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China’s envoy regrets remarks
View(s):China’s Ambassador Xi Xiangliang this week expressed his regrets to the Government if his recent remarks to the local media caused any embarrassment.
His response came when Foreign Secretary Esala Weerakoon telephoned him last Monday to express Sri Lanka’s “serious concern” over the Chinese envoy’s remarks at a news conference to a select group of journalists where he criticised Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake for asking for loans from China while at the same time complaining that the interest rates were too high.
Ambassador Xi has taken up the position that he had been misquoted by the media though participants for the news conference he addressed were handpicked by the Chinese Embassy in Colombo. Media reports including one in the Sunday Times published a verbatim account tape-recorded by a participating journalist last Sunday.
As exclusively revealed in the Sunday Times last week, Ambassador Xi was first summoned to the Foreign Ministry at 9.30 a.m. on Monday by Foreign Secretary Weerakoon. However, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe contacted him earlier the same morning and directed him not to summon the envoy, but speak to him on the telephone. Reports put out by the Chinese Embassy in Colombo nevertheless claimed that the Foreign Office in Beijing had defended the remarks made by its envoy.