China is trying to trap Sri Lanka again by offering more loans

ANI |
Updated: 07 May 2022 17:00 IS

Beijing [China]May 7 (ANI): At a time when Sri Lanka is grappling with its worst economic crisis due to China’s huge debt debt, Beijing once tried to trap the island nation by offering the country more loans and so-called aid . according to media reports.
Sri Lanka’s dollar-denominated debt repayments due in 2022 total more than $6 billion, including a $1 billion government bond maturing in July 2022, the European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS ).
Notably, Colombo’s debt repayments to Beijing in 2021-22 totaled nearly $2 billion. It is also worth noting that while Sri Lanka is facing its worst financial troubles in many years, China has forgotten its own evil role in bringing Colombo into this situation in the first place.
According to a media report, Beijing initially refused to help Colombo, which was appealing for a debt restructuring of its huge debt burden amid the COVID-19 outbreak that has negatively impacted the tourism sector. Sri Lanka appealed if a debt restructuring could be arranged to ease the economic crisis that has emerged amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, asked for Beijing’s support amid the island nation’s deepening foreign exchange crisis and rising external debt.

“Responding to a question on Sri Lanka’s pending debt relief request, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a press conference in March that China has been helping Sri Lanka’s socio-economic development to the best of its ability and will continue to do so. Concretely, it meant nothing,” reported the Hong Kong Post.
China has shed some crocodile tears over Sri Lanka’s economy, which has mired itself after delving into China’s BRI projects: record inflation, soaring food prices and people’s suffering, according to a media report.
Previously, the government under Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency in 2005 sought to transform Sri Lanka into a second Singapore by building state-of-the-art infrastructure and ports.
But the pull of Chinese credit has dashed any such hope, and today Sri Lanka is struggling to repay $45 billion in loans of which it owes China $8 billion, almost a sixth of its total external debt.
Reportedly, Sri Lanka has so far relied on loans from countries such as India.
On March 17, Sri Lanka signed a $1 billion credit line with India for the purchase of food, medicines and other essential supplies.
China, on the other hand, brushed off Sri Lanka’s economic crisis. She has conveniently blamed the West and Sri Lanka’s financial mismanagement, denouncing the latter for its weak economic base, lack of a self-sustaining economy, excessive borrowing and poor planning. (ANI)