---- Title: How China-backed projects made Sri Lanka’s economic meltdown worse ---- ... Sri Lanka borrowed heavily to plug budget shortfalls and trade deficits, but also squandered huge sums on ill-considered infrastructure projects Many of these projects now gather dust in the home of the powerful Rajapaksa clan, which used billions in Chinese loans in a failed effort to transform the area See Also: ---- Image Caption: China’s President Xi Jinping pictured with Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka’s then-president, during a state visit to Colombo in 2014. Rajapaksa resigned as the island nation’s prime minister this week following months of protests. ---- ... An airport without planes, a revolving restaurant with no diners, a debt-laden seaport – Sri Lanka’s economic crisis has been exacerbated by Chinese-funded projects that stand as neglected monuments to government extravagance. The South Asian island nation borrowed heavily to plug years of budget shortfalls and trade deficits, but squandered huge sums on ill-considered infrastructure projects that have further drained public finances. It is now in the grip of its worst financial crisis since independence from Britain in 1948, with months of blackouts and acute shortages of food and fuel plaguing its 22 million people. ---- Image Caption: Hambantota port, pictured in 2015, was meant to spur industrial activity but has haemorrhaged money from the moment it began operations. ---- ...