Sri Lankan President affirms that China’s debt trap is a myth – China

Pompeo openly regards "lying, stealing, cheating" as the "glory" of the United States. He is like a broken record, playing the same "anti-China" tunes over and over again. The so-called "debt trap" is another example of America's "lying diplomacy".

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa publicly refuted the claim again that China had set up a debt trap to control Sri Lanka, China Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's said in a press conference yesterday.

 China Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian

“China has made great contributions to Sri Lanka's infrastructure construction and development. Sri Lanka is willing to make every effort to promote the joint construction of the key cooperation projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), such as the comprehensive development of Colombo Port City and Hambantota Port, so as to raise mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries to a higher level and better benefit the people of the two countries,” he said.

“So far, no Belt and Road partner has fallen into any so-called debt trap because of its cooperation with the BRI. On the contrary, many partners have spoken highly of the BRI, he added.

China Foreign Ministry Spokesperson made these remarks in response to a question raised during a daily press conference held yesterday. 

Here is the question and answer;

The Phoenix: Recently, US Secretary of State Pompeo and other senior officials said that transactions with large amounts of Chinese investment are not good transactions and all need to be alert to the "debt trap" created by the Belt and Road Initiative. What is your response?

Zhao Lijian: Pompeo openly regards "lying, stealing, cheating" as the "glory" of the United States. He is like a broken record, playing the same "anti-China" tunes over and over again. The so-called "debt trap" is another example of America's "lying diplomacy".

So far, no Belt and Road partner has fallen into any so-called debt trap because of its cooperation with the BRI. On the contrary, many partners have spoken highly of the BRI. For example,on October 9, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya publicly refuted the claim again that China had set up a debt trap to control Sri Lanka. China has made great contributions to Sri Lanka's infrastructure construction and development. Sri Lanka is willing to make every effort to promote the joint construction of the key cooperation projects under the Belt and Road Initiative, such as the comprehensive development of Colombo Port City and Hambantota Port, so as to raise mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries to a higher level and better benefit the people of the two countries.

As is known to all, BRI cooperation adheres to the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits and is advanced through open, green and clean approaches and aims to achieve development featuring high standards, livelihood improvement and sustainability. Relevant projects are conducted through cooperative efforts to ensure sustainability in economic, social, fiscal, financial and environmental sectors. China believes that those who view and analyze the BRI in an objective and unbiased way will arrive at a right conclusion.

Those that are cooperating with China are in the most suitable position to comment on how such cooperation is going, and they have given their unequivocal answer by signing more than 130 BRI cooperation documents and seeking to expand cooperation with China. All attempts to smear and slander will fade into nothing in front of these facts.