{"id":79280,"date":"2022-08-31T00:36:32","date_gmt":"2022-08-31T04:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=79280"},"modified":"2022-08-31T18:53:24","modified_gmt":"2022-08-31T22:53:24","slug":"jaffna-university-students-union-lashes-out-against-chienese-ambassador-qi-zhenhong-at-media-briefing-university-function-to-sign-a-collaboration-agreement-between-the-agriculture-faculty-an","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=79280","title":{"rendered":"Jaffna University Students\u2019 Union Lashes out Against Chinese Ambassador Qi Zhenhong at Media briefing;signing of agreement between Jaffna Agriculture faculty and Chinese Agricultural institute indefinitely postponed;Chinese envoy\u2019s visit to Jaffna cancelled."},"content":{"rendered":"

By P.K.Balachandran<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Jaffna University Students\u2019 Union has lashed out at the Chinese envoy in Sri Lanka, Qi Zhenhong, for extending support to the Sri Lankan government\u2019s stand on the war crimes issue that is to come up for discussion at the UN Human Rights Council\u2019s session in September.<\/p>\n

In an article sent to the Sri Lankan media recently, the envoy had indicated that China would support Sri Lanka in contrast to some countries which had either ruled or invaded Sri Lanka in the past. The allusion was to the Western powers and India.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Portraying China and Si Lanka as two countries which had faced, and are still facing threats from outside forces, the envoy called for a joint Sino-Lankan effort to resist such threats. The envoy was alluding to the US threat to the \u201cOne China\u201d policy through its support for Taiwanese separatists, and to India\u2019s objecting to the docking of the Chinese survey vessel Yuan Wang 5 at Hambantota port \u201con security grounds\u201d. For the envoy, both cases represented an abridgment of the sovereignty of China and Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

Tamils Wary<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sri Lankan Tamils of the North and East, are wary about China\u2019s bid to make inroads into the North and East as they fear that the Tamils too would fall into a Chinese \u201cdebt trap\u201d as Sri Lanka had. They also fear that an increasing Chinese influence on Colombo would embolden the latter to continue its policy of not yielding to the Tamils\u2019 long-standing demand for autonomy within a united Sri Lanka. China has consistently voted against the Western Core Group\u2019s resolutions against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC. While China\u2019s stand pleases the majority Sinhalese, it irks the minority Tamils whose bid to secure autonomy through peaceful means and by war had both been crushed by successive Sri Lankan governments.<\/p>\n

The Jaffna University Students Union told a media briefing that would appeal to the Chinese envoy to understand the Tamils\u2019 demands and their plight and stop supporting Sri Lankan governments. But the union leaders also said that they did not believe that China would change its stand. They characterized the Chinese envoy\u2019s earlier visit to the Nallur Kandaswamy temple in Jaffna dressed in the traditional Tamil style as an effort to hoodwink the Tamils.<\/p>\n

Perhaps due to objections from the Students\u2019 Union, a function to be held at the university to sign a collaboration agreement between the Agriculture faculty and a Chinese Agricultural institute was indefinitely postponed and the envoy\u2019s visit to Jaffna for this purpose was called off.<\/p>\n

Asked about the status of the visit, Luo Chong, spokesman of the Chinese embassy, said: \u201cAmbassador is always keen on another visit to Jaffna. Northern Province is an important part of China-SL friendship and cooperation. About the exact time of visit, I don\u2019t have information at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

China has been making persistent efforts to make inroads into Sri Lanka\u2019s Tamil-speaking Northern and Eastern provinces for three reasons: 1) Beijing believes that China should be able to invest and have development projects in all parts of Sri Lanka 2) India cannot claim that the Tamil-speaking North and East is under its exclusive sphere of influence and that countries \u201cinimical\u201d to India should not have projects there which could have security implications for India. 3) China wants to have a foothold in North Sri Lanka as part of its larger policy of encircling India.<\/p>\n

China has set up an export-oriented fisheries development project in Jaffna. But its bid to set up three small-size power projects using renewable energy in three islands off Jaffna but close to India failed because India objected citing security issues. Earlier India had objected to a proposal to set up a Chinese-built aircraft repair facility at Trincomalee in the Eastern Province.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s security interest is safeguarded by the India-Sri Lanka Agreement of July 1987 signed by the then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the Sri Lanka President J.R.Jayewardene.<\/p>\n


\nCourtesy:NewsIn.Asia<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By P.K.Balachandran The Jaffna University Students\u2019 Union has lashed out at the Chinese envoy in Sri Lanka, Qi Zhenhong, for extending support to the Sri Lankan government\u2019s stand on the war crimes issue that is to come up for discussion at the UN Human Rights Council\u2019s session in September. In an article sent to the …<\/p>\n

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