{"id":111106,"date":"2021-01-28T16:59:05","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T23:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=111106"},"modified":"2021-01-28T16:59:05","modified_gmt":"2021-01-28T23:59:05","slug":"the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-part-2-c13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/01\/28\/the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-part-2-c13\/","title":{"rendered":"THE POHOTTUWA GOVERNMENT OF SRI LANKA Part 2 C13"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The United\nState of America is getting ready for war in the Bay of Bengal and plans to\ndrag Sri Lanka into that war to fight on behalf of USA. Sri Lanka does not\nwelcome this.  We are caught up in this\npower game between India, China and the US because of our geostrategic location,\ncomplained Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the coming\nyears, Sri Lanka, like the other states in the Bay of Bengal  will be forced to pick a side as China\u2013U.S.\nrelations continue their downward spiral, said analysts.   They   will have to choose,  but they all want to avoid taking sides. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nare   just two possibilities for Sri\nLanka in this matter. Sri Lanka can try to sit this out. Wait till the threat\nof war fizzles out. That is a sound possibility. It\nis unlikely that US and China are headed toward military confrontation any time\nsoon, said Ian Brenner in TIME (January 2021). The gap between US and China\u2019s\nmilitary is narrowing. Gone are the days when a warning from Washington was\nenough. The Covid 19 pandemic would have also upset the financial plans\nof the Neo cons who mastermind these wars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

USA is still\nin shock after the storming of the Capitol. This event   has been recognized as a symptom of deep\ndivisions in USA. The division is so deep that some members of Congress are\nopposing a second impeachment of Trump. We already have a flaming fire in this\ncountry and the impeachment is like pouring gasoline on it, said one US\nSenator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big\nBusiness however, is taking a strong line. USA\u2019s blue chip companies said they\nwould halt campaign donations to Congressmen who had   voted   \nto halt the Presidential elections. Some companies are not going to\ndonate to either Republican or Democratic Party.   CEOs of the nation\u2019s biggest corporations\nsaid they would not invest in the states of \u2018seditious Congressmen.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ndivision in the US has seeped down to churches and families, said TIME.\nFamilies and Churches have been deeply divided by Trumpism, TIME said. US\neconomy still continued to be in difficulties, made worse by the Covid\npandemic.  The\nUSA will soon have two Presidents, pulling in opposite directions. The news has\njust come in that Trump has set up an Office of Former President. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The   international image of the US, which was\nalways poor, is now even worse. US policy is to make countries dependent on\nthem rather than improve the quality of life in those countries, said\ncritics.   At the NBC coverage of the Biden inauguration,\none reporter stated that 1<\/strong> in 3 Europeans\nthought US cannot be trusted.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China said that\nsince 2001, the US has spent over $6 trillion on military operations and war,\nmoney that might have been invested in the infrastructure at home. China\nmeanwhile, built its nation pouring more cement every three years than America\ndid in the entire twentieth century. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

USA\nhowever is still dreaming of a possible war. US would like to enlist Sri Lanka\ninto this war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 US has decided to woo Sri Lanka using India. India and\nUSA have one thing in common. They both believe in antagonizing the countries\nthey wish to dominate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in this\ncase, India has persuaded the local media to draw\nattention to India. The local newspapers are suddenly full of India.  India\u2019s education system, India\u2019s\nconstitution, India\u2019s billionaires,  India\u2019s freedom fighters, Indian judgments\non contempt of court  and the new  India-Sri Lanka\nFriendship logo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\nwe need not be intimidated by India, said K Godage. Sri Lanka\ndoes not have a land border with India, making it more independent that most\nother SAARC countries.  Also Sri Lanka found during Eelam war IV,\nthat India\u2019s support   is not essential\nfor Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka says it plans to stay neutral in any future   US \u2013China war. It is possible to stay\nneutral only as long as the US-China War is a War of Words. But if it\nbecomes   an armed conflict, then Sri Lanka\ncannot stay neutral, it will have to take sides. Countries which are physically\nin the war zone can never stay neutral. Switzerland and Thailand, are popularly\nsupposed to have been neutral in World War II. They were not neutral. They\nstruck deals with both sides. (See Appendix 1 and 2)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If war breaks\nout Sri Lanka will have to choose between US and China.  