As a sense of unease prevailed here over defeat of Mahinda Rajapaksa in Sri Lanka’s Parliamentary polls blunting Beijing’s influence in the Indian Ocean region, Chinese official media asserted that “China cannot be avoided” because its ties with Colombo transcended “partisan politics”.
While Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post headlined its report ‘Sri Lanka’s pro-China ex-president Rajapaksa concedes defeat’, highlighting the strategic significance of the poll result, the state-run Global Times blamed the Western and Indian media for attributing pro-China image to Rajapaksa.
It was during his tenure that Lanka had secured about USD five billion loans from China for strategic projects.
“Although the President (Maithripala) Sirisena government is recalibrating its foreign policy and seeking a balanced approach in handling relations with big powers, China cannot be avoided.
It’s only the outsiders’ wishful thinking that partisan politics will stagnate or even turn back China-Sri Lanka relations. China will also not depend on any single party to maintain the bilateral relationship.
“Since Rajapaksa announced his run, some Western and Indian media have deliberately portrayed him as ‘Beijing’s preferred candidate’ and highlighted that his defeat would be frustrating for Beijing,” the Global Times said.
