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In 2022, Sri Lanka suffered a severe foreign exchange crisis, and the sudden change caused Sri Lanka to face a huge sovereign debt default, which triggered a series of social unrest that forced then-President Rajapaksa to step down.
Source: Guangming.com2022-07-01About "The second half of the year has just begun, and some countries can't hold it anymore"
Among the sovereign debts are two projects related to China, the Colombo International Airport and the Hambantota Port development, which were also a by-product of Sri Lanka's economic crisis.
The two projects were contracted by China, which soon began construction and was completed shortly after, but both projects were built by China, but in the end Sri Lanka chose to hand over the airport and port to India to manage.
Not long after Rajapaksa stepped down, he came to power again in Sri Lanka's presidential election the following year, and immediately visited India. Later, he publicly stated that the previous government's lease of the southern port of Hambantota to China was a grossly wrong choice.
Sri Lanka's sideways behavior of jumping left and right has a faint sense of provocation to China, as a country that helps Sri Lanka, what does Sri Lanka think of China as such a move?
Backstabbing ungrateful Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka defaulted on its sovereign debt, and it would certainly be difficult for it to survive on its own, and in this case, China, as a friendly power, did Sri Lanka not think of seeking China's help?
As a matter of fact, when Sri Lanka had a serious debt crisis, it sent its prime minister to visit China in person to seek China's help.
However, what China did not expect was that when Sri Lanka was down, China was willing to help, and when it got better, Sri Lanka instead handed over the Chinese-funded construction projects to India and Japan, which was undoubtedly a backstab to China.
This year, the Prime Minister of the Sri Lankan government visited China in the hope that China would be willing to lend a helping hand to Sri Lanka, and the statement issued by the Sri Lankan government indicated that China is indeed willing to help Sri Lanka.
In the statement, although it did not say how China will help Sri Lanka solve the debt crisis, some Indian media sources did not know how to get the information: China did not cut the loan, but extended the repayment period of Sri Lanka and adjusted the loan interest rate.
Regardless of whether it is true, as the Indian media said, when Sri Lanka is experiencing a huge debt sovereignty crisis, China's willingness to provide assistance to relieve certain economic pressure on the government is already a friendly help to shoulder the responsibilities of a major country.
However, India, which is not a big deal to watch the excitement, has to smear China at this time. In this regard, India often cooperates with the Western media to hype up the so-called "debt trap" of China.
Source: Reference News2024-05-06 Report on "Hong Kong Media: Hambantota Port Overthrows the "Debt Trap Theory" with Prosperity".
In fact, China, as a good old man, often lends a helping hand to these small countries when they are in economic difficulties, but India, as a country of small people, always smears China with speculation.
After receiving China's assistance, Sri Lanka was not only grateful to China, but was bewitched by India and chose to hand over the airport developed and built by China to India for management.
In addition to the airport, the Sri Lankan side hoped to take back China's rights to operate the Hambanto port through talks, and initially China and Sri Lanka cooperated and agreed on a 99-year lease of the port.
However, less than a decade later, Sri Lanka has reversed itself, and the change of president in Sri Lanka has led to a change in the government's attitude from pro-China to pro-India.
Debt crises are all self-inflicted
Sri Lanka has come to this end largely because of its own problems. When the crisis of sovereign debt default emerged, it was China that helped it, and India who fanned the flames, but it chose to help India rather than China, so it is not entirely self-inflicted on Sri Lanka to be able to do so today.
The transfer of sovereignty over the port of Hambanto to India, and the small country of Sri Lanka would mean a violation of the agreement with China, and the end result would be dozens of times the amount of compensation.
At the beginning, the project cost about hundreds of millions of dollars to build the port, and the most direct loss was the compensation of up to 10 billion US dollars for breach of contract by Sri Lanka, and in the long run, the greater loss is that it will be difficult to achieve cooperation with China in the future.
So what did Sri Lanka get? With India's fanning of the flames, Sri Lanka may have gained India as a partner, but unfortunately, India's partner is also unreliable.
When India regularly exported China's debt traps to Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka seemed to believe it and enshrined India as its superior, and under a series of Indian maneuvers, the Colombo International Airport, which was originally built by China, is now being handed over to Japan for construction.
But soon, it didn't take long for the contractor's Japanese to take over and discover the big hole. Part of the funding for the construction of Colombo International Airport came from the Japanese side, and part of it needed to be paid by the Sri Lankan side.
However, in the face of the economic crisis, how much money Sri Lanka can afford to support Japan, and by the time Japan found out about the problem, the airport was already in the process of being built.
At this time, Japan has no choice but to go back and finish the construction of this airport, but the result may be that it is thankless, not to mention that it cannot make money, and it may even have to do things that make money and make money.
Not long after doing this, Japan found that it was going to lose money, so it was naturally reluctant to continue to build, and Japan told the Sri Lankan side: the funds are not in place, the airport cannot be built, obviously, Japan is not a fool like Sri Lanka.
At this time, Sri Lanka suddenly woke up and finally understood the benefits of China, if the airport was handed over to China to build, not to mention the issue of funding, with China's ability and style, it would definitely build the airport.
There is a good saying, if you want to get rich, you must first build roads. Once the international airport is officially completed, Sri Lanka will be able to reap the benefits of building it far more than the cost of construction, which may be a rare turnaround.
As it has done before, China's willingness to adjust the interest rate on loans and extend the repayment date will undoubtedly give Sri Lanka room for new capital adjustments, so that funds for the construction of the airport will be available.
However, Sri Lanka would rather choose to listen to India's demagogy than see China's sincere help, and it can be said that Sri Lanka is to blame.
If Sri Lanka wants to turn around against the headwinds, it should now think about how to quickly return to the honeymoon period with China and continue to seek help from China.