Yahapalana government tilted\ntowards USA and India, at time when the US is declining and India turns out to\nbe a non-starter.  A country is expected\nto link with the rising power not the fading power. US is fading, China is\nthe emerging power.  Pohottu should link\nwith China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LSSP also\nthinks so. Under no circumstances should Sri Lanka support USA military\naggression against China, said LSSP.<\/strong>\nPakistan has taken China\u2019s side and Sri Lanka too must do the same, Philippines\nPresident Duterte has said that he is not ready to go to war with China. European Union led by Germany has recognized\nthat China is only interested in trade, and it is refusing to support the USA\u2019s\nmilitary attack on China, continued LSSP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What right\nhas the USA to claim that China poses a military danger to it, when its\nboundaries are thousands of miles away? It is the USA that has over 400\nmilitary bases around China, while China has only one outside its boundaries\u201d, said\nLSSP. The SOFA agreement would have allowed thousands of armed troops from the\nUSA to use the whole of Sri Lanka as a military base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LSSP appeals\nto the Government to take a non-aligned stance and support China concluded\nLSSSP,  happily ignoring the fact that\nyou cannot be \u2018non-aligned\u2019 and \u2018supportive\u2019 at one and the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CA\nChandraprema called for a Defence Pact with China.\nTrincomalee and Hambantota should be full of Chinese warships, he said. USA\nanticipated this. Hambantota Port might soon become a forward military\nbase for China\u2019s growing blue-water navy, complained USA, or dual use\ncommercial\/military facility. In 2019, Sri\nLanka said No.  China has control over\nHambantota port but it does not have rights to build a naval facility there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China is\nblooming. China is the only one of the big economies that did not shrink in\n2020. China\u2019s gross domestic product expanded 6.5% in the fourth quarter of\n2020, making the country one of the few to register positive growth for 2020.\nThe Asian Development Bank says Asia will need US$ 16 trillion for\ninfrastructure development between 2020 and 2030. China is the only country\nthat has such money, pointed out Colombage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China continues\nto leap ahead. China had published more high impact research papers than US in\n23 of 30 \u2018hot\u2019 research fields, said Economist. This finding came from a 2019\nsurvey by Elsevier and Nikkei . China in 2020 had more powerful supercomputers\nthan any other nation. It had 214 \nsupercomputers, compared with 113 for the US and 91 for the EU. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China is home\nto the world’s largest high-speed rail network, which stretches over 37,000\nkilometers, and the fastest commercially operating train, the Shanghai Maglev. China\nhas   developed a prototype for a new\nhigh-speed Maglev (magnetic levitation) train that is capable of reaching\nspeeds of 620 kilometers (385 miles) per hour. The train runs on\nhigh-temperature superconducting (HTS) power that makes it look as if the train\nis floating along the magnetized tracks. The sleek 21-meter-long (69 feet)\nprototype was unveiled at Chengdu, in January 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China has\nalso developed a new high-speed bullet train designed for extremely cold\nclimates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CR400AF-G\ntrain, which can operate at speeds of up to 350 kilometers per hour (217 mph)\nin temperatures as low as -40 degrees Celsius (-40 degrees Fahrenheit), is part\nof the Fuxing series of high-speed electric multiple-unit (EMU) trains\ndeveloped and operated by the state-owned China State Railway Group. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A number of\ncountries, including Egypt,  UAE, Jordan,\nIndonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Turkey, Bahrain, Dubai, Seychelles, are using the\nCOVID-19 vaccines produced by China. And many more countries, including Chile,\nMalaysia,  Philippines, Thailand and\nNigeria have ordered Chinese vaccines, said China. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China, unlike\nthe USA  is already at war. China needs the trade routes across the Indian Ocean and\nintends to protect them. India is not an exporting nation the way China is,\nobserved Chandraprema.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

