Sri Lanka is not anti-China but mainland firms won’t get ‘carte blanche’, finance minister says

Sri Lanka’s new leadership is not targeting China and only wants its help to fight corrupt deals orchestrated by the last government, the island nation’s finance minister said, even as he ratcheted up rhetoric against Chinese companies he said were once given “carte blanche” in his country.

“Sri Lanka is trying to do what Xi Jingping is doing: Root out corruption. We are not against China but against the Chinese companies manipulated by the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime into corrupt deals that are bleeding the taxpayer. The Chinese government might have been unaware of the activities of Chinese companies here,” Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake told the South China Morning Post in an exclusive interview, referring to the former president.

“Our relationship with China goes back to the 1950s, when we defied the West to forge the rice-rubber pact with China. But Chinese investment is as good as any other investment, we cannot give it preferential treatment.

“You can’t come here and demand carte blanche, as the last government gave them. If a project costs 1 million dollars, you cannot make the taxpayer pay 6 million dollars,” said Karunanayake, who is scheduled to head to Beijing soon as part of Colombo’s efforts to renegotiate the contracts the Rajapaksa government signed with Chinese companies and financing bodies.

He said Chinese projects are not the only ones being reviewed. “We are also examining a housing project by Indian conglomerate Tata. The Tatas come in and say they will put in US$250 million, but they put in US$20 million, use our land, and sell it back to us for a higher price. How does that work?”