{"id":80483,"date":"2022-12-03T00:36:28","date_gmt":"2022-12-03T04:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=80483"},"modified":"2022-12-03T19:33:18","modified_gmt":"2022-12-03T23:33:18","slug":"if-the-chinese-government-and-embassy-do-not-look-after-the-interests-of-our-lankan-peoplethere-will-be-a-china-go-home-campaign-soon-and-i-will-lead-it-warns-shanakiyan-ra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=80483","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIf the Chinese government and Embassy do not look after the interests of our Lankan people\u2026there will be a China go home campaign soon and I will lead it,\u201d warns Shanakiyan Rasamanickam ; \u201cIf China was a true friend, it would agree to either write off this debt or at least help restructure it\u201d says TNA Batticaloa District MP"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBy
\nMeera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sri Lankan Opposition legislator Shanakiyan Rasamanickam has threatened to launch a \u201cChina go home\u201d campaign, akin to the \u2018Gota go home\u2019 movement that ousted the former President in the wake of the island\u2019s painful economic crash.<\/p>\n

The popular 32-year-old MP, among the few Sri Lankan politicians comfortably trilingual in English, Tamil, and Sinhala, told the House on Friday: \u201cI was exercising the sovereignty of the people of this country within this House. I am speaking on behalf of the people of Sri Lanka. I am not speaking on behalf of any other Embassy or country\u2026but the Chinese Embassy repeatedly tagging me on twitter is a serious concern about this country\u2019s sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

His remarks follow a Twitter spat earlier this week, after the Tamil National Alliance\u2019s Batticaloa district parliamentarian, in a parliamentary address, sought greater cooperation from China in Sri Lanka\u2019s debt restructuring efforts. Sri Lanka\u2019s chances of securing an International Monetary Fund package depend on the government obtaining adequate financing assurances from its creditors, including private lenders and bilateral creditors.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka owes 7.4 billion dollars to China, a nearly 20 trillion dollar-economy, Mr. Rasamanickam\u2019s pointed out, contending: \u201cIf China was a true friend, it would agree to either write off this debt or at least help restructure it\u201d. \u201cIf the Chinese government and Embassy do not look after the interests of our Lankan people\u2026there will be a China go home [campaign] soon and I will lead it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Chinese Embassy was quick to respond to his tweet. \u201cSorry Mr. MP, your understanding is incorrect and incomplete,\u201d the mission said, adding that it was Sri Lanka\u2019s \u201cbiggest supporter\u201d in fighting COVID-19 and in livelihood relief. \u201cChinese President & Premier reiterated China\u2019s willingness and readiness to help Sri Lanka in various occasions,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Colombo, irrespective of who is in power, has maintained close and cordial ties with China, unlike neighbouring Maldives whose current government openly pursues an \u201cIndia first\u201d foreign policy. However, public perception of China is more divided, as protests against the Chinese-backed Colombo Port City showed last year.<\/p>\n

While China provided significant assistance during the pandemic \u2014 80 % of the vaccines and crucial medical supplies \u2014 its support during the crisis has been limited, mostly to a $74 million grant, announced in May this year, at the height of the island\u2019s crisis.
\nIndia pitched in with nearly $4 billion this year, becoming the main source of emergency assistance for the dollar-strapped island nation. India and Japan have pledged support to the debt restructure process and the IMF programme. Meanwhile, all eyes are on China, as Sri Lanka hopes to expedite its negotiations with creditors, months after the government\u2019s sovereign default.<\/p>\n

While the popular narrative of a \u201cChinese debt trap\u201d in Sri Lanka has been repeatedly exposed as being inaccurate \u2014 most of Sri Lanka\u2019s loans originate from International Sovereign Bonds (ISBs) in the international money market \u2014 China is still the island\u2019s top bilateral creditor and therefore, an important player. \u201cChinese lending at the end of 2021 came to 19.6% of public external debt, much higher than the often-quoted 10-15% figures,\u201d a recent paper by Sri Lankan economists Umesh Moramudali and Thilina Panduwawala points out.<\/p>\n

Courtesy: The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

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

By Meera Srinivasan Sri Lankan Opposition legislator Shanakiyan Rasamanickam has threatened to launch a \u201cChina go home\u201d campaign, akin to the \u2018Gota go home\u2019 movement that ousted the former President in the wake of the island\u2019s painful economic crash. The popular 32-year-old MP, among the few Sri Lankan politicians comfortably trilingual in English, Tamil, and …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘\u201cIf the Chinese government and Embassy do not look after the interests of our Lankan people\u2026there will be a China go home campaign soon and I will lead it,\u201d warns Shanakiyan Rasamanickam ; \u201cIf China was a true friend, it would agree to either write off this debt or at least help restructure it\u201d says TNA Batticaloa District MP’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80483"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80483"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80484,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80483\/revisions\/80484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}