Maria Abi-Habib, the New Delhi-based South Asia correspondent of The New York Times, has an excellent and thorough, if quite damning, investigation into China’s engagement with Sri Lanka. In particular, the investigation under the headline ‘How China got Sri Lanka to cough up a port” reports how a billion-dollar-plus port in Hambantota in the country’s southern coast overlooking the Indian Ocean that Beijing financed became the latter’s property after Colombo failed in its debt obligations.
Within the report are clear indication of serious political corruption as well how China uses its financial muscle towards much deeper strategic goals. It was an investigation waiting to be done and who better than the Times with its reputation and resources?
After Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa was voted out of power in 2015, Abi-Habib writers, and Colombo failed to make payments on the massive Chinese debt he had taken, the inevitable happened.
“Under heavy pressure and after months of negotiations with the Chinese, the government handed over the port and 15,000 acres of land around it for 99 years in December,” the report says.
With that China has firmly established its long-term presence on one of the most strategic waterways in the world. China now has its own outpost, 15,000 acres of it, within strategic earshot of it’s main Asian rival and neighbor India. Incidentally, Colombo had originally approached New Delhi to help develop the port but the latter declined saying it was not economically feasible.
Abi-Habib writes, “The case is one of the most vivid examples of China’s ambitious use of loans and aid to gain influence around the world — and of its willingness to play hardball to collect.
The debt deal also intensified some of the harshest accusations about President Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative: that the global investment and lending program amounts to a debt trap for vulnerable countries around the world, fueling corruption and autocratic behavior in struggling democracies.”
Her report is a remarkable example of what serious journalism is all about and what a serious journalist can do. I did compliment her via Twitter and to my pleasant surprise she acknowledged.
Now that I have set up a justifiable way to bring myself in, I must bring myself in. Sri Lanka used to be my reporting beat in the 1990s and I have kept up my interest in the country since 1994. I have also written about it in this blog and elsewhere frequently.
On reading Abi-Habib’s story I was reminded of a short piece I had written on May 2, 2009. In analyzing China’s methods I wrote something nine years ago that Abi-Habib’s reporting vindicates. Like I have said many times before, for a print journalist vindication is perhaps the only happy reward in the absence of actual cash. I have this silly vision of people walking up to me and handing cash every time something I said turns out to be accurate.
Here is what I wrote:
"In some ways China has been following the ways of predatory lenders in its quest for establishing a global sphere of influence. Quite like predatory lenders, it preys on countries which are either unsuspecting or desperate or helpless or a combination of all three to lend large sums of money and arms without any conditions attached. Once these countries are hooked on to money without any apparent strings, China moves in with its long-term objectives.
As a rule China does not seek to politically influence a country it sees as a part of its larger design. However, the backing of the world’s most coveted economy has unintended consequences. For instance, it is believed by Indian experts that the reason why Sri Lanka has been able to withstand international pressure during its current bloody military assault on the Tamil Tigers separatists, it is because of the no-strings attached Chinese billions. In return China would demand untrammeled access to Hambantota port. Many see this as a Faustian bargain which will eventually exact its price on these countries."
Perverse joy of vindication in such situations is a fair, if short-lived, reward for a perennially cash-strapped print journalist. However,as that joy wears off one is left feeling despair at the ways of the real world.