China-Sri Lanka relations

Tuesday, 24 February 2015 00:36 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By K. Godage Our relations with China go back more than 1,500 years; we do have a deep-rooted relationship based on trust and mutual interests. In recent times we were one of the first countries to recognise the People’s Republic of China; we also supported China’s re-entry to the UN; our relations over the years have grown stronger and stronger, today we have a variety of agreements covering economic and technical assistance. In recent years China’s assistance in various forms has tripled, particularly in the area of infrastructure development, which had been wholly neglected since independence. Our relationship is indeed a very special relationship to both our countries. China opened her economy after Deng Xiao Ping took over after the ruinous Cultural Revolution and he created and established a ‘Social Market Economy’ which changed China and has benefitted not only China but many countries around the world. The streets of China when I first visited in the 1970s was crammed with bicycles and a few motorbikes but in 2013 when I last visited (my eighth visit) the roads in Beijing were crammed with cars including Lamborghinis and Mercs; that is the China of today. Helping Sri Lanka China has helped this country from the time of the Rubber-Rice deal. We gave them rubber when they most needed it during the Korean War when other rubber growing countries denied them on the orders of the US, which was fighting China in the Korean War. This act of ours is something which the Chinese have never forgotten. They are eternally grateful, for as a Chinese official once told me, had the Americans conquered North Korea, they would next have instigated and helped Taiwan to invade China and created another war situation. Gratitude is an important value with the Chinese and this is why they worship their ancestors – and it is this value which governs her attitude towards us. Many years ago when I accompanied the late Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar on an official visit to China, we had been asked by President Chandrika Kumaratunga to find out from the Chinese what we owed them for the military assistance we had received for the war and when the Minister asked the Prime Minister what we owed them, he consulted his officials and the answer virtually floored us, for the PM said, “We have not asked”! Such was their response then. Let us not forget that our relations with China boomed after Sirimavo Bandaranaike became PM; she played an important role to settle the Indo-China conflict at the time of their war. China gave us the BMICH in the early 1970s; perhaps another event which bears relating is this – I was, together with the late Mervyn De Silva (intellectual and respected Editor and also father of Dayan J), on the Board of the BCIS; and at the meeting of the Board we told PM Bandaranaike that the BCIS should have its own premises considering its mandate and the work we had to accomplish. She said: “The Chinese Ambassador is calling on me tomorrow and I shall speak to him – give me a note.” We prepared a one page note and handed it over to her; the next day both Mervyn and I were summoned to Rosmead Place and she told us that the Chinese Ambassador had said that they would accommodate her request and the BCIS had its own building within a year. That was how the Chinese assisted us, which they have done over the years. We need to be grateful to them for the military assistance in particular we received when no Western country, as stated before, gave us even a bullet. We cannot also forget the support they gave us in the UN Security Council when the West, prostituted by the diaspora, tried every means to stop the war. The West Today we have a peculiar situation; the West which never assisted us even with a bullet during the war, because of the dependence of many members of their legislatures for funds from the Tamil diaspora. We cannot forget the fact that the House of Commons met no less than six times to pass strictures on our then Government in their effort to stop the war and save Prabhakaran. Perhaps they felt obliged to help the perceived underdog. It was only China that helped us. Today the West hates China for many reasons including the fact that she has emerged as a world superpower; they cannot come to terms with this and the fact that they have lost their pre-eminent position of influence particularly in Asia; and out here they appear to have tried to rope in PM Ranil Wickremesinghe to do their dirty work, but after his first statement about the Port City project, he, who is an astute and seasoned politician, realising the game the West was playing, has refused to go along. I hope the Chinese Government invites Ranil to see for himself New China; he could then meet their leaders and understand China’s external policies better.

India and China Meanwhile let us also take into account that India and China, our two Asian cousins, with over a billion people each, are on the way to displacing the US in many respects; they today form one of the world’s largest trade relationships. China has become India’s largest trading partner, with Sino-Indian trade reaching over $ 50 billion today (their target is $ 100 billion!). The two countries have border disputes but they are not irreconcilable. Their relationship will grow in strength and we need to plug into their economies and have the closest relations with both countries and this is something we can manage with professional diplomats, not with any Tom, Dick or Haramanis, and with enlightened leaders. I wish to conclude by recalling a statement made to me by a Chinese leader; he said, “We will help your country in whatever we could, but we shall never do anything which would give India or any other country reason to destabilise your country.” (The writer can be reached via [email protected].)