Chinese president Xi Jinping visited Sri Lanka in 2014 September and entered into many agreements with then President Mahinda Rajapakse and issued a joint statement. A part of the Joint statement stated:
‘Sri Lanka welcomes and supports the proposal put forward by China to build the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, and will actively participate and cooperate in this initiative. The two sides agreed to further promote investment in the Magampura/ Hambantota Port Project. The two sides agreed to enhance maritime cooperation and proceed with the construction of the Colombo Port City Project. The two sides signed the agreement on the operation of Magampura/Hambantota Port Development Project (Phase II), and announced the establishment of a Joint Committee on Coastal and Marine Cooperation to explore the feasibility of areas for cooperation which would include ocean observation, ecosystem protection, marine and coastal zone management, and search for wreckage of Zheng He.
He’s fleets off the Coast of Sri Lanka, maritime security, combating piracy, search and rescue, and navigation security.
No one noticed the Chinese President’s interest in searching for the wrecked ship of Chinese Admiral Zheng He. After that, China started sending research ships to Sri Lanka to search for this admiral’s wrecked ship. Sri Lanka granted permission recently to Chinese ship that too comes for ocean research and in search of the Admiral’s ship as China implies.
Chinese Admiral Zheng He was born to a Muslim family. Later he changed his name. His treasure fleet came to Sri Lanka in 1410-1411. He came to Ceylon before the Portuguese came to Ceylon. Alakeshwara was ruling Sri Lanka when he came to Sri Lanka. He hailed from a South Indian family which came here and won the trust of the kings of Ceylon. His family members have hold ministerial positions under the kings of Sri Lanka from time to time. Veera Alakeshwara from that family became the ruler of Kotte kingdom.
When the Chinese admiral came to Ceylon, Alakeshwara tricked the Chinese admiral and his army into the kingdom of Kotte and then surrounded him there. Alakeshwara’s plan was to launch a surprise attack to the ship of the Chinese admiral. Enraged by this, the Chinese admiral conquered the kingdom of Kotte and arrested Alakeswara and his family. The Sinhalese army fought under the leadership of Alakeshwara surrendered to the Chinese admiral. This war is referred as Ming-Kotte war. The Chinese admiral then took Veera Alakeswara to China, and the Chinese emperor allied with Parakramabahu VI and made him the ruler of the Kotte kingdom, overthrowing Veera Alakeswara’s reign. When Parakramabahu VI became king, China started sending treasure fleet to Sri Lanka.
Chinese Admiral Zheng He is an invader. When Chinese President Xi Jinping came to Sri Lanka he showed his interest to find the wrecked ship or may be some other hidden reasons. For that he sends research ships to Sri Lanka. India calls those ships as spy ships. In 2003, then Prime Minister Ranil met the Portuguese Prime Minister at the UN general assembly and invited him to come to Sri Lanka to celebrate the 5000th anniversary of the Portuguese landing into Sri Lanka in 2005. Sri Lanka Freedom Party, JVP and left-wing parties in the opposition at that time protested against this move claiming that celebrating the arrival of the invaders was a disgrace to the country. It is such a disgrace to allow Chinese ships to come and search for the Chinese invader Admiral’s ship. But their silence about it shows their hypocrisy.