By TON Sri Lanka

On Thursday China defended its massive infrastructure ventures and investments in crisis-hit Sri Lanka and said that they have “boosted” its economic development, amid criticism from the US of Beijing’s unproductive projects and opaque loan deals among the reasons for the country’s bankruptcy.

According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, China-Sri Lanka practical cooperation has always been led by Sri Lanka with scientific planning and thorough verification with no strings attached and china did not push Sri Lanka to financial bankruptcy.

Chinese projects have boosted Sri Lanka’s economic development, and brought tangible benefits to the Sri Lankan people,” he said while responding to a question on the criticism of China’s projects and policies towards Sri Lanka by the USAID administrator.

On Wednesday Speaking in New Delhi, she said India reacted “really swiftly” with an absolutely critical set of measures to help Sri Lanka tide over its economic crisis, but calls to China to provide significant relief have gone unanswered.

It is widely known that China became one of Sri Lanka’s “biggest creditors” offering often “opaque loan” deals at higher interest rates than other lenders and wondered whether Beijing would restructure the debt to help the island nation.

Refuting her allegations, the Chinese spokesperson said, there are multiple components to Sri Lanka’s foreign debt, where China-related debts take far less share than the international capital market and multilateral development banks. As China initiatives to build ports and other infrastructure across Asia and Africa, paid for with Chinese loans, is just for boosting trade.

As Sri Lanka’s 22 million people are in dire straits. Foreign currency ran out in April, leading to food shortages, power cuts, and protests that forced a prime minister to resign due to bankruptcy. Payment on $51 billion of debt to China, Japan, and other foreign lenders was suspended.

Besides what China provides for Sri Lanka almost preferential loans with low-interest rates and long terms, which have played a positive part in improving Sri Lanka’s infrastructure and livelihood. China’s unproductive projects in Sri Lanka, including the Hambantota port, which Beijing took over on a lease as a debt swap, have come under sharp criticism.

The unprecedented economic crisis faced by Sri Lanka has led to severe shortages of fuel, cooking gas and medicine and long lines for essential supplies, which led to massive anti-government protests and the ouster of President this month.

China, which accounts for 10 per cent of Sri Lanka’s debt, is reported to have resisted offering a debt cut. He also sought to blame the US policies including the interest rate hikes, unilateral sanctions and massive stimulus policies which had seriously impacted many developing countries like Sri Lanka.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman went on to say that the global economic and financial markets have taken a heavy toll as the US’s recent sudden interest rate hikes and balance sheet reduction has siphoned off dollars more rapidly, reverse from the long-running quantitative easing policy and irresponsible massive stimulus. Without referring to the Russia-Ukraine war, he also blamed the US sanctions.

The US’s unilateral sanctions and tariff barriers have undermined the security of industrial chains and have worsened the price surge of energy, food and other commodities. This has further aggravated the financial and economic situation of many developing countries, including Sri Lanka.

Opposition figures say while Sri Lanka needs China to reduce its debt, blame lies with leaders who built unrealistic projects that cannot pay for themselves while they failed to invest in economic development.

Foreign loans have been misused by making highways, airports and convention halls in the jungles which didn’t give any returns in foreign currency, a Chinese-built port in Hambantota in the southeast as a prime example of official recklessness.

It was built in the hometown of then-President and paid for with $1.1 billion in Chinese loans despite the plan having been rejected by an expert panel. Its promoters said Hambantota, on busy Indian Ocean shipping routes, would ease the burden on Sri Lanka’s main port in Colombo. However, it failed to generate foreign revenue