US  sent an aircraft carrier group  sailing between Taiwan and the Philippines\ninto the South China Sea.  China immediately\nsent large groups of fighters and bombers into  \nTaiwanese airspace two days in a row. This was not illegal, said Gwynne\nDyer. The Chinese aircraft only entered Taiwan’s unilaterally declared\n“Air Defence Identification Zone”, which is not sovereign Taiwanese\nterritory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India and\nChina have, according to reports, mobilized troops and tanks all along the 3488\nkm Line of Control from Ladakh to Arunchal Pradesh.  The aggressor is China. China has constructed\na settlement  of 101 houses, inside\nIndian Territory in Arunachal Pradesh. There was no such village in satellite\nimages taken in August 2019.  They appeared\nin images taken in November 2020 . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China\nhas  also \ntried to  enter Indian\nTerritory  in Sikkim twice, first  in  May\n2020 . In January 2021 troops again tried to cross the border into Indian territory,\nnear Naku La. There was a brawl  and\nsoldiers on both sides were injured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India  approached the Seychelles in 2020, with a\nproposal to build a military facility on Assumption Island, which will include\nan airstrip, naval jetty and a garrison of 500. There was a\nstrong protest against it  and the proposal was abandoned. China\nhowever, has a presence in Seychelles. China has built a new Parliament\nbuilding and a Supreme Court in the Seychelles. China has\nalso\ndonated two light aircraft and two naval vessels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka has\nalways had a cordial relationship with China. China and Sri Lanka have had long\nstanding diplomatic, religious and trade links. There were   cordial diplomatic relations between the\nSinhala king and the Chinese emperor in ancient and medieval times. This was an\nunbroken relationship which continued through various Chinese dynasties. A Chinese\ncoin from a particular dynasty, which is rarely found in foreign countries was\nfound in Sri Lanka .  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Buddhist\nlink is well known, with Fa Hsien coming here and Sinhala bhikkunis going there\nto advise on Buddhism, probably Mahayana. Sinhala ships went to China. They  received special mention in the Chinese  records. It was said that of all the ships coming\nto China, the stairways in the Sinhala ships were the biggest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were able to end the Eelam war because China threw its weight behind\nus and sent us the required arms. It was China that supplied much\nneeded weapons, at a time when Western countries refused to do so citing human\nrights concerns, recalled Sri Lanka . China has always supported Sri Lanka at\nUN and HRC.  Only China condemned India\nwhen India did its parippu drop in 1987 violating Sri Lanka airspace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2009, when\nthe war ended, India and Japan funded important projects, but the main support\nwas from China. If we did not take what China offered, today, 11 years on we would\nbe still be where we were in 2009, said Colombage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China had\nhelped financially from the time of the Eelam war and much of this was grants\nand not loans.  The loans also were low\ninterest and affordable. China is offering trillions of dollars which no other\ncountry can match, but they do not bully us. When the west helps it leads to\nbankruptcy as in the case of Greece, said Palitha Kohona. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Present day\nSri Lanka recognizes modern Chinese culture. When University of Colombo held\nits 100th<\/sup> anniversary celebrations in January 2021, Faculty of Arts\nhad a research session on \u2019Understanding Chinese language and culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China has been very supportive of Sri Lanka and very encouraging.\nChina told Sri Lanka in 2016 You have\n65,000 kilometers of land.  You    always say a small island country. No. Sri\nLanka is a big country. It is a great country. You have good culture. You have\nlong history. You have a legal system. Education is okay. You should be proud\nof the culture, history and your country\u2019s conditions. So why do you call\nyourself a tiny island\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rise of\nChina has seriously challenged the unipolar orientation of international\nrelations, but the world must now come to terms with China.  Western countries cannot continue to treat\nChina as an outcast and do its utmost to undermine its development and\ninfluence, said analysts. They must realize that trying to contain and confront\nChina is a waste of time. It is hoped that West will adjust to China’s new\nassertive and confident style and accept peaceful coexistence with a powerful\nChina, analysts said.   On that hopeful note,\nI end this set of essays on the US-China war. (Continued).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

APPENDIX NO 1<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Switzerland is well known for its supposed neutrality in WWII. It\nwas never neutral. Germany planned to invade and annex Switzerland, but got\ndiverted elsewhere. Skirmishes between German and Swiss troops took place on\nthe northern border of Switzerland throughout the war. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both sides\nviolated Swiss airspace. 6,304 Allied aircraft violated Swiss airspace during\nthe war. Nazi Germany repeatedly violated Swiss airspace. During the Battle of France<\/a>, German\naircraft violated Swiss airspace at least 197 times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Switzerland\nserved as an espionage camp for both sides. In 1942, the United States\nestablished the Office of Strategic Services in the city of Bern. Switzerland\nturned back or deported over 20,000 Jewish refugees during the Second World War\nbut did take in over 50,000 refugees, mostly rich Jews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Switzerland\ncontinued trading with Germany through the war. Germany became the main market\nfor Swiss weapons components. Germany became the largest importer of Swiss\ngoods including specialized items such as time fuses. Swiss companies made fat\nprofits from this. Export credit given to Germany meant Switzerland was\nactively financing the Nazi war machine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Switzerland\nhelped finance Hitler\u2019s war. Swiss banks loaned money to German enterprises\nwhich were involved in armaments. \nBetween 1940 and 1945, Germany sold 1.3 billion francs worth of gold to\nSwiss Banks. A total of 581,000 francs’ worth of gold taken from Holocaust<\/a> victims was\nsold to Swiss banks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

APPENDIX NO 2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thailand in World War II was never neutral.  Instead\nit achieved the rare feat of supporting and attacking both sides, and gaining\nfrom both. Japan invaded Thailand in December 1941 and Thailand signed a treaty\nof military alliance with Japan. Thailand thought this preferable to outright\nconquest. Prime Minister Pibul Songgram cooperated with Japan.\nHowever, Thailand retained control of its armed forces and internal affairs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thailand wanted to use WWII to establish a Greater Thailand and\npersuaded Japan to get back Thai territory taken by France. France gave back\nsome territory from Laos and Cambodia, but not all. And they had to pay for it.\nThailand also took four Malay states. Thai army annexed the Shan states of\nBurma and established a border with China near Keng Tung. Thailand was also\ninterested in the activities of Mussolini and Berlin advised Japan to keep a\nclose watch on the Thai, lest they turn into an “Oriental Italy.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then things soured between Thailand and Japan. There were several\nreasons, one was that the Japanese claimed the right to import goods duty-free,\nwhich reduced Thailand\u2019s revenues. Thai government   split\ninto two factions, pro- Japan and anti- Japan. Anti- Japan faction the Free Thai Movement<\/a>,  was a well-organized, pro-Allied resistance\nmovement .It  engaged in espionage and\nsabotage on behalf of the Allies. Thanks to this, after the war, Thailand  was not punished for its support for Japan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thai\ngovernment declared war on Britain<\/a> and the United States<\/a> on January\n25, 1942 . The Thai ambassador in London delivered Thailand’s declaration of\nwar to the British government, but  the\nThai ambassador in Washington <\/a>,  refused to do so. Accordingly, the United\nStates refrained from declaring war on Thailand but the British did. In 1945,\nBritain\u2019s  Indian 7th Infantry\nDivision<\/a> landed,  in Thailand, accompanied\nby Edwina Mountbatten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the tide began to turn against Japan, the Thai government started\ndistancing itself from the Japanese. And used this to wriggle out of the need\nto surrender. Thanks to the  work of the\nFree Thai Movement, the United States  did not treat Thailand as an enemy country in\npost-war peace negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before signing the peace treaty, however, Britain demanded war\nreparations in the form of rice shipments to Malaya. An Anglo-Thai Peace Treaty\nwas signed on 1 January 1946. France refused to permit admission of Thailand to\nthe United Nations until Indochinese territories taken by Thailand during the\nwar were returned. The Soviet Union insisted on the repeal of anti-Communist\nlegislation.  ( End) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS The United State of America is getting ready for war in the Bay of Bengal and plans to drag Sri Lanka into that war to fight on behalf of USA. Sri Lanka does not welcome this.  We are caught up in this power game between India, China and the US because of our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}