China denies funding MR presidential campaign

Colombo (News1st) : Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake made another revelation on the New York Time expose, saying that just over Rs. 19 Million had been deposited to the foundation of Pushpa Rajapaksa, the wife of fmr. Minister Basil Rajapaksa. The deputy minuster claims that the money was deposited through the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd. "It is this newspaper that reported that 7.6 Million Dollars was given for Mahinda's election campaign and that 38,000 Dollars was given to Elle Gunawansa Thero. These are Chinese bribes.", said the Deputy Minister. Deputy Min. Ramanayake went on to add that he is expecting an answer to this from "attorney-at-law- Namal Rajapaksa and fmr. President Mahinda Rajapaksa".

China responds

On the 5th of July, Chinese Embassy officials and representatives from China Harbour hosted a meeting with a selected group of journalists to elaborate on the matter. As reported by the BBC Sinhala Service, China Harbour Engineering Company had refuted the allegations made by New York Times. The company representative had recalled an inquiry carried out in 2015 by Sri Lanka Police on a similar issue. Responding to the statement by China Harbour, minister of Finance and Mass Media Mangala Samaraweera stated that he is not aware of any CID investigation. However, the minister stated that there is another allegation which states that a monk was given US$ 38,000. Min. Samaraweera added that the monk in question has confirmed the fact. "He had said an unknown Chinese man had given the money and left. If the Monk is accepting one of the two main allegations published in the New York Times, it is impossible for us to claim the other allegation is false.", he added.