
Sri Lanka's local media also criticized the violent protests, and the Island newspaper said that the workers who created the chaos forgot the job opportunities that were transferred from the port of Colombo.
A military spokesman also said: "Although there have been port strikes in Sri Lanka in the past, there has never been such a bad incident as a ship arrest, which is completely a piracy." ”
However, these events were at best a minor episode and did not break Sri Lanka's resolve.
No matter what happens at home, Sri Lanka, as a credible government, has to pay off a lot of loans, and under increasing pressure, the best partner they can think of is China.
In July 2017, the two parties signed an agreement in the PPP mode, handing over most of the operation rights of the port to China Merchants Port Holdings Co., Ltd.
First, because the company is a listed company and has strong strength; Second, Sri Lanka considers that this can establish a long-term cooperative relationship with China.
Of course, apart from China, no major country seems willing to provide Sri Lanka with such ample funding, their neighbors ignore it, and the multilateral development banks also pretend to see nothing, and only China comes up with the money when it matters.
For China, the original intention is important, but the world's view of relevant events is also important, which is inevitable in the era of economic globalization.
Then the best way is to make the project open and transparent, and not give others the opportunity to chew the root of the tongue.
Quarrels should not have happened
The 99-year contract between the two parties is, to put it bluntly, China believes in the future of Sri Lanka's construction and tries to achieve a win-win situation.
According to the relevant agreement, when the agreement reaches 80 years, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority can purchase the shares held by China Merchants Port in HIPG for US$1; By the end of '99, China Merchants Port will hand over all HIGG and HIPS equity to the Sri Lankan government and Sri Lanka Ports Authority.
When the contract is executed, the investment of China Merchants Port will also be in place in three times.
The exchanges between the two sides have come to this point, but the problem arises: China is willing, Sri Lanka is willing, but those Western countries are not happy.
In 2018, when US Vice President Mike Pence appeared at Hudson College, he specifically mentioned this matter, saying:
"Look at Sri Lanka, where they borrowed huge amounts of debt to allow Chinese state-owned enterprises to build ports of questionable commercial value, and Sri Lanka was unable to repay the loans, so it was forced to hand over the port to China, which will soon become China's growing blue-water naval forward base."
According to Pence, the biggest exposure point of this matter is the sensitive term "naval forward base".
But if you think about it, you can also find that Pence's relevant statement is completely unreliable.
In terms of interests, Hambantota can promote China's overseas interests, and it must be based on successful operations.
The military base is exclusive, and China Merchants Port has a concession, but if foreign warships come to the port, whether they can enter depends on the meaning of Sri Lanka.
It's impossible for Pence not to know an example: In April 2018, the guided-missile destroyer DD-108 of the Japanese Navy's Self-Defense Force docked at Hambantota for resupply, the first foreign warship to resupply in Hambantota port.
On the contrary, none of China's warships docked in the port of Hambantota, or even came.
In addition, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Neil Wickremesinghe also emphasized in a statement to the National Assembly in 2018 that the agreement signed between the Sri Lankan government and Chinese companies includes the clause that "Hambantota Port will not be used for any military operations".
This can also show that the point of public opinion in Western countries attacking China has long been predicted by China.
Whether it is China or Sri Lanka, the consideration is long-term economic benefits, China is also a typical snow, if there is no Chinese capital, then whether the port can operate is still unknown, at that time did not see how generous the United States was.
A similar question has been raised: If Japanese cargo ships are currently the largest users of Hambantota port, why have Chinese companies become the largest investors in the absence of military deployment considerations?
This question still has to be answered by China Merchants Port itself, the relevant person in charge said:
"Before taking over Hambantota Port, China Merchants Port has been operating in Sri Lanka for many years and has accumulated considerable experience, especially after taking over the Colombo International Container Terminal in 2013, it quickly entered a profitable model, in addition, the company is positive about operating port projects and the future development of Sri Lanka, and believes that the potential commercial value cannot be underestimated."
Of course, the national level is also constantly promoting domestic enterprises to "go global", which is also another consideration.
It is easy to be raised to the level of national games by foreign media, which is actually related to the large volume of China Merchants Port.
The construction of industrial parks has to have a large amount of funds, which is a goal that is difficult for ordinary enterprises to complete, because combined with supporting construction, funds must be used to build infrastructure for roads, railways, power plants and other projects, and also have to cooperate with investment attraction in South Asia, the Middle East and other countries and regions.
Therefore, this has to be a long-term development project, with speed and scale in mind.
The staff of China Merchants Port also said: "It is not advisable to rush to achieve results, overdevelopment is also not good, we must consider the long-term development of Hambantota Port, if it is not done well, then it may catch the credibility of the country, so we must do everything well." ”
Even if the explanation is quite clear, there are still many foreign media criticizing China, of course, people who pretend to sleep can never wake up.
The New York Times also ran an article accusing Chinese companies of "ignoring feasibility studies and sticking to the ground," words that even former Sri Lankan President Japaksa could not listen to.
He also issued a special statement to denounce that Prologis, Denmark's largest engineering consulting company, and SNC, Canada's largest engineering consulting company, came to Sri Lanka to study the feasibility of port projects as early as the beginning of the 21st century, and the assessment results of the Hambantota port were very positive.
China Merchants Port has also had a comprehensive understanding of the situation of Hambantota Port, and has been operating locally for many years, so it naturally knows the market better than those foreign media.
There are many examples of cities and ports relying on each other, but very few jumping up in a very rapid situation, and there is really such a living example in China, and that is Shenzhen.
Before the 80s of the 20th century, Shenzhen was still a small fishing village, and Comrade Deng Xiaoping drew circles during his southern tour, and Shenzhen was one of them.
Shenzhen first introduced Li Ka-shing and Hutchison Whampoa, and they jointly established Yantian Port in Shenzhen, and then Shenzhen introduced China Merchants Group again, where two port areas, Chiwan and Shekou, began, and Shenzhen's take-off began.
In addition, China uses a small proportion of the world's water resources and arable land to produce nearly half of the world's total production of major industrial products, many of which can be ranked first in the world, thanks to the miracle since the reform and opening up.
Sri Lanka also sees the whole process in mind, and they are very fond of the construction model of Shenzhen Port, so they also hope to build the Hambantota Port and copy the "Chinese model".
In the short term, the construction of the port can also stimulate local employment, which is a good thing.
If the Hambantota port is successful, it is very likely to become a free trade zone, expand the economy to Africa and the Middle East through free trade, and then realize Sri Lanka's economic take-off.
From this point of view, the equity transfer of Hambantota Port is indeed of great historical significance and a major model for achieving a win-win situation.
reference
Hambantota Port: Does the "debt trap" exist World Knowledge
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Author: Li Li
EDIT: As it is