More on extricating SL from China’s grip

At first my reaction in reading SAK’s letter was to ignore without wasting my time and energy to substantiate what I have written on ‘Chinese tried to gain a foot-hold in the affairs of a country’, as he has admitted that he had not read my earlier letter.

I quote from a news item published in Union of Catholic Asian News of 20th May, 2021 under the title ‘WARNS OF CHINA COLONY EMERGING IN SRI LANKA’, where His Eminence Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith says: ‘Religious leaders and rights activists urged the Sri Lankan Government to postpone legislation to set up a powerful economic commission in China-built Port City …. But the Cardinal warns that Sri Lanka is in danger of being a ‘China Colony’ if the government rushes the bill through without consulting the people’.

This view has been expressed by Ven. Omalpe Sobitha Thera and eminent citizens, when intervened by news reporters and over the electronic media.

There is another important research paper by Ganeshan Wignarajah. Dinusha Panditharatne, Babsara Kanangara and Divya Hunslani published in the Asia Pacific Program of March 2020, where it says ‘Chinese Expansive Belt Road Initiative has led to greater Chinese outbound investments in Asia. This investment has recently come under scrutiny due to intensifying geopolitical rivalries in the Indian Ocean as well as Sri Lanka’s prime location and ports in the region. There are claims that by accepting Chinese outbound investments, Sri Lanka risks being stuck in a ‘debt trap’ and this displacement of its local workers, by both legal and illegal Chinese labour

If what is stated above does not convince SAK, I regret I have failed.

G. A. D. SIRIMAL

Boralesgamuwa