Sri Lanka should thank China, not attack it, ex-president Rajapaksa says

Sri Lanka's new government is being unfair to China by unnecessarily dragging it into domestic politics, Mahinda Rajapaksa told the South China Morning Post in a rare interview after his defeat in January's presidential elections.

"They should be thankful to China for the help they extended; instead these people are treating China like a criminal," said Rajapaksa. "But I would urge China not to take it personally. It's me they are after. They are only using China to get me. China should not feel hurt and stop helping Sri Lanka."

Since 2009, when a three-decade civil war between Colombo and Tamil separatists ended, Beijing has pumped an estimated US$4 billion into Sri Lanka.

This has come in the form of aid, soft loans and grants, with almost 70 per cent of infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka now funded by mainland financial institutions and executed by mainland companies.

Once considered invincible because of his popularity among the Sinhalese majority after wiping out Tamil militancy, Rajapaksa lost power in a shock defeat to former Sri Lanka Freedom Party colleague, Maithripala Sirisena.

During the election, Sirisena attacked the alleged lack of transparency surrounding Beijing-backed projects and Sri Lanka's growing dependence on China to fund them.