It is learnt that Gota visited a Temple (devalaya) in Anuradapura to invoke blessings.
Meanwhile according to Vame Kendraya (Left Centre) the real reason for the holding of Paada Yaathra is to bring Gota as candidate at the next Presidential Election.
UNP’s suspicion :
According to Sath-handa newspaper, the United National Party (UNP) leadership is suspecting China’s influential CICIR (China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations) behind building an alliance between Presient Maithripala Sirisena and the Joint Opposition through former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
A spokesperson for Viyath Maga told Sri Lanka Mirror that Gota has an understanding on not going for any conflict with Sirisena and added that he could no comment any further.
What is CICIR?
In a paper by David Shambaugh titled “China’s International Relations Think Tanks: Evolving Structure and Process,” which appeared The China Quarterly (Vol 171 (Sept 2002) pp 575-596) the author states that the origins of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations can be traced back to the Communist Party’s intelligence operations during the Chinese civil war and Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). Specifically, these early intelligence operations targeted the U.S. Dixie Mission and the Soviet presence in Communist Party bases in Yan’an during the 1940s.
In 1964, then-Premier Zhou Enlai ordered the creation of several colleges and university departments to focus on international affairs. A number of ministries, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Public Security, established their own think tanks and research organizations under the decree. CIIR was established in 1965. At that time, it fell under the Foreign Affairs Leading Group of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, and served a number of senior Communist Party officials. CIIR was the only international relations institute or university in China that did not close during the tumultuous years of the Cultural Revolution.
In 1980, amidst Deng Xiaoping’s reforms and openings to the outside world, CIIR was designated an “open” institution, and was authorized to engage with foreigners as a means of enhancing intelligence collection. It began publishing the journal Xiandai Guoji Guanxi (Contemporary International Relations) in 1981. The journal became quarterly in 1986, and has been published monthly since 1993.
In 1983, CIIR was placed under the bureaucratic management of the newly created Ministry of State Security (MSS). In 1999, it was again placed under the Communist Party’s Central Committee, maintaining strong organizational ties to the MSS and Foreign Affairs Leading Group. In 2009 an article in the Party journal Liaowang, published by Xinhua, called CICR "subordinate" to the MSS. Hong Kong media have disputed its precise institutional position—whether it is actually the intelligence research arm of the MSS—or whether it merely provides "intelligence research and analysis" for the agency.
Given, however, that the Foreign Affairs Leading Group is its principal customer, and it is largely funded by the MSS, it can be called a "Soviet-style intelligence organ."
In 2003, CIIR changed its name from the China Institute of International Relations to the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.
CICIR is affiliated primarily with the Ministry of State Security and not with the Ministry of Education, though domestic Chinese media rarely acknowledge this fact.
A number of cases have been reported of CICIR researchers traveling abroad to collect intelligence for reporting back to the MSS. Gong Uichang, the Minister of State Security since 2007, served as the president of CICIR from 1990-1993. According to David Shambaugh, CICIR's leadership "all share lengthy and shadowy careers in the intelligence services."
CICIR is identified by Stratfor Global Intelligence as belonging to the 8th Bureau of the Ministry of State Security, China's main intelligence agency, and provides intelligence reports to the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China. The organization itself does not speak much about its relationship with the Chinese government, however, and Chinese media reports rarely acknowledge the institution's ties with the regime.
The institute has held considerable influence over China's foreign policy decision-making process due in part to its close organizational proximity to the Communist Party's Central Committee, the Foreign Affairs Leading Group, the Foreign Affairs Office, and the MSS. The institute's relevance to the foreign policy process is further bolstered by its large research staff and ability to produce timely intelligence analysis. This influence has been in decline since the mid-1990s, however, coinciding with the death or retirement of some of its senior researchers, and the growing influence of the Foreign Ministry in foreign policy decision-making.
