No ‘debt trap’ in Sri Lanka port

China said on July 3 that it has worked with Sri Lanka on the Port of Hambantota in an equal and mutually beneficial way, dismissing US media reports that it took over the port through “a debt trap.”

“China has encouraged Chinese companies to carry out the cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual benefit and according to business principles,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in a daily news conference.

Chinese financial institutions offered support to help Sri Lanka resolve the shortage of funds for the project and later worked to readjust the allocation of assets according to Sri Lanka’s wish, Lu said.

“All this is commercial cooperation that favors both sides,” he said.

Lu made the remarks after a New York Times story on June 25 said that China got Sri Lanka to “cough up” Hambantota Port by using “a debt trap.”

The report also cited concerns that China might use the port militarily, even though an agreement with Sri Lanka forbids such activity without Sri Lanka’s invitation.

“Such reports that gravely distort facts were made either out of irresponsibility or under the orders of people with ulterior motives,” Lu said. “We hope relevant media is not really keen on fake news.”

It is the wish of successive Sri Lankan governments and the Sri Lankan people to build Hambantota Port, the spokesman said.

“If people who made up the lies of the so-called debt trap cannot provide concrete help to developing countries, they can at least maintain a healthy mindset toward other countries’ sincere cooperation,” he said.

China and Sri Lanka are committed to keep pushing ahead with the port cooperation to make Sri Lanka into a logistics center in the Indian Ocean, Lu added.

In April, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said “there is no need” to speculate over the port cooperation from a military or other strategic perspective.

The Chinese-built Hambantota Port is a deepwater facility in Hambantota district of Sri Lanka’s Southern province.

Last July, China Merchants Port Holdings and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority signed an agreement valid for 99 years, giving China a 70-percent stake in two joint ventures that will take charge of the port’s commercial and administrative management operations, according to Xinhua News Agency.