CHINA-SRI LANKA: SRI LANKA M.P. ACCUSES CHINA OF PUSHING SRI LANKA INTO DEBT TRAP
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The Wall Street Journal (January 18) reported that the deepening debt crisis has left Sri Lanka struggling to
pay for imports and stoked political controversy over Chinese lending to the South Asian nation as part of
Beijing’s global Belt and Road infrastructure program. With around two-thirds of government revenue
already going toward interest payments, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa warned in a speech to Parliament that
the country had insufficient foreign-currency reserves to pay for the imports it needed. Earlier this month,
Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, a member of Parliament in the ruling party, wrote a six-page letter addressed to
Chinese President Xi Jinping accusing Beijing of pushing Sri Lanka into a debt trap to expand China’s sphere
of political influence. He wrote “It is manifestly visible that your friendship with us is no more genuine and
candid, instead you use our relations to achieve your ambition of becoming the world power at the stake of
lives of our innocent people.”
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