BEIJING, May 12 (UPI) -- China rejected as "invalid" a published report that its investment in a Sri Lankan port is designed to provide a docking station for its navy.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said the investment in the Hambantota port in south Sri Lanka is for "normal commercial activity" and is not a military project, the China Daily reported Wednesday.
Spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said recent published reports had claimed the Hambantota port will be used as "a refueling and docking station for the Chinese navy," the China Daily said.
"Any distortion of facts would be invalid," Ma said.
Other reports have said the 15-year multimillion dollar port project, which began in 2007, will be developed by China.
"It's an aid project meant to help improve Sri Lanka's shipping and transportation," Fu Xiaoqiang, a senior researcher on South Asian studies at China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, was quoted as saying. "It's just normal business activity, like China's projects in Gwadar in Pakistan, Chittagong in Bangladesh and Sittwe in Myanmar."
