![]() ![]() Throughout two millennia, the dynasties of Han, Tang, Ming, and others have enjoyed a long line of cultural, diplomatic, military, and commercial interactions with Sri Lanka. The earliest Silk Road that expanded from the Han Dynasty turned China into a cosmopolitan nation in the Tang Dynasty (618–907). The ancient Buddhist Island is pivotal to the master plan of the 2049 centennial goal of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the completion of its great rejuvenation. ![]() With his vision of national rejuvenation, Xi has a clear mission of policy “ connectivity” in the East, South, and West Sea regions that is interwoven with the thriving civilizational-state returning to its old glory. He described Sri Lanka as a “splendid pearl.” As part of his Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Xi unveiled the Chinese-funded Colombo Port City on the land reclaimed from the Indian Ocean and signed more than 20 cooperative agreements with Sri Lanka. In his third voyage in 1409, Admiral Zheng erected a Trilingual Inscription in the port city of Galle in Sri Lanka for “a peaceful world built on trade.” Six centuries later, President Xi Jinping made his first historic visit to the island in September 2014. The Ming admiral visited Sri Lanka three times, reviving the Middle Kingdom’s cultural, diplomatic, and trade relations with the island-nation of Buddhist Kingdom that dated back to the Han Dynasty. Demonstrating its unprecedented maritime superiority in the world’s history, the Ming armada reached more than 30 countries in the “Western Ocean” from 1405 to 1433. The nomenclature of “Western Ocean” or the “West Sea” started with the seven historic “Ming Treasure Voyages” of Admiral Zheng He (1371–1433). The other two symbolic seas-Lake Baikal in the north and Qinghai Lake in the west-defined the boundaries of the Middle Kingdom since the second imperial Han Dynasty (202 BC–220 AD). In the Chinese civilization, the East and South China Seas represent the two bodies of water in each of the four cardinal directions. Would it be part of President Xi Jinping’s “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and culture” in the new era to show the dominance of China’s propaganda superiority and global “wolf warrior” diplomacy? Past Is Prologue for China ![]() Notwithstanding that it has not yet been deliberately expressed by the Chinese government, Beijing might eventually rename the Indian Ocean the “Western Ocean” to impose its own lexicon, as historic pattern seems to suggest. In Chinese literature and poetry, this body of water has historically been called the “ Western Ocean” or the “West Sea” since the Ming Dynasty (1429–1644). Similarly, over the last 15 years, China has shrewdly been sending submarines and surveillance ships to the Indian Ocean. It started with Beijing’s historical claims to the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands-called Diaoyu Islands by China-in the East China Sea then China began claiming the South China Sea and building artificial islands and military bases in the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands region. With its assertive foreign policy, China has been striving increasingly to become a maritime superpower to replace the United States in the Indo-Pacific region. ![]()
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