Why China kept their FM’s visit a secret

2016-07-20

The sudden visit made to Sri Lanka by Nisha Biswal, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, was not without reason because reports received at her desk at the US State Department pertaining to the Maithri-Ranil government during the last several months have not been savoury.

Specially, the file relating to the cold war that prevailed between Maithri and Ranil over the issue of Central Bank Governor, Arjuna Mahendran, may have been given precedence by the South Asia Division of the State Department because the Obama government is reposing immense faith in the Maithri-Ranil administration of Sri Lanka.

The Secretary of State to the US Government once said the victory of democracy in Sri Lanka via the people's vote is a model for the whole world. At the first United Nations Human Rights Commission meeting after the Maithri–Ranil government was installed in power, it was to demonstrate to the world that the US is reposing hope in Sri Lanka that the US made a proposal jointly with Sri Lanka. It is hence impossible to imagine the US will be ready to destroy that hope.

When the international human rights organizations were exerting pressure that Mahinda, Gotabaya and Fonseka and the officers of the Forces who ordered war crimes should be meted out punishment, by an international war crimes tribunal, the US provided a road map to extricate the Maithri–Ranil Government from the trap of an International Court for war crimes. It was according to that road map that a Tamil national became the Chief Justice, Sampanthan became the Leader of Opposition and another Tamil national became the Central Bank Governor.

When the international human rights organizations were demanding the pound of flesh from Sri Lanka in connection with war crimes, the US declared a tough policy cannot be followed in regard to war crimes as the future is optimistic. At that juncture what happened to the US was akin to what India faced in 1987. India, which incited the Tamil rebels including the LTTE against the government of JR after JR agreed to sign the Indo Lanka Peace Accord, undertook the task of taming the Tamil rebels including the LTTE on behalf of Sri Lanka.

The US which inflamed the international human rights organizations against Sri Lanka during the tenure of office of ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa, has now undertaken the task of silencing their voices before the Maithri-Ranil government.

A change of US policy
Perhaps, the US intervened in the Arjuna Mahendran issue, in order to endorse the appointment of a Tamil national Arjuna Mahendran as Central Bank Governor and to avert the Maithri-Ranil Government driving itself into conflicts. Indeed, Biswal's visit too was to strengthen the government. She said, if permanent peace is to be established in Sri Lanka, its economy should be resuscitated, which stance of Biswal clearly indicated a change of US policy. Although, after the conclusion of the war, what took top priority in the political agenda of US policies was human rights, that has now changed into an economic agenda. This constitutes a victory for Sri Lanka.
When Nisha Biswal paid a sudden visit to Sri Lanka to convey this message; the Chinese Foreign Minister had already arrived in Sri Lanka on the sly. The Chinese Foreign Minister's visit was so secretive that it was not known even to the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister.
When Ranil takes decisions in relation to China, he keeps the Foreign Minister at arm's length, because the pro-Mahinda groups are dominating the Foreign Ministry. In fact Ranil planned his tour of China too, at the Temple Trees without the Foreign Ministry's involvement.

The preparation of agreements to hand over the Hambantota Port, Colombo Port and Mattala Airport improvement projects to China were done secretly without the knowledge of the Foreign Ministry and the Foreign Minister of China arrived in Sri Lanka via that secret China-Lanka route of Ranil . Though China was angered at the beginning over the stoppage of the Hambantota Port project by the Maithri- Ranil Government, and remained aloof, the visit of the Chinese Foreign Minister now is a signal that China desires to continue with its friendly ties with Sri Lanka. Just before Biswal announced the economic agenda for Sri Lanka, the Chinese Foreign Minister who virtually came running to Sri Lanka said, China is still a main economic partner of Sri Lanka.

Biswal's visit was known to India, but the Chinese Foreign Minister's visit was a secret, which perturbed India. India's worry was all the more because India provided the necessary information to the Sri Lanka Government about a fraud in relation to a land deal in Sri Lanka involving Krrish Co., a prominent establishment in India, which led to the arrest of Namal Rajapaksa. The government could garner data from the Krrish Co. only with great difficulty. The successful gathering of information regarding the fraud was a great victory for the Maithri-Ranil Government. Hence, maintaining the balance with India, as with China, should be Government of Sri Lanka's goal.