China’s newly appointed ambassador to Sri Lanka, Wei Huaxiang, has met JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva at the party’s headquarters in Pelawatte, Ada Derana reported.
Wei arrived in Colombo in August and presented his credentials to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on 25 August, alongside ten other new envoys. The meeting with Silva comes a week later.
Why the JVP rather than the government
The call is a party-to-party engagement rather than a state one. The JVP is the core constituent of the National People’s Power, the governing alliance, and Silva is its general secretary — not a minister. Beijing’s diplomatic practice treats relations between the Communist Party of China and foreign ruling parties as a distinct channel running parallel to government-to-government contact.
Silva has used that channel before, leading a JVP delegation to China at the invitation of the CPC.
Poverty alleviation was the substantive topic
The discussion covered the government’s anti-corruption work and the Praja Shakthi rural poverty programme, with both sides exchanging views on what Sri Lanka might draw from China’s own poverty alleviation experience.
Praja Shakthi is the administration’s flagship rural development scheme, running to some 23,000 projects worth about Rs. 23 billion through community development committees, with allocations such as the Rs. 997 million committed in Nuwara Eliya.
Wei said China engages with other countries while respecting their sovereignty and pursuing mutual development, and said he would encourage Chinese investors to increase their investments in Sri Lanka. He offered a personal illustration, saying China’s development under the Communist Party had allowed people from difficult rural backgrounds — himself included — to pursue opportunities and eventually serve as diplomats.
Two anniversaries next year
The meeting also covered the two countries’ diplomatic history. Sri Lanka and China will mark 70 years of diplomatic relations in 2027, and the Rubber-Rice Pact of 1952 — the barter agreement that preceded formal ties and remains the founding reference point of the relationship — will reach its 75th anniversary in the same year.
Wei said he had not felt like a stranger since arriving and expressed appreciation for his reception. Both sides agreed to keep working to strengthen bilateral relations.
What was not reported
Ada Derana did not say who else attended, whether any specific investment or project was raised, or whether the poverty-alleviation discussion involved an offer of Chinese technical assistance. It gave no indication that the meeting produced any agreement.
No other verified newsroom had reported the meeting at the time of writing.
