Chinese language Premier Li Qiang obtained the pink carpet remedy when he landed within the Southeast Asian nation of Malaysia on Tuesday, the ultimate leg of a three-nation regional tour.
Throughout his first two stops—in New Zealand and Australia—Lee needed to forge troublesome relationships with main buying and selling companions which can be nonetheless at loggerheads.
However Lee’s newest cease was on friendlier territory. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has been way more open to Beijing and China. In public statements and interviews, Anwar criticized the rising wave of “Chinaphobia”, emphasised his nation’s non-aligned standing, referred to as Chinese language President Xi Jinping a “nice” chief and even stated that Malaysia needs to hitch the worldwide BRICS group of nations. Lee’s go to.
By the point Lee left Malaysia on Thursday, Anwar had referred to as China a “true pal”.
Throughout Li’s go to, China agreed to permit imports of contemporary Malaysian durian, a spicy fruit that has turn out to be more and more fashionable with Chinese language shoppers. Beforehand, Malaysia, one of many world’s largest producers of durian, might solely provide frozen durian and associated merchandise to China. Final yr, Malaysia exported $253 million price of frozen durian merchandise to China.
China and Malaysia signed greater than a dozen agreements throughout Li’s time within the Southeast Asian nation, together with a brand new five-year commerce and financial cooperation settlement.
Lee additionally attended the ground-breaking ceremony for the East Coast Rail Hyperlink (ECRL) terminal in Gombak, Selangor. The bold China-backed ECRL venture goals to attach the 2 coasts of Peninsular Malaysia. China’s premier has instructed Beijing is prepared to attach the ECRL to different Chinese language-funded rail tasks in Laos and Thailand, increasing China’s Belt and Highway Initiative, the nation’s world infrastructure venture, additional into the area.
Why are Malaysia and Anwar so good to China?
China has been Malaysia’s largest buying and selling companion for greater than a decade, that means the Southeast Asian nation ought to stay in Beijing’s good books.
“In case your economic system shouldn’t be in one of the best form and also you want all this assist, you may’t be choosy,” says Ai Quickly Oh, a senior fellow on the Singapore Institute of Worldwide Affairs.
Malaysia’s GDP grew by 3.7% in 2023, beneath the federal government’s goal of 4.0-5.0%. The federal government attributed the weaker-than-expected outcomes to “weak exterior demand.” Malaysia’s foreign money, the ringgit, has additionally weakened in latest months, making imported items costlier and fueling inflation.
The economic system is turning into a much bigger political concern for Anwar, with 43% of Malaysians saying they disapprove of the federal government’s dealing with of the economic system, up from 19% a yr earlier, in keeping with a Merdeka Middle ballot in November.
Anwar visited China twice final yr, notes Sheana Yue, a Singapore-based economist at Capital Economics, throughout which the prime minister received some “fairly huge funding offers” with Chinese language companies.
Yue factors to the enlargement of visa-free journey between China and Malaysia as a tangible good thing about Li’s journey. Earlier than the COVID pandemic, China was the third largest supply of tourists to the Southeast Asian nation. However numbers haven’t recovered since China eased quarantine restrictions in early 2023. A complete of 1.5 million Chinese language visited Malaysia in 2023, up from 3.1 million in 2019.
Geopolitics may play a job. The Malaysian authorities has lengthy pursued a method of non-alignment, which might typically be misconstrued as a pro-China stance, stated Rahman Jacob, a fellow within the Southeast Asia program on the Lowy Institute. “Malaysia seeks to draw as many funding and commerce companions as potential,” he notes.
Anwar’s openness to becoming a member of BRICS could possibly be a play to “elevate Malaysia’s world standing,” says Wen Chong Cheah, an Asia analyst on the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Each Cheah and Oh imagine that the battle in Gaza might contribute to a friendlier relationship between Malaysia and China. The Malaysian inhabitants is essentially pro-Palestine and has gone as far as to boycott Western manufacturers similar to Kentucky Fried Hen and Starbucks to protest US help for Israel.
Anwar has additionally defended his engagement with Hamas, arguing that sustaining ties permits him to assist deliver peace to the area.
Nonetheless, Jacob doesn’t see the battle in Gaza as the rationale that drove Anwar to China. As an alternative, the Lowy Institute analyst interprets the prime minister’s method as a option to promote a steady economic system.
“Financial stability is important for the survival of any authorities,” he says. Anwar has “first-hand” expertise of this when he served as Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia through the Asian monetary disaster. “He is aware of that financial difficulties will result in political and safety instability,” says Jacob.