https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/china-bags-another-lucrative-port-deal-in-sri-lanka
Sri Lanka has been the focus of a struggle between China and
Washington for many years. India is also a player more or less serving or
echoing the interests of the United States. India has an interest due to the
large island's proximity and the fact that the Hindu Tamil people (a minority
in Sri Lanka) have a significant population in India itself. For China and the
United States, the interests are economic and strategic.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa is known to be pro-China and
this was one of the reasons he was forced out as president in 2015. After
several years of ineffective rule, Rajapaksa returned to power in 2019 as prime
minister under his brother's presidency. Sri Lanka's already suffering economy
has taken a beating during the Covid era and 2021 has seen the nation slip into
crisis mode.
The Anti-China media campaign makes much of the 'debt-trap
diplomacy' in which the China-funded port along with other infrastructure
projects (all related to the BRI or Belt and Road Initiative) has given Beijing
considerable leverage in Colombo, and now basically the port is now under their
control.
Again, the West and in particular the United States has been
doing this sort of thing for decades. Through a variety of diplomatic and
financial mechanisms and institutions, debt is utilised to extract concessions
– trade, resources, infrastructure contracts, military bases, UN votes, and in
some cases national participation in America's wars (to give them an
'international' credibility) and the like. The US toolbox is impressive to say
the least.
The US looked as if it was going to 'win over' Sri Lanka toward
the end of the Obama administration. It's interesting to note that (once again)
after the Trump era, one could say that China's 'victory' has proven decisive. His
cult fails to understand how much he reduced America's standing and created a
vacuum filled in many cases by China – and thus strengthened its hand.
American decline is nothing for Christians to lament, it's
simply ironic given how the people (including many deceived Christians) that
put their faith in America's greatness being restored by Trump, actually put
the one man in office that damaged and reduced America's international status.
Sri Lanka is now solidly in the China camp and just what this
will mean for India and the maritime and naval-related issues in the vital
corridor that connects the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean – is anyone's
guess. But you can be sure the Washington Establishment is fuming at being
forced to chalk up another loss.
It is therefore also noteworthy that reports have emerged
that US representatives are meeting with Sri Lanka's Tamil minority. Washington
is concerned about justice and human rights, or so the narrative goes. The
Tamils fought a long and destructive civil war against the Sinhalese-led
government from 1983-2009. Current Prime Minister Rajapaksa was president at
the time of their defeat and he (along with his brother) played a key role in
the war's brutal endgame and the final defeat of the LTTE (Tamil Tigers). It
was certainly a slaughter. War crimes were committed and no one was held to
account. After more than a decade, the United States is suddenly interested.
The timing is suspicious to say the least.
It would seem that in the face of a geopolitical defeat, Washington
is determined to make trouble wherever it can.
See also:
https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2016/01/sri-lanka-pawn-in-asian-theatre-of-new.html
https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2017/02/another-defector-from-us-pivot-to-asia.html
https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2019/07/terrorist-timing-in-turkey-and-sri-lanka.html
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