China's expansionist playbook: A case study

A collection of essays brings out the various challenging facets of Sri Lankan politics and its foreign policy, constantly attempting to balance the pulls and pressures of its geopolitical environment

Teardrop Diplomacy: China’s Sri Lanka Foray 

Author: Asanga Abeyagoonasekera 

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Pages: 312

Price: Rs 699

Asanga Abeyagoonasekera’s book Teardrop Diplomacy explains how China acquired, within the space of a few years, overweening influence in Sri Lanka. It is a compilation of essays and articles he has written, “from the rise of the Rajapaksha regime in 2019 to the political-economic crisis in 2022”. These pieces, grouped in five sections, cover the steady expansion of China’s political and economic engagement in Sri Lanka, the impact of a more competitive geopolitical environment on the country, the triangular India-US-China dynamic, the drivers of Sri Lanka’s foreign policy, its