Building and leasing an oversized commercial port is a kind of expensive plan if all they wanted was a naval base. Last I heard, the Sri Lankan government expre

Building and leasing an oversized commercial port is a kind of expensive plan if all they wanted was a naval base. Last I heard, the Sri Lankan government expressly forbade China from using the port for military purposes and instead moved their own base there: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sri-lanka-china-port/sri-lanka-to-shift-naval-base-to-china-controlled-port-city-idUSKBN1JS22H https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sri-lanka-china-port/sri-... So whether the primary aim was economic or military doesn't matter much, since the outcome was an expensive failure either way.