Scott Wingo

Images: Two different heads of state, and two very different relationships with China. Image left: Xi Jinping accompanies Djiboutian President Omar Ismail Guellah for a welcoming reception during the latter’s visit to Beijing in November 2017. PRC state media used the occasion to announce a “strategic relationship” between the two countries (Source: Xinhua, November 23, 2017). Image right: Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in a November 2019 interview, during which he declared intent to renegotiate the terms of the agreement that gave the PRC a 99-year lease (and de facto control) of the Hambantota Port (Source: Sri Lanka Guardian, November 25, 2019).