There are a ton of details and connections packed into Roshan de Silva’s article, and I’m determined not to let them fade into the ether of “irrelevant information.” Contrary to what some might say, our speculations are anything but idle, and this information deserves to be seen.
Roshan De Silva
Roshan De Silva in 2049.
Birth name: Roshan De Silva
Born: November 26th 1999 (age 49) in Hambantota, Sri Lanka
Nationality: Sri Lankan
Occupation: Political strategist
Known for: Chief advisor to Xu Shaoyong
Spouse: Marnie Wakely (2041 - present)
Children: Yennis Wakely (adopted in 2042)
Roshan De Silva (born November 26th 1999) is a Sri Lankan financier, business executive, and political strategist. As chief advisor and wealth manager of Xu Shaoyong, De Silva holds executive or administrative positions in different Zhupao endeavours.
Born in Hambantota, De Silva studied at Tsinghua University and worked at various companies before entering politics. He served as special advisor to Mikhail Cader from 2032 to 2035, eventually returning to Sri Lanka in 2038 and joining the administration of President Victor Senanayake.
In 2040, De Silva moved to Zhupao to serve as the company’s liaison to Sri Lanka. He developed close ties with Xu, becoming his chief advisor as well as Zhupao’s crisis manager following the 2045 data breach that leaked confidential information about G6.
Early life and education
Roshan De Silva was born on November 26th 1999 in Hambantota, Sri Lanka as the only child of S. D. L. De Silva, a political activist with significant connections to the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), and Minette Senanayake, heir to the Senanayake Group. After graduating from Royal College in Colombo in 2017, De Silva was offered admission to the University of Moratuwa, but chose to study Computer Science at Tsinghua University at his mother’s insistence. [1]
After graduating in 2021, De Silva started working for Apprise, where he focused on artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted mental healthcare. In 2023, De Silva moved to Sinolanka Logistics, a drone shipping company owned and operated by the Senanayake Group. As director of operations, De Silva oversaw Sinolanka’s operations and hired Moratuwa graduates to write the drone fleet’s AI software. He left the company in 2026 and travelled for two years.
Political career
In 2029, De Silva moved to London City and joined the Nightwatch Initiative as campaign director, shifting the group’s targets from policymakers to university students. He published a series of articles and papers in university journals, and conducted an extensive series of speaking tours in collaboration with well-known privacy advocates. At the Nightwatch Initiative, De Silva was described as “a straight talker who knows full well the dystopia we’re heading into, coming as he does from Sri Lanka.”
From 2032 to 2035, De Silva served as special advisor to Mikhail Cader, who lauded his expertise as “vital for preserving global trade between London City and the former Commonwealth in a time of protectionism and backwards barbarism.” During this time, De Silva championed several trade deals with Sri Lanka, including tariff reductions on services and a free trade agreement with Port City Colombo. In June 2035, De Silva was accused of making false statements and spreading rumours to discredit Cader’s opposition at the time, using the same network of university-related contracts that he had built up during his time at the Nightwatch Initiative.
In October 2035, De Silva moved to the United Nations Futures Research Agency (UNFRA), where he contributed to various research and advocacy projects related to global health and biosurveillance. Known for his bluntness, De Silva brought in several of his former colleagues at the Nightwatch Initiative to “beg, browbeat, and massage policies.” In May 2037, Sofia Peña brought charges of sexual harassment and bullying against De Silva, who resigned from the UNFRA after the case was settled out of court.
Return to Sri Lanka
In 2038, De Silva returned to Sri Lanka, where Sinolanka had grown significantly through its handling of logistics between Port City Colombo, London City, and Tianjin. While Sri Lanka had profited from the trade agreements that De Silva had engineered, the country’s subsequent position as a trade intermediary for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was the subject of public protests from several groups concerned with Sri Lankan sovereignty.
In April 2038, De Silva became chief advisor to Sri Lankan President Victor Senanayake, with rumours that he had been appointed as a member of parliament. In December 2039, De Silva stirred controversy when he suggested on national stream that Cariappa-Muren disease (CMD) might have been engineered by Indian pharmaceutical corporations, singling out Sunil Cariappa as “suspiciously placed at every turn made by this pandemic.” When asked to comment, De Silva pointed to his time at the UNFRA, during which he repeatedly advocated for “a next-generation public health system that uses heavy data analysis and AI to predict and mitigate biorisk.”
