China’s ambassador to Sri Lanka, Wei Huaxiang, used a Colombo reception marking the 77th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China to set out Beijing’s case for a deeper partnership with Colombo, and to flag two anniversaries falling in 2027.
The reception was held on Wednesday, September 23, Hiru News reported. Wei told diplomats, political leaders and guests that next year marks the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries and the 75th anniversary of the Rubber-Rice Pact — the 1952 barter agreement he repeatedly returned to as the defining example of solidarity between the two states.
What was announced
The most concrete item in the address was technological. Wei said China’s intelligent meteorological early-warning platform, “Mazu”, will be deployed in Sri Lanka to support disaster preparedness and climate adaptation — a system both outlets reported but neither dated or costed.
He also said China had supplied school uniform material to Sri Lanka for four consecutive years, benefiting more than 4.4 million students, and pointed to the China-Sri Lanka Joint Research and Demonstration Centre for Water Technology as an example of assistance reaching the public directly.
The pitch
Wei framed bilateral ties within China’s own trajectory, describing its transformation into the world’s largest manufacturing nation and second-largest economy, with GDP exceeding roughly US$20 trillion — a figure carried by Hiru but not by NewsFirst.
He cited Colombo Port City and Hambantota Port as flagship results of Belt and Road cooperation, and listed recent instances of mutual assistance: the Sri Lanka Navy’s part in the 2023 search for the Chinese fishing vessel Lupeng Yuanyu 028, emergency medical treatment given in March this year to a crew member of the research vessel Shiyan 6, and Chinese aid during the COVID-19 pandemic and after Cyclone Ditwah.
Wei also praised Sri Lanka’s standing as a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement and said China was ready to work with Colombo on multilateralism, referencing President Xi Jinping’s “community with a shared future for humanity” and Beijing’s four global initiatives on development, security, civilisation and governance.
The address caps an unusually dense run of bilateral activity, including a meeting with the Defence Secretary this week and the Sri Lanka China Society’s 45th anniversary.
A note on sourcing: NewsFirst headlined its report with the line that Sri Lanka “will never stand alone.” That phrasing appears only in the headline — neither outlet’s account of the speech contains it, so it is not reproduced here as a quotation.
