JAFFNA, SRI LANKA, December 17, 2021 (Indian Express): Taking off their shirts and wearing traditional white veshtis, the bare-chested men, carrying trays laden with fruit and puja offerings, entered the temple. Nothing unusual because that’s the practice at the Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil, a temple near Jaffna in Sri Lanka. But the man who dressed as a devotee and led the others into the temple Thursday stood out — Qi Zenhong, China’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka. Ambassador Qi is touring Sri Lanka’s Tamil-dominated Northern Province, wooing an ethnic minority that has traditionally been close to India.
While this is not the first time that a Chinese diplomat has visited the Northern Province, it may be the first time that any Chinese ambassador has stayed overnight and engaged in such extensive public diplomacy in the peninsula where India takes its diplomatic and political influence for granted because of the ties of history, language, culture that have remained strong. Chinese interests and its infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka have been largely focussed on the Sinhala south. While the Chinese have constructed roads and houses in the war-ravaged Tamil areas, Qi’s visit, which included a tour of Vavuniya and Mannar districts too, indicate a desire to expand the engagement on turf where political and people-to-people ties with India are strong.
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/beijing-bares-it-in-jaffna-warms-up-to-tamils-in-sri-lanka-7676867/