Features
Tentacular China – strangling economically
I’ve been reading articles in foreign newspapers on Chinese worldwide expansion and recently had a video sent me in which a young girl of Chinese descent proves with facts and figures that China is dominating the world much more than the US. She signs off as an analyst and video is labeled ‘KAHEWA – official’.
What initially aroused my renewed interest (trepidation really) in the Chinese presence and now dominance in Sri Lanka is the fact that our country’s Central Bank received a couple of gold, silver and copper alloy coins minted in China in celebration of the 100th year of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Now being a faithful satellite of China, our Central Bank went further: it minted coins of Rs 1000 value with one side bordered with legend ‘Sri Lanka China 65 years’ and stamped with a picture of the Nelum Pokuna Theatre under which is date 2022. The reverse side has the number 100 under which is 1921-2021 Communist Party of China. Proof we are celebrating the Chinese main political party’s centenary. How come? The whys and wherefore are bothersome questions!
of China–Sri Lanka friendship and cooperation, but any idiot knows the greater anniversary marked for all Sri Lankans to see and celebrate is the 100 years of a foreign political party.
A dangerous precedent has been set while paying pooja to a foreign power. We never ever issued even a stamp when the Queen of England celebrated several anniversaries. After all, she was our sovereign for some years even after February 4, 1948, before we became a free republic.
We remember with gratitude the China-Ceylon Rubber Rice Pact of 1952 when a much less developed, poorer and non-expansion-aiming China helped us in a crisis situation buying our rubber and selling cut price rice; engineered by Cabinet Minister R G Senanayake and Permanent Secretary J B Kelegama. This date marks the start of the 65 years of cooperation.
We also remember close and healthy ties forged between Mrs Sirima Bandaranaike and Chinese Premier Chou En Lai which resulted in them gifting us the BMICH. However, latter pacts, agreements, Chinese intervention were not welcomed by many Sri Lankans. They resulted in Chinese coming over to live by the hordes: prisoners as labour; supervisors and engineers. Was that the start the building of the vanity structures in Hambantota? I, a minuscule pebble in our land but very national minded, was fearful at the first sighting of the sand piles off Galle Face Green and now weep and actually look away when infrequently going along the road to the Fort. Infrastructure undertakings of China all over the country, meant to be for our benefit, or to satisfy vanity, is most certainly for the furtherance of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and to further its neo colonialism by economically subjugating poor countries to it.
Excerpts from one article
Brett Stephens, Opinion Columnist, writing in the NYT quotes Chess Champion and human rights activist in introducing his analysis. “Garry Kasparov has a pithy way of summing up the past 18 months of tribulation. ‘China gave us the virus and the free world gave us the vaccines.’” Stephens continues thus: “You don’t have to subscribe to the lab-leak theory of the origins of the Covid 19 pandemic to acknowledge this: Had it not been for the cover-up that Chinese officials tried to orchestrate in the critical early days of the crisis, there might have been a chance for the virus to be contained.” Instead lies, even a suspected murder of a doctor.
“Xi Jinping, the most militant and repressive Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, delivered a speech trumpeting ‘the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,’ while extolling the party’s total control over the country’s politics, He warned that those who tried to ‘bully, oppress or enslave China would crack their heads on a Great Wall of steel.’” The steel being the masses of China. Many of us Lankans listened to the speech; me with growing fear. We know the remarks in his long speech to Comrades and Friends was aimed at the US. Who even considers bullying China?
It is China which has expansionist ambitions – entering and becoming stabilized in other countries. It has already succeeded in many Asian countries – South East Asian where most countries are indebted to China. Of the South Asian region, China’s success is Sri Lanka. How we have aligned ourselves to China. China promised Hong Kong ‘one country, two systems.’ Now it is subjugating the country with draconian laws and will soon follow in Taiwan. We were non aligned but no longer. We have bowed to the Chinese yuan whether it all goes to the common kitty or some of it is siphoned off to private pockets
Stephens continues: “It’s a cliché that China’s rise is “unstoppable,” much as Germany’s supposedly was a little over a century ago. The corollary is that the world will simply have to acquiesce to its burgeoning list of demands, including its maritime claims to the South China Sea and reunification (if necessary, by force) with Taiwan. But appearances of strength tend to obscure realities of weakness, hidden cracks behind imposing facades. For Beijing the crack is that the regime is based on lying.”
Statistics from a video
The ‘KAHEVA – official’ video had much to critique in China’s world stage act. I admit I have not checked the statistics given which I pass on, but statements made are true as seen by us. While the US has open military bases in different countries of the world, China has closed door bases in more countries which have their own Chinese schools etc. The Mainland rooted itself very firmly with its Chinatowns found in most major cities of the world, barring just a few countries like India.
The video commentary noted that Chinese in these ‘Little Chinas’ originally claimed they were from islands such as Taiwan. Now they openly say they are Chinese main landers and have financial and other direct connections with mainland China. Thus through these cultural townships and most by lending money and expertise to build infrastructure, the Chinese get deeper rooted in foreign countries. We know how Tibet was conquered and its culture and even Tibetan Buddhism obliterated by the influx of Chinese who settled down in Lhasa and other areas, most coming as single men but marrying local women. The Qinghai-Tibet bullet railway, started in 1984 and 1,215 miles in length, connects Xining in Qinghai Province to Lhasa. It was built with colonializing in view and cultural and economic infiltration population-wise.
Some of the stunning stats given in the video are as follows: Indonesia has 14 million Chinese living there, controlling 90 % of its economy. Thailand – 14 million; Philippines has resident three million mainland Chinese who control 70% of its economy. Duarte’s grandparents are overseas Chinese. The majority (70%) of Singapore’s population are of Chinese descent with Malay and Indian descent Singaporeans constituting the minority. Overseas Chinese are numerous in America. Canada has 1.4 million Chinese – bilingual or maybe even trilingual. Korea and Japan have steered clear of the Chinese. The video pronounced that China is ahead of the US in controlling the world. Believable.
China is buying land in this country, live all over the country – Jaffna included; own more than half the Port City and now we have officially celebrated the 100th year of their Communist Party. What’s next?