Former Sri Lankan education minister and ruling party MP Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, in a sensational letter to the Chinese President last week, has pulled up Beijing and his own party and previous governments led by Mahinda Rajapaksa for pushing the island nation into a debt trap through Chinese loans and projects under the Belt and Road Initiative.
Rajapakshe has alleged in his letter that deals between Colombo and Beijing had left a trail of corruption and blamed China for charging extra for Covid vaccines and supplying sub-standard fertilisers. Incidentally, the letter was sent to Xi Jinping ahead of Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s Colombo visit this week. ET has seen a copy of the letter, dated January 3.
Rajapakshe, a parliament member from Colombo, has no links with the family of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He has marked the letter also to the Lankan President and Prime Minister, as well as the country’s foreign minister and the Chinese envoy to Colombo, among others.
The letter alleged that the Chinese friendship was no longer genuine and candid, and that Beijing was dismantling peace in the region by making Lanka a victim of power struggle with other nations. “Your country initiated to make our country first bankrupt in the sphere of economy … After Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected as the President in November 2005, it (Hambantota Port) was stalled and later it was recommenced with a new understanding…,” it said.
Rajapakshe alleged that the then Mahinda Rajapaksa government took loans from China at a commercial rate of over 6% as compared to loans available from international communities at a rate of 0.01% to 1%.He listed that the Sri Lankan government and China entered into several other transactions on a slew of projects, including the Colombo Port, South Terminal, a coal power plant at Norochcholei, international airport at Mattala, cricket stadium in Suriyawewa and an international conference hall in Hambantota.
