China premier Li Qiang received the crimson carpet remedy when he landed within the Southeast Asian nation of Malaysia on Tuesday, the final leg of a three-country regional tour.
Throughout his first two stops—New Zealand and Australia—Li needed to navigate a complicated relationship with main buying and selling companions nonetheless beset by simmering disagreements.
However Li was in friendlier territory for his final cease. Malaysia’s prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, has been far more open in direction of Beijing and China. In public statements and interviews, Anwar has criticized a rising tide of “China-phobia,” emphasised the nation’s non-aligned standing, referred to as China’s president Xi Jinping an “outstanding” chief, and even mentioned Malaysia desires to affix the BRICS worldwide grouping of nations forward of Li’s go to.
By the point Li left Malaysia on Thursday, Anwar had referred to as China a “true friend”.
Throughout Li’s go to, China agreed to permit imports of recent Malaysian durian, a spiky pungent fruit more and more fashionable with Chinese language shoppers. Beforehand Malaysia, one of many world’s largest producers of durian, might solely ship frozen durian and associated merchandise to China. Malaysia exported $253 million price of frozen durian merchandise to China final yr.
China and Malaysia signed over a dozen pacts throughout Li’s time within the Southeast Asian nation, together with a brand new five-year deal for commerce and financial cooperation.
Li additionally attended a groundbreaking ceremony of a terminal of Malaysia’s East Coast Rail Hyperlink (ECRL) in Gombak within the state of Selangor. The formidable ECRL mission, backed by China, goals to attach the 2 coasts of peninsular Malaysia. China’s premier recommended that Beijing is open to connecting the ECRL to different China-funded railway tasks in Laos and Thailand, increasing China’s Belt and Highway Initiative, the nation’s world infrastructure mission, additional into the area.
Why are Malaysia and Anwar being so good to China?
China has been Malaysia’s largest buying and selling companion for over a decade, that means the Southeast Asian nation wants to stay in Beijing’s good books.
“When your economy is not in the best shape and you need all this help, you can’t be choosy,” Ei Solar Oh, a senior fellow on the Singapore Institute of Worldwide Affairs, says.
Malaysia’s GDP grew by 3.7% in 2023, beneath the federal government’s goal of 4.0 to five.0%. The federal government attributed the weaker-than-expected efficiency to “weakness in external demand.” Malaysia’s foreign money, the ringgit, has additionally weakened in latest months, making imported items costlier and contributing to inflation.
The financial system is turning into a larger political concern for Anwar. 43% of Malaysians mentioned they disapproved of the federal government’s dealing with of the financial system, in comparison with 19% a yr earlier, in line with a November ballot from the Merdeka Heart.
Anwar visited China twice final yr, notes Sheana Yue, a Singapore-based economist with Oxford Economics, the place the prime minister received some “pretty large investment deals” from Chinese language companies.
Yue factors to an extension of visa-free journey preparations between China and Malaysia as a tangible profit from Li’s journey. Earlier than the COVID pandemic, China was the third-largest supply of tourists for the Southeast Asian nation. However numbers haven’t recovered since China lowered its quarantine restrictions in early 2023. Simply 1.5 million Chinese language guests went to Malaysia in 2023, in comparison with 3.1 million in 2019.
Geopolitics may additionally play a task. Malaysia’s authorities has lengthy pursued a non-aligned technique, which might typically be misunderstood as a pro-China stance, Rahman Yaacob, a analysis fellow for the Southeast Asia program on the Lowy Institute, says. “Malaysia is trying to attract as many investment and trade partners as possible,” he says.
Anwar’s openness to becoming a member of BRICS might be a play to “enhance Malaysia’s global standing,” Wen Chong Cheah, an Asia analyst with the Economist Intelligence Unit, says.
Each Cheah and Oh consider the warfare in Gaza may additionally be driving Malaysia’s friendlier relationship with China. Malaysia’s inhabitants largely helps Palestine, and have gone so far as to boycott Western manufacturers like Kentucky Fried Rooster and Starbucks to protest U.S. assist for Israel.
Anwar has additionally defended participating with Hamas, arguing that preserving ties permits him to assist dealer peace within the area.
But Rahman doesn’t see the warfare in Gaza as the rationale driving Anwar’s China tilt. As a substitute, the Lowy Institute analyst sees the prime minister’s method as a technique to get a steady financial system.
“Economic stability is necessary for any government to survive,” he says. Anwar has “first hand” expertise of that, when he served as Malaysia’s deputy prime minister throughout the Asian Monetary Disaster. “He knows that economic difficulty will lead to political and security instability,” Rahman says.
