Ensure UNHRC proposals won’t create new conflicts: China

Chinese Ambassador in Sri Lanka, Yi Xianliang yesterday had advised Lankan leaders to see that the reconciliation mechanisms suggested by the UNHRC do not create new conflicts, the Indian News Express said.

Addressing the Regional Center for Strategic Studies in Colombo on Monday, he had reiterated that China is against outside interference in domestic affairs.

“It would be ill advised to put reconciliation before development because it is only all round equitable development which will prevent social, political and economic conflicts,” he said.

Meanwhile, commenting on foreign investments in Sri Lanka, he said the country will have to put its house in order so that there is policy stability, the procedures are simple and there is no overlapping of authority.

Policies should also not change with a regime change, as was the case when the Rajapaksa regime was replaced by the Srisena-Wickremesinghe government, he said.  

Dispelling the notion that China had exceptionally close ties with the Rajapaksa regime, the envoy said that China deals with Lankan state and not with any particular regime.

He also said the common Lankan and Indian perception that Chinese projects are primarily meant to bolster China’s strategic interests in the region will be dispelled if they are Joint Ventures with local entities and foreign companies and run as commercial enterprises.

The envoy said that mutual antagonism in South Asia will be mitigated if China, India and Pakistan form an economic alliance and co-opt Lanka and other South Asian nations. Lanka and India should sign the Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (ETCA), he said and added that he had discussed a China-India-Pakistan-Lanka business link up with the Indian envoy in Colombo and found him to be responsive.