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Xu Shaoyong, pictured in 2049.
In June 2040, De Silva arranged a public meeting between President Senanayake and Xu Shaoyong to discuss Sri Lanka’s adoption of G6. On August 9th 2040, the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) signed a memorandum of understanding with Zhupao for a G6 trial across thirty state hospitals.
Following the deal, Sinolanka and various Senanayake corporations invested a 2% stake in Zhupao, valued at ¥3.2 billion. De Silva was offered the post of Sri Lankan Ambassador to China, but he elected to leave government and take up a position as Zhupao’s liaison to Sri Lanka. [2]
Zhupao
After the United Nations (UN) passed Resolution ES-13/6 in February 2041, De Silva started touring various countries that were in the process of organising national referendums and snap elections to vote on the adoption of G6. He appeared at speaking events, organised seminars, and often served as an informal advisor to pro-G6 political parties and organisations.
De Silva promoted a simplified messaging strategy tailored to make CMD appear more dangerous than it really is, which was reflected in political appeals that directly referenced G6’s use of neural colloids to continuously monitor individual CMD infections. Such appeals were demonstrably more successful in leveraging votes in favour of implementing G6, which famously labelled De Silva as “a vector for CMD phobia.”
In July 2041, De Silva brokered a deal between Sri Lanka and Sanial for the construction of eight colloid manufacturing facilities in the Katana industrial park on the outskirts of Colombo. [3] On the insistence of De Silva, the deal included a clause that ensured Sanial would not have to declare its colloid production process with the ICTA.
In June 2041, World News Wire (WNW) released The State of G6, a long-form documentary on G6 and the implications of its spread. The documentary included a section on De Silva, exploring allegations that he was using Zhupao funds to build and operate “a global disinformation network that would put any Cold War spycraft to shame.” The documentary highlighted De Silva’s role in Zhupao’s illegal neural mining operation as well as the company’s mass brainjacking campaign to cover it up. In response, De Silva sued WNW for libel, though the case never went to court, as WNW was liquidated by the Senanayake Group on June 16th 2041.
In December 2045, Five of Swords (FoS) accused De Silva of having “masterminded the fiction of Adira” as an elusive hacker or hacking collective to “attribute any G6 security flaws and breaches to a nebulous, unaccountable origin with the intent of bolstering the appearance of the system’s infallibility while making everyone chase a ghost.” [4] In 2048, FoS highlighted De Silva as responsible for the campaign behind Wikipedia’s shutdown.
2049 cyberattack
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Roshan De Silva was briefly believed to have been killed in the cyberattack that claimed the lives of Xu Shaoyong and Yuri Golitsyn.
Following the assassination of Xu and Yuri Golitsyn on October 1st 2049, De Silva was suspected of having been aboard Xu’s helicopter when it was shot down. De Silva later reported his status as “unharmed,” stating that he is “coordinating with authorities and Zhupao officials to address this ongoing crisis with due consideration.” He claims to have had “no knowledge of any planned meeting between [Xu] and Golitsyn.”
On October 6th 2049, The People’s Daily singled out De Silva as a “kingmaker” in Zhupao’s succession crisis, leading to questions whether he will continue to serve as chief advisor to newly installed executive chair Chen Lei. [5]
Personal life
In 2041, De Silva married Marnie Wakely, a reporter for The Guardian. In 2042, they adopted a child from Bangladesh. De Silva divides his time between Shanghai, Colombo, and London City.
De Silva’s former thesis advisor described him to WNW as “hungry, fizzing with ideas, with a huge chip on his shoulder.”
See also
References
- Toone, T. (October 2045). “Who is Roshan De Silva? Sri Lankan minarchist becomes top advisor to Xu Shaoyong, world’s richest man.” Deseret News.
- Alexander, S. (July 2042). “Xu Shaoyong’s Fixer Is Quietly Tending the World’s Biggest Fortune.” Bloomberg News.
- Senevirathne, W. (July 2041). “Zhupao fast-tracks development of colloid plants in Sri Lanka to avoid further delays to G6 rollout.” Lankadeepa.
- Five of Swords. (December 2045). “The Spin Doctor.” Vessel.
- Wang, D. (October 2049). “Zhupao wrestling with looming succession crisis.” The People’s Daily.