Male, February 13 (newsin.asia): The Chinese embassy in the Maldives has appealed to the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party ((MDP) leader, Mohamed Nasheed, not to make baseless allegations like China is “grabbing land” in the Maldives and that it has bought over 17 islands.

In a statement issued on Tuesday ,the embassy said: “Public statistics show that in the last four years, foreign companies from 30 countries have invested in 124 tourist islands in the Maldives. Chinese companies have planned to invest no more than seven tourist islands in the Maldives, ranking sixth among all foreign investments, and accounting for only 5.65% of total number of investment projects.”

“As per available data source, Chinese companies are only involved in few  tourist resorts islands among over 100 tourist islands in the Maldives. Therefore the information which Nasheed mentioned is seriously inconsistent with basic facts.”

“The hardworking Chinese employees work day and night to help the Maldivians further upgrade their infrastructure and improve livelihood so as to realize the mutual benefit and win-win cooperation.”

“The economic and social development of Maldives has made remarkable progress and the living standards of the people have been improved, which the international community including China is happy to see,” the statement said.

“False allegations such as island grabbing， occupation of land and undermining the security of the region seriously hurt the feelings of the Chinese people,” the embassy said.

Sino-Maldivian Cooperation in Nasheed’s Time  

The statement recalled that China had been conducted friendly and mutual-beneficial cooperation with previous governments of the Maldives also.

“Housing projects, Lamuu link road started during the tenure of Nasheed as President. It is believed that. Nasheed himself has  personal experience of the benefits brought by the China-Maldives cooperation to the people of the Maldives,” the statement said

And wondered why “Nasheed supported such economic and trade cooperation during his tenure and is now strongly opposed to it; why he is fabricating  information to discredit normal bilateral cooperation between the two countries?”

“ These questions do arise in the minds of the Chinese,” the statement said.

“China and Maldives are jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative under the principle of wide consultation, joint contribution and mutual benefit, which benefits the people of the two countries and accords with the interests of two peoples.”

“The Chinese side will steadily move forward the construction of major projects including China-Maldives Friendship Bridge according to the consensus of the two leaders of the two countries. We hope this will benefit the life of the Maldivian people at an early date.”

In conclusion the statement said: “The Chinese side sincerely hopes that Nasheed to have a clear picture of the situation and view China-Maldives cooperation in an objective, fair and balanced way, and stop making false remarks.”

“It is also hoped that Nasheed would take a long-term perspective and do make positive contributions to the development of the bilateral relationship.”

Internal Matter

“The Chinese side regards what happens now in the Maldives falls within that country’s internal affairs. The international community should play a constructive role on the basis of respecting the Maldives’ sovereignty and will rather than take actions that may complicate the situation.”

“ We believe that Maldivian government, parties and people have the wisdom and capability to stabilize the situation. We hope various parties properly resolve the differences through dialogue and negotiation to maintain the nation and the people’s life stable,” the Chinese embassy in Male said

(The featured image at the top shows Chinese Ambassador Zhang Lizhong  with the Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen)