Even before Pompeo arrived, China had replied to US messages, accusing Washington of oppressing smaller nations. Pompeo, who will also visit Indonesia, is pressing every country to fight China’s growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific.

US officials have complained that development and infrastructure projects benefit China more than recipients expected – a statement Pompeo repeated with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena. Pompeo said the country could be a “beacon” for freedom and democracy in the region as long as it retains “complete sovereignty.”

“It’s a stark contrast to what China is looking for,” said Pompeo. “The Chinese Communist Party is a predator. The United States exists in a different way. We come as friends and partners.”

President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told Pompeo he was not prepared to compromise his country’s sovereignty in relation to other countries, the president’s office said.

He defended the Chinese-funded projects, saying Beijing had helped develop the country’s infrastructure and that Sri Lanka was not caught in a “debt trap” as a result, he said.

Gunawardena also appeared unwilling to get involved in a dispute with China, and said Sri Lanka was willing to cooperate with all friendly countries.

“Sri Lanka is a neutral, non-aligned country committed to peace,” he said. “We look forward to continuing our relationship with the United States and with others.”

Earlier this month, Beijing announced that it would provide Sri Lanka with a $ 90 million grant to help with rural development, after Rajapaksa asked for help from a visiting Chinese delegation to deny the perception that a major Chinese-funded project was a “debt trap.”

Likewise, the Maldives, a small island nation in the Indian Ocean known for its luxury tourist resorts, faces huge debt of more than $ 1 billion for Chinese infrastructure projects. President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has expressed concern about the number.

In response to US concerns about Chinese influence, Pompeo announced that the US would open an embassy in the Maldives for the first time since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1966.

Cooperation between the US and the Maldives has “acquired new importance as the Chinese Communist Party continues its lawless and threatening behavior,” Pompeo said. He accused China of encroaching on a sovereign economic zone, “polluting the environment” and large-scale illegal fishing. “America is different,” he said. We respect sovereignty.

Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid did not name China but said his country needed “more flexibility” in international debt relief and a pressing international consensus on climate change, which he described as an existential threat to its nation. He also said security in the Indo-Pacific depended on strengthening cooperation between the Maldives and the United States.

China views Sri Lanka and, to a lesser extent, the Maldives to be an important link in a major global “Belt and Road” infrastructure development initiative and has provided billions of dollars in loans for projects over the past decade. The projects include seaports, airports, port cities, roads and power plants in Sri Lanka and roads and bridges in the Maldives.

Critics like the US say that the Chinese-funded project is not financially viable, and that Sri Lanka and the Maldives will face difficulties in repaying loans.

In 2017, Sri Lanka leased a Chinese-made port located near a busy shipping route to a Chinese company for 99 years to recover from the heavy burden of repaying Chinese loans the country received to build it.

Responding to Pompeo’s remarks in Sri Lanka, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the foreign minister’s real intention was to “let China fall back into an era of poverty and underdevelopment, and let the world fall into the brink of confrontation and division.”

“This is simply the biggest threat facing the world today. But sadly, Pompeo was born at the wrong time. The trends of peace, development, cooperation and win-win in this era are very interesting, ”Wang told reporters at a daily briefing on Wednesday.

China will “continue to work with Sri Lanka to continue developing strategic cooperation and partnership between the two countries, benefiting both nations and making our own contributions to regional peace and stability,” Wang said.

The tug of war between the US and China counters concerns that the Sri Lankan government is retreating on democratic reforms. Last week, Parliament by overwhelming majority approved constitutional amendments that centralized power under Rajapaksa and reversed the previous government’s efforts to curb authoritarianism.

With this change, Rajapaksa will be able to hold the ministry, as well as appoint and fire ministers. He will also be the designating authority for elections, public service, police, human rights, bribery or corruption investigation commission.

In his meeting with Rajapaska, Pompeo “stressed the importance of strengthening democratic governance, protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms to ensure long-term stability and prosperity,” the State Department said in a statement.

Sri Lanka has been ruled under a strong executive presidential system since 1978, but the reformist government in 2015 cut off most of the president’s powers and handed it over to Parliament and independent commissions, saying successive presidents were more authoritarian.

Pompeo arrived in Sri Lanka late Tuesday from India, where he and Defense Secretary Mark Esper have bolstered the Trump administration’s anti-China message by playing on Indian suspicions about China to shore up a regional front against Beijing in the Indo-Pacific.

Just hours before the meeting in New Delhi began, the Trump administration notified Congress about a planned $ 2.37 billion sale of the Harpoon missile system to Taiwan – the second major arms sale in two weeks to a democratic island that Beijing considers a rebel province. China angrily reacted to the first sale by announcing sanctions on US defense contractors.

Associated Press writer Krishan Francis in Colombo, Sri Lanka, contributed to this report.