When Sri Lanka reeled in the mountains and crisis, China, the country's leading creditor, was reluctant to cooperate to find solutions.

When Sri Lanka's foreign currency reserves began to decline sharply because of the influence of Covid-19 pandemic, some officials in Colombo said that it was time to negotiate a relief package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which capital

But China, the biggest creditor of Sri Lanka, offered an attractive alternative: continuing to borrow new to pay old debt, according to Sri Lanka officials.

But those support packages did not prevent Sri Lanka from falling into chaos.

When Sri Lanka had to apply for relief from IMF in April, the country's economy faced one of the worst recession since he won independence in 1948. The protest broke out and gradually became violent.

Instead of taking advantage of foreign currency reserves to resolve old debts, we continue to borrow debt until the money is exhausted, Ali Sabry, Minister of Finance Sri Lanka from April to May, said.

A homeless person sitting in front of the Chinese bank branch in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

With about $ 35 billion in foreign debt, Sri Lanka is the first government in the Asia -Pacific region to default since the case of Pakistan in 1999. Observers think that the upcoming negotiations

Over the past 60 years, the restructuring of the government debt has been coordinated by the Paris club, the unofficial association consists of 22 major creditors, mainly Western countries and some Asian countries.

China is not a member of the Paris club, partly because Beijing is not a big creditor before the 2000s. But after that, they lent many countries to support the Belt and Road initiative.

In addition to Sri Lanka, African countries like Zambia and Ethiopia are also restructuring loans from China.

Despite being the most important creditor of developing countries, China is often not interested in supporting debt restructuring.

When Zambia on the brink of default in 2020, the Chinese government provided the country with new financial support to pay for the dueward loans, even if Zambia told creditors that the creditor that

After the IMF agreed on the relief package for Zambia in December 2021, China, the country accounted for 30% of the country's foreign debt, until February to join a committee of creditors after stumbling a lot.

Geopolitical is one of the reasons that China is difficult to become a Paris club member.

China hardly discloses loans with infrastructure projects in Africa and Asia in Latin America.

With an important international maritime route, Sri Lanka easily access Chinese loans.

Over the past decade, billions of dollars borrowed from China have been granted to projects in Hambantota to build roads, power plants, airports to stadiums.

But many other projects are not as successful as expected.

The deep -water port in Hambantota also does not have enough revenue to repay the debt.

The problem is that we have not seen any benefits from those infrastructure projects, Akila Lakruwan, a 20 -year -old salesperson at a home appliance distributor in Hambantota.

Foreign Minister Vuong Nghi (right) and President Sri Lanka Gotabaya Rajapaksa (white shirt) at an event to celebrate the two countries in Sri Lanka in January. Photo: WSJ.

From 2000 to 2020, China lent Sri Lanka an additional $ 11.7 billion to invest in infrastructure.

It is like a vicious cycle, Kabir Hashim, former Minister of Investment and is currently the opposing politician in Sri Lanka.

When the island nation had to restructure debt, the attention of the public was pouring back to China's reaction.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently announced its plans to cooperate with international organizations to help solve Sri Lanka's difficulties, through reducing debt burden and promoting sustainable development.

Despite the announcement that will support Sri Lanka through the program of IMF and the upcoming debt restructuring negotiations, Beijing is dissatisfied with the decision -making process of Colombo and preventing the South Asia from approaching transactions.

Meanwhile, the political situation in Sri Lanka is still confused.

IMF said it was closely monitoring the developments in Sri Lanka.

Some Sri Lanka leaders still regret the easy borrowing period.