US lawmaker seeks an end to Chinese debt trap

Asserting that Sri Lanka was forced to surrender the sovereignty of its deep-water port, Hambantota, a powerful US lawmaker on Tuesday sought an end to the Chinese debt trap.

China was defrauding small countries with nonviable infrastructure projects and was charging exorbitant rates that the poor countries could not afford, alleged Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats.

"When countries cannot make their payments, China seizes physical control of the assets, with strategic deep-water ports being its top target," he said.

"This debt trap must stop. We are seeing it across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Sri Lanka is now in a terrible constitutional crisis, in part because the country is drowning in unsustainable debt to the Chinese Communists. Sri Lanka has been forced to surrender its sovereignty of its deep-water port, Hambantota," Rohrabacher said.

"The Sri Lankan people are being robbed of their sovereignty and steps -- including a national plebiscite," the top American lawmaker said.