Sri Lanka’s president asked a visiting delegation led by a senior Chinese diplomat on Friday to assist him in disproving a perception that China-funded megaprojects are “debt traps” aimed at gaining influence in local affairs. President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa made the request to the delegation led by Yang Jiechi, a Communist Party Politburo member and former foreign minister. China considers the Indian Ocean island nation to be a critical link in its massive “Belt and Road” global infrastructure building initiative and has provided billions of dollars in loans for Sri Lankan projects over the past decade.
