Ties between India’s neighbours Sri Lanka and China are fraying. Serious differences arose between the two countries recently when Colombo rejected a 20,000-tonne shipment of organic fertilisers from the Qingdao Seawin Group on the grounds that they were found to be contaminated, sources have told CNN-News18. After a diplomatic row had erupted and following a threat by the Chinese company to take legal action against Sri Lanka, the Lankan government agreed to pay 70% of the claim of 6.7 million dollars to the company as compensation.
The development came after the Sri Lankan agriculture minister explicitly told the country’s parliament that no payment would be made to the Chinese firm over the rejected shipment.
The Sri Lankan government’s recent decision to annul a hybrid renewable energy project in three Islands of the Jaffna coast led to China openly opposing Colombo’s decision, said sources. The Chinese firm Sinosar-Etechwin JV that had backed the energy project, lodged its objection to alleged interference by a third party that led to the cancellation of the project, they added.
According to the sources, reluctance on the part of Sri Lankans to get jabbed by the Sinopharm Covid vaccines has fuelled discord between the two countries. A proposal of China’s Sinovac Biotech Co establishing a manufacturing unit in Hambantota has been put on hold, while three of the eight members of the Sri Lankan National Medical Authority had resigned earlier this year when Sinovac sought approval for administering its vaccines.
Sri Lanka’s finance minister Basil Rajapaksa during a recent visit to India sought assistance and also discussed a number of projects between the two countries, which has not gone down well with the Chinese. Recent visits of foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Army chief MM Naravane to Sri Lanka and opening up of the Kushinagar airport for Buddhist tourism are also being seen in the same light. Also, the Adani Group has signed a deal with Sri Lanka Port Authority and Sri Lankan company John Keells to develop the Western Container Terminal (WCT). This comes over two years after the contract to build the ECT awarded to India, Japan and the SLPA was unilaterally dropped by Colombo. The Adani Group has also proposed to develop a $1 billion renewable wind power project in Mannar. There has also been forward movement on India developing the Trincomalee oil tank farms since Shringla’s visit.
The Sri Lankan public is also increasingly becoming annoyed by Beijing not helping Colombo in deferring loans lent for various projects including the Hambantota Convention Centre and the Lotus Tower in the capital city. China has also not done much to help Sri Lanka resolve its power, fuel and gas crises, sources reveal.
Influential Sri Lankan Buddhist monks have also opposed the Port City Bill on the eve of its passage in parliament and there is public outrage against the $1.4 billion Colombo Port City plan, which allegedly violated local labour laws. There are growing fears of Sri Lanka becoming a Chinese colony, threatening its territorial integrity and sovereignty, the sources say.
The exclusion of Tamil from signboards and replacement with Mandarin has also spurred anger. That apart, fishermen associations have opposed the Sri Lankan government plans to allocate large chunks of land to Chinese entities through Sri Lankan front companies for mariculture activities. The Chinese allegedly bribing landowners in islands off Jaffna has also come in for criticism, according to sources.
A recent move of the Sri Lankan government to allot an LNG project, including the floating storage regasification unit and distribution lines to New Fortress Energy of the United States has widened the rift between Sri Lanka and China, as the latter along with Pakistan had been promised the same after Colombo reneged on an agreement to give the LNG project to a consortium comprising India, Japan and a Sri Lankan entity, sources say.
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