Is China Funding Sri Lanka's War Against The Tamils?

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Chinese President Hu Jintao met this evening at the Great Hall. Feb 27, 2007. Beijing. Sri Lankan First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa is also pictured (Photo from Colombo Page)

Chinese Billions In Sri Lanka Fund Battle Against Tamil Tigers -- Times Online

On the southern coast of Sri Lanka, ten miles from one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, a vast construction site is engulfing the once sleepy fishing town of Hambantota.

This poor community of 21,000 people is about as far as one can get on the island from the fighting between the army and the Tamil Tiger rebels on the northeastern coast. The sudden spurt of construction helps, however, to explain why the army is poised to defeat the Tigers and why Western governments are so powerless to negotiate a ceasefire to help civilians trapped on the front line.

This is where China is building a $1 billion port that it plans to use as a refuelling and docking station for its navy, as it patrols the Indian Ocean and protects China’s supplies of Saudi oil. Ever since Sri Lanka agreed to the plan, in March 2007, China has given it all the aid, arms and diplomatic support it needs to defeat the Tigers, without worrying about the West.

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My Comment: The answer is .... yes. The monies and resources that China is giving to Sri Lanka is many magnitudes greater than what anyone else is giving. This is a political/economic/and military alliance .... and one in which the West and India have been asleep at the wheel.

With the Sri Lankan civil war winding down .... expect China to be rewarded by the Sri Lankan Government for their assistance and cooperation during this time.