Sri Lanka presidential hopeful Gotabaya Rajapaksa would restore China ties, adviser says

Rajapaksa’s spokesman said he met this week with Chen Min’er, a close ally of Xi, to discuss future ties

Beijing and Colombo’s already strained relations took a further blow when Sirisena alleged corruption at a Chinese firm contracted to build the country’s tallest tower

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Sri Lankan presidential nominee Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Photo: Reuters

Published: 6:52pm, 20 Sep 2019Updated: 10:40pm, 20 Sep 2019

Sri Lankan presidential nominee Gotabaya Rajapaksa would “restore relations” with the country’s top lender China if he wins the November 16 vote and met with a senior Chinese official this week, according to an adviser and his spokesman.

China and Sri Lanka’s already strained relations took a further blow on Monday when President Maithripala Sirisena alleged corruption at a Chinese company contracted to build the Lotus Tower, South Asia’s tallest tower. A Sri Lankan parliamentary panel said it would investigate.

Neither the company nor the Chinese embassy in Colombo has commented on Sirisena’s allegations. China has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in its multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka.

“Now China is looking at us differently. When Gotabaya Rajapaksa becomes the president … he will set the record right and restore the relationship to where it was,” Rajapaksa’s adviser Palitha Kohona told reporters in Colombo.

“I suppose the thinking was if we upset China, the West would come to us with endless bags of gold … But the bags of gold never materialised,” Kohona said.

Ties between Colombo and Beijing soured when, upon his election in 2015, Sirisena suspended all Chinese investment projects, citing allegations of corruption, overpricing and flouting of government procedures. He allowed projects to resume the following year after demanding changes in some.