China Premier Li Qiang bought the purple carpet therapy 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 advanced relationship with main buying and selling companions nonetheless beset by simmering disagreements.
However Li was in friendlier territory for his final cease. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, has been way more open towards Beijing and China. In public statements and interviews, Anwar has criticized a rising tide of “China-phobia,” emphasised his nation’s nonaligned standing, referred to as China President Xi Jinping an “excellent” chief, and even stated Malaysia needs 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 pal.”
Throughout Li’s go to, China agreed to permit imports of recent Malaysian durian, a spiky pungent fruit more and more common with Chinese language customers. Beforehand Malaysia, one of many world’s greatest 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 for a terminal of Malaysia’s East Coast Rail Hyperlink (ECRL) in Gombak within the state of Selangor. The bold ECRL undertaking, backed by China, goals to attach the 2 coasts of peninsular Malaysia. China’s premier urged that Beijing is open to connecting the ECRL to different China-funded railway initiatives in Laos and Thailand, increasing China’s Belt and Highway Initiative, the nation’s international infrastructure undertaking, 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 economic system isn’t in the perfect form and also you want all this assist, you’ll be able to’t be picky,” says Ei Solar Oh, senior fellow on the Singapore Institute of Worldwide Affairs.
Malaysia’s GDP grew by 3.7% in 2023, under the federal government’s goal of 4.0% to five.0%. The federal government attributed the weaker-than-expected efficiency to “weak point in exterior demand.” Malaysia’s foreign money, the ringgit, has additionally weakened in current months, making imported items dearer and contributing to inflation.
The economic system is turning into a larger political concern for Anwar: 43% of Malaysians stated they disapproved of the federal government’s dealing with of the economic system, in contrast with 19% a yr earlier, in response to a November ballot from the Merdeka Heart.
Anwar visited China twice final yr, notes Sheana Yue, a Singapore-based economist with Capital Economics, throughout which the prime minister gained some “fairly massive funding offers” 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 holiday makers to the Southeast Asian nation. However numbers haven’t recovered since China lowered its quarantine restrictions in early 2023. Simply 1.5 million Chinese language traveled to Malaysia in 2023, in contrast with 3.1 million in 2019.
Geopolitics can also play a task. Malaysia’s authorities has lengthy pursued a nonaligned technique, which may generally be misunderstood as a pro-China stance, says Rahman Yaacob, a analysis fellow within the Southeast Asia program on the Lowy Institute. “Malaysia is attempting to draw as many funding and commerce companions as doable,” he notes.
Anwar’s openness to becoming a member of BRICS may very well be a play to “improve Malaysia’s international standing,” says Wen Chong Cheah, an Asia analyst with the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Each Cheah and Oh imagine the battle in Gaza may additionally be driving Malaysia’s friendlier relationship with China. Malaysia’s inhabitants largely helps Palestine, and have gone so far as boycotting Western manufacturers like Kentucky Fried Rooster and Starbucks to protest U.S. help for Israel.
Anwar has additionally defended partaking with Hamas, arguing that preserving ties permits him to assist dealer peace within the area.
But Yaacob doesn’t see the battle in Gaza as the rationale driving Anwar’s China tilt. As an alternative, the Lowy Institute analyst interprets the prime minister’s method as a technique to foster a secure economic system.
“Financial stability is important for any authorities to outlive,” he says. Anwar has “firsthand” expertise of that, when he served as Malaysia’s deputy prime minister throughout the Asian Monetary Disaster. “He is aware of that financial issue will result in political and safety instability,” Yaacob says.