China making inroads in India's backyard, wooing Lanka

China has overtaken Japan and India among Sri Lanka's major donors, pumping over USD one billion in aid with no strings attached and is carrying out major development projects there, including a new port in the home town of President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Chinese assistance has increased five fold in the last year and Beijing is now building a highway and developing two power plants in the island country, a top official was quoted as saying by the New York Times.

Sri Lanka also buys a lot weapons from China and its ally Pakistan, the New York Times reported in the context of Colombo scrapping a 2004 ceasefire with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The move has led to a barrage of criticism over alleged human rights abuses and Colombo has lost defence aid from the United States.

But in recent months, Sri Lankan government officials have increasingly cozied up to countries that tend to say little to nothing on allegations of abductions and assaults on press freedom, the report said.

Lanka's foreign secretary Palitha Kohona says that Sri Lanka's "traditional donors," namely, the United States, Canada and the European Union, had "receded into a very distant corner," to be replaced by countries in the East.

He gave three reasons: The new donors are neighbours, they are rich and they conduct themselves differently. "Asians don't go around teaching each other how to behave," he said. "There are ways we deal with each other perhaps a quiet chat, but not wagging the finger," Kohona was quoted as saying.


Kohona says India's contributions had also grown to nearly USD 500 million this year. India is building a coal-fired power plant and Indian companies have been invited to build technology parks and invest in telecommunications.

The picture in Sri Lanka, the report says, is emblematic of a major shift from 20 years ago, when India was the only power center in the region.

"Now come China's artful moves in India's backyard," it says.

While Sri Lanka is free to dismiss Western concerns about human rights these days, the paper says there are still long-range costs it may find itself confronting one day.

"The real Achilles' heel for the government is looming economic trouble, as its war chest expands and inflation reaches double digits."

"And in that, the world matters. For its failure to ratify certain international conventions, Sri Lanka already risks losing trade preferences with the European Union at the end of this year. And, however much China has risen in importance, Europe remains this country's largest trading partner," it adds.

Source: indiatimes.com