NEW YORK (Xinhua) -- The New York Times has attributed Sri Lanka 's economic and political collapse largely to Western debt traps.

The newspaper said in an opinion article signed by Sri Lankan writer Indrajit Samarajiva on Monday that the Western media accuses China of dragging us into debt traps, "but as far as I look, the final blame lies with the neoliberal system dominated by the West that keeps developing countries in a form of colonialism that is fueled by it." Debts".

The writer stated that despite Western allegations of unfair lending to China, only 10 to 20 percent of Sri Lanka's external debt is owed to China, noting that the majority of the debt belongs to "the United States and European financial institutions or Western allies such as Japan."

"We have died largely in a Western debt trap," Samarajiva wrote.