{"id":128167,"date":"2022-08-26T15:26:31","date_gmt":"2022-08-26T22:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=128167"},"modified":"2022-08-26T15:26:31","modified_gmt":"2022-08-26T22:26:31","slug":"china-pledges-support-to-sri-lanka-at-unhrc-session-in-september","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2022\/08\/26\/china-pledges-support-to-sri-lanka-at-unhrc-session-in-september\/","title":{"rendered":"China pledges support to Sri Lanka at UNHRC session in September\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meera Srinivasan<\/a>\u00a0 Courtesy The Hindu<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Sri Lanka awaits China\u2019s response to its request for bridge loans to tide over the country\u2019s enduring economic crisis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Weeks ahead of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in Geneva, where a resolution on Sri Lanka is expected to be tabled, China has said it will continue to support\u201d Sri Lanka in international fora while slamming countries far or near\u201d for bullying\u201d the island nation.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China has always been supporting Sri Lanka in the international fora for protecting its sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity. We will continue to do that. In contrast, some countries, far or near, always make various groundless excuses to bully Sri Lanka and trample on Sri Lanka\u2019s sovereignty and independence repeatedly,\u201d Ambassador Qi Zhenhong said in an article for the local portal  Sri Lanka Guardian, <\/em>published subsequently on the Chinese Embassy\u2019s website on Friday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His remarks come even as Sri Lanka awaits China\u2019s response to its request for bridge loans to tide over the country\u2019s enduring economic crisis. While Beijing announced a $74 million grant in May, it is yet to respond to Colombo\u2019s appeal for urgent help reportedly to the tune of $4 billion. Further, Colombo is anxiously seeking China\u2019s cooperation to restructure its foreign debt, a process that could impact its chances of securing crucial assistance from the International Monetary Fund.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawing attention to two recent China-related news developments, the top Chinese diplomat referenced US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi\u2019s sneaky visit\u201d to China\u2019s Taiwan region, and the support from over 170 countries\u201d, including Sri Lanka, to the \u2018One-China Principle\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also highlighted the successful\u201d docking of the Chinese military vessel Yuan Wang 5 at Sri Lanka\u2019s southern Hambantota Port after China and Sri Lanka altogether resisted the rude and unreasonable interference from third parties\u201d. The ship deferred its arrival by a few days on Sri Lanka\u2019s request, after India and US raised concern over its visit, and left on August 22 after a week in Hambantota. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Linking developments in Taiwan with the Chinese vessel\u2019s visit to Sri Lanka, the Ambassador said though they may seem irrelevant and thousands of miles apart\u201d, both share a same great significance\u201d between China and Sri Lanka, that is to jointly safeguard each other\u2019s sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity\u201d.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human rights <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Referring to the coming session \u2014 the 51st \u2014 of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Qi said human rights issues in Sri Lanka might probably be stirred up again\u201d. Pointing to Sri Lankans grappling with severe economic and humanitarian difficulties\u201d, many might wonder what those countries who have been always preaching\u201d about human rights will actually do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will they help Sri Lanka to ease its human rights crisis by providing concrete support? Or will they again use human rights as a cover-up tool to interfere into the island nation\u2019s internal affairs and continue to rub salt into the wound of the Sri Lankan people? Just let\u2019s wait and see,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March 2021, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution titled \u2018Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka\u2019 with 22 of its 47 members voting for the resolution. China voted against it, backing Sri Lanka, while India abstained.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the March 2022 session, the \u2018Core Group\u2019 on Sri Lanka, comprising the UK, the US, Canada, Germany, North Macedonia, Malawi, and Montenegro, noted in a statement that surveillance and intimidation of civil society persist, and detentions, threats, and intimidation of journalists and human rights defenders continue\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meera Srinivasan\u00a0 Courtesy The Hindu Sri Lanka awaits China\u2019s response to its request for bridge loans to tide over the country\u2019s enduring economic crisis Weeks ahead of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in Geneva, where a resolution on Sri Lanka is expected to be tabled, China has said it will continue to support\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128167","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=128167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}