What Is The Deal Between China And Malaysia
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to Malaysia was filled with promises of a win-win cooperation between both nations and here we highlight the main points of this cooperation.
However, before we go deeper into the China-Malaysia relations, we have to look at what is happening around us in the region.
In a meeting with Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah, the Chinese official discussed bilateral relations. What we know is from the media conference that followed their meeting.
Wang Yi said, China and Malaysia are good friends with our friendship dating back to over a thousand years ago, and also good partners for win-win cooperation.
Currently, China-Malaysia relations are presented with new development opportunities, certainly after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
In WorldFuture’s view, the Western world’s attacks against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine in February this year, are more of political and economic revenge, rather than an attempt to stop the war.
This has presented an opportunity for China to iron its ties with some of the ‘friendly’ nations in Southeast Asia.
The Asean remains a major trade and business player in China’s view. And clearing the wrong impressions after the COVID-19 outbreak (said to be from China) and the debacle of the Chinese delegation during the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore is of utmost importance for China.
Malaysia is altogether against the formation of the AUKUS.
In an effort to counter China, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia have announced a historic security pact in the Asia-Pacific region in 2021.
Under the Aukus deal, Australia will be able to build nuclear-powered submarines for the first time, using US technology.
According to analysts, the Aukus pact, which will also cover AI and other technologies, is one of the countries’ largest defence partnerships in decades.
The agreement has been branded “extremely irresponsible” by China.
SINGAPORE
The recent tirade against China at the Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore is a sign that the West is not relinquishing its pressure on China.
While Donald Trump’s trade war against China is dampened by the White House’s reticence to continue the latter’s policies, the Biden administration did not end the ‘war’.
The U.S. and China are de-facto still in a trade dispute started by the Trump administration. According to Forbes, since the percentage of U.S. imports coming from China has dropped to levels not seen since 2008, the U.S with Biden can already declare victory.
The Biden administration, the portal says, should now engage China on bigger, more difficult issues.
The events listed above are enough reasons for China to globetrot in search of friends and in a bid to revisit old friends, like Malaysia.
Keep your friends close
China has understood one thing since Chairman Mao: Without friends at the forefront, you can’t beat the capitalists.
However, China has always wanted the ‘benefit’ of having such friends. Will China have to spend more than necessary to keep these friends on its side? Can they be bought by ‘enemies’ such as the U.S. or U.K. and so on?
These are some of the worries the Chinese have and they shared them with Malaysia.
The Chinese side is ready to work with the Malaysian side to recall original aspirations, build on past achievements and forge ahead for the future.
“We should set new goals and clarify new priorities for bilateral relations, so as to push bilateral cooperation to scale new heights. During the visit, the two sides reached a series of important consensus,” says Wang Yi.
New priorities based on the recent backlash against China and also on how Malaysia can contribute in getting China’s Asean push back on the rails.
China can depend largely on Cambodia, Laos and to some extent the Philippines. But now it has Malaysia and Indonesia, two major economic powers in the region (with their potential) as economic allies.
For Wang Yi, this is a big deal.
“We have clarified the general direction of jointly building a China-Malaysia community with a shared future, which will endow the China-Malaysia comprehensive strategic partnership with new connotations of the times and open up broader development prospects for bilateral cooperation,” he says.
The two sides agreed to advance high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and promote the implementation of the Global Development Initiative.
“We will take the opportunity of the 10th anniversary of the “Two Countries, Twin Parks” to build an area of pioneering efforts for innovative development of economy and trade, and an area of demonstration for production capacity cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, foster new growth drivers for cooperation such as digital economy and green development, and jointly enhance competitiveness and development level,” a report from Wang Yi’s visit on China’s Foreign Ministry portal says.
Regional peace
After mentioning the economic benefits of these ties, then comes the political ones.
“The two sides built political consensus on maintaining regional peace and stability. The two sides will advocate true multilateralism, act on open regionalism, safeguard ASEAN centrality, reject bloc confrontation and Cold War mentality, speed up consultations on a code of conduct in the South China Sea, and jointly build the South China Sea into a sea of peace and cooperation,” the ministry portal says.
While the Code of Conduct remains an elusive document so far, the truth of the matter is that China has an upper hand in the SCS and nothing will change that, not for now.
In general, for Malaysia, it is about getting the advantages of working with China. There is not much that China is asking, unlike the West with its twisted pro-green and anti-fossil fuel demands.
Hence, we believe Malaysia will have more to gain in dealing with China than bowing to Western